ipl-logo

Just Mercy Sparknotes

2493 Words10 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay outline on racial profiling within the law enforcement and criminal justice system

Could you imagine a family member convicted of a felony you know they didn't commit? This happens in the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson which is also a memoir of Bryan Stevenson's life as a criminal justice lawyer. This book takes place in the 1980s in small Monroe County in Alabama where Walter McMillan, an African American man lives with his family. Monroe County is a poor community in a predominantly African American community. Stevenson at that time lived in Virginia. As a new criminal justice lawyer, Stevenson defends McMillan. McMillan was framed and put on death row for a crime he did not commit. McMillan has gone through many illegal circumstances throughout the justice system mostly because he is an African American man. He was …show more content…

Another African American who was also on death row named Micheal Lindsey was set to be executed in May of 1989. Lindsey had a lawyer named David Bagwell who had said a few words that had showed his true feelings about defending criminals. Bagwell did not support them. Bagwell said, ¨I generally favor the death penalty because mad dogs ought to die.¨ He did not want to help the prisoners. That particular line had prisoners getting angry. It was not shared who Bagwell had said that to. The prisoners now felt they couldn't trust anyone. Especially lawyers who were supposed to help them. Stevenson had tried to stop Lindsey's execution from happening but sadly failed. Even though Stevenson didn't directly take the case, but he still tried to help Lindsey. However, his efforts were lost ,so on May 26, 1989, Lindsey was executed. Stevensons shows the prisoners' feelings about Bagwell's statement by writing, "Many Prisoners were appalled by this attitude, from someone who was supposedly an advocate for them ''(Stevenson 67). Many people in the prison did not agree with the execution. Just because he was African American he had no choice or even help. The lawyer seemed to think that Lindsey deserved to be on death row. All because of one crime. Bagwell did not help; neither did the state because of his race and because he was a convicted criminal. Bagwell did not do his job. No …show more content…

A family member is being dragged away from you by the police without any reason. All you can do is stand there and watch knowing you can't do anything or you might be next. It would be scary and traumatizing to say the least. Even though this book was written about how African Americans were treated in the 80s doesn't mean this unfair treatment doesn't occur in 2023. The police, lawyers, and the people who are supposed to protect every citizen and treat everyone equally are still racially profiling and discriminating against others. It may not directly apply to you but it could be your friend, coworker, or even your family member. The justice system still contains racist workers who negatively impact a lot of people's lives. Even society still has problems with people that are different from them. It was not that long ago that an African American teenager was shot and killed for just walking down the street. It was three years ago that another African American named George Floyd was murdered by a police officer just because of his race. This unfair treatment towards African Americans happens everyday. Many cops as well as lawyers or judges still go unpunished. They get to live their lives and move one even if they have ruined entire families based on their choices. Imagine being

Show More
Related

The Case Of Lindy Chamberlain

2102 Words | 9 Pages

Lindy was sentenced by acting Chief Justice of the Northern Territory Mr Justice Muirhead after the jury had stated the decision of a unanimous verdict for both Michael and Lindy. It recounts, Lindy stood in the dock and Justice Muirhead passed the sentence.

Read More

Ethos Pathos Logos In Just Mercy

799 Words | 4 Pages

Leaving the legal visit with new information about the treatment in-jail, Stevenson told the sheriff, he said, “Who is responsible for this? How could we ever allow this?”(102) Stevenson decided to take on Charlie's case. “Charlie’s case was transferred to juvenile court, where the shooting was adjudicated as a juvenile offense”(103). Taking this case on was a major step for Stevenson, showing his true priorities and intentions as a lawyer, agreeing to take on a case after getting more background even after being swamped with current cases.

Read More

Bryan Stevenson's 'Just Mercy'

616 Words | 3 Pages

The book Just Mercy tells the long and sad story of what African American lawyer Bryan Stevenson had to go through in fight towards freeing Walter Mcmillian from his wrongly accused sentence. Walter Mcmillian was put in this position because of the murder of Ronda Morrison who was a white teenage girl that lived in Monroeville Alabama. There was no evidence on the crime scene and the only reason the police arrested Walter was because of a false accusation of man who wasn't even at the crime scene and the whole trial only lasted 2 days. As a result of his case, he ended up with a 30-year sentence in prison for murder but only ended up spending a total of 6 years due to his retrial that was led by his lawyer. Bryan Stevenson, his lawyer, is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization with the goal of fighting for people who have experienced any form of racial injustice or discrimination.

Read More

Bryan Stevenson Makes A Stop To Mass Incarceration In Just Mercy

370 Words | 2 Pages

In his book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson shows empathy and compassion as he puts a stop to mass incarceration for Juvenile Offenders by providing equality of justice. Stevenson works endlessly, day and night to correct a wrongful conviction of a Death Row inmate, Walter Mcmillian. When he first meets Walter, at the end of the Book, we know that he's innocent. In page 73 of Just Mercy, Stevenson meets Walter’s wife Minnie Belle Mcmillian, and his Daughter, Jackie, as they were waiting patiently for him, after he promised Walter that he’ll meet his family. This shows that Stevenson will even put in the time and effort in order to get to know more about Walter and his family in order to prove he's innocent.

Read More

The Struggle Of The Black Community In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

1142 Words | 5 Pages

Walter McMillan was guilty of one thing and one thing only: having an affair with a white woman. At the time, this was seen as very scandalous, the Civil Rights Movement had ended but the deeply ingrained racism in the South had not. Because of this, Walter McMillan, known by many as Johnny D., was shunned and mistreated to the point that when a murder he didn’t commit was pinned on him no one thought twice about whether or not he could have done it. The Justice Department handled the case poorly by not fact checking witness testimonies, illegally moving the prisoner to death row without a conviction, intimidating a witness before a trial to convince him to lie, and so much more. One day Walter McMillan and several other prisoners get a visit from an upstart lawyer named Bryan Stevenson, a man who had just started a federally funded program known as the Equal Justice Initiative to help men like Walter.

Read More

Brian Stevenson Just Mercy Sparknotes

877 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever needed something so desperately and you still didn’t get it?We learn how the incarcerated people in the book Just Mercy have been denied their medical attention, even though they had pleaded. The book was written by Brian Stevenson, who is a Criminal Defense Lawyer. It reveals the truth of the unfair actions made by the Criminal Justice system. Its inadequacy in medical treatment is certainly a prime contribution to the deaths of many prisoners each year. We learn how some people were denied the very thing they need to survive, their medication they need to help them wake up the next morning.

Read More

Essay Comparing Just Mercy And When They See Us

439 Words | 2 Pages

In Just Mercy, when a young lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, takes on Walter McMilians, a man who was wrongfully convicted for murder, Stevenson also conducts a thorough investigation. Even though Walter is already in jail, when Stevenson takes on his case, he starts at the beginning of the entire federal criminal process. Stevenson makes sure to review all aspects of Walters' case, before making any judgements. Even though his family had already made statements, Stevenson visits Walter and his family to get a sense of who he was and his whereabouts on the day of the murder. He listened to “testimonials about Walter, the town, race, the police, the trial” (pg. 1).

Read More

The Perils Of Injustice In Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy

741 Words | 3 Pages

Bryan Stevenson knew the perils of injustice and inequality just as well as his clients on death row. He grew up in a poor, racially segregated area in Delaware and his great-grandparents had been slaves. While he was a law student, he had interned working for clients on death row. He realized that some people were treated unfairly in the judicial system and created the Equal Justice Institute where he began to take on prisoners sentenced to death as clients since many death row prisoners had no legal representation of any kind. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson focuses on some of these true stories of injustice, mainly the case of his client, Walter McMillian.

Read More

Just Mercy Sparknotes

863 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout a student’s high school Language Arts experience, it is important for them to be exposed to texts that stimulate meaningful discussions and allow them to connect the texts’ themes to their everyday lives. Therefore, incorporating Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson in the tenth grade curriculum would add significant value to students’ education because this novel teaches students to look beyond first impressions and to show empathy for others. The various accounts of criminal cases in Just Mercy explore the harm in relying solely on initial judgements to form opinions on a person or situation. For instance, Walter McMillian, an African American man whose case is the main focus of the novel, was convicted for a crime he did not

Read More

Bryan Stevenson Just Mercy

779 Words | 4 Pages

As a young adult Mr. Stevenson had a high advantage to his education, " In, 1983, I was a twenty-three-year-old student at Harvard Law School working in Georgia on an internship, eager and in experience and worried that I was in over my head " (Stevenson 3) which would eventually pave the road to his success. 1985, he became a graduate with a masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government and a J.D. from the School of Law ("Bryan Stevenson"). As his first law firm was the clinical faculty at New York University School of Law. As he began to get cases he acclaimed more publicity. " Trying to stop an execution would mean nonstop work eighteen hours a day for a month, desperately trying to get a stay order from a court " (Stevenson 73).

Read More

Just Mercy Essay Questions

911 Words | 4 Pages

Just Mercy (2019) is a powerful and thought-provoking movie directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The movie is set in Monroeville, Alabama in the late 80s/early 90s, and is based on the memoir of Bryan Stevenson, an African American lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, “a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted or unfairly sentenced” as stated by the WealthChoice article Meet the Equal Justice Initiative. The movie follows Stevenson's journey as he seeks to defend Walter McMillian, a wrongfully convicted death row inmate in the state of Alabama. Another key figure in this movie is Eva Ansley, a white woman who co-founded the Equal Justice Initiative with Bryan Stevenson.

Read More

Essay On Just Mercy

442 Words | 2 Pages

In Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, he writes to illustrate the injustices of the judicial system to its readers. To do so, Stevenson utilizes multiple writing styles that provide variety and helps keep the reader engaged in the topic. Such methods of his include the use of anecdotes from his personal experiences, statistics, and specific facts that apply to cases Stevenson had worked on as well as specific facts that pertain to particular states. The most prominent writing tool that Stevenson included in Just Mercy is the incorporation of anecdotes from cases that he himself had worked on as a nonprofit lawyer defending those who were unrightfully sentenced to die in prison.

Read More

Just Mercy Analysis

997 Words | 4 Pages

Bryan Stevenson never knew what could happen and he was full of fear of the possibility of jail time or death. Herbert Richardson was a mentally ill person who didn’t get the help he needed, and due to that, he killed little girl and was executed. During that time, the mentally ill lost most of its funding, and because of that, those who needed help couldn’t get it. Richardson and other mentally ill people didn’t have much money and lived in poverty. Without justice, the world would become nothing but poverty, despair and fear, and the only ones who wouldn’t be affected are the

Read More

Sanctity Of Life

1083 Words | 5 Pages

Similar situations could be prevented by only placing a person on death row if there exists irrefutable, incriminating evidence, such as DNA evidence or camera footage. The use of DNA analysis in modern day death penalty cases has almost nullified the chance that an innocent person is put on death row, as such evidence or the lack thereof guards an innocent defendant against perjury (Bradbury, "The Death Penalty Affirms the Sanctity of Life"). The tragic story of McMillan also indicates the biased perception of the local courts that condemned him; he had already been framed as a vicious murderer by the media and, at that time, was predisposed to a conviction of capital punishment simply by being a black man in Alabama. However, today’s review of capital punishment cases by both state and federal courts makes such a bias highly unlikely. The compounded effects of only considering cases with incriminating evidence

Read More

Police Brutality Argumentative Essay

760 Words | 4 Pages

According to the article Racism and Police Brutality in America, “Whites believe that Blacks are disproportionately inclined to engage in criminal behavior and are the deserving on harsh treatment by the criminal justice system” (Chaney 484). The justice system has unfortunately followed this idea. The African American race has been a minority in the legal system in the past; however, it has been much worse as of 2015. Some individuals assume it is acceptable to refrain from acknowledging this fact. Racism is an issue in the midst of police brutality, and it should be resolved.

Read More

More about Just Mercy Sparknotes

Related Topics

Open Document