Just Mercy Sparknotes

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

These officials, along with the public, were primarily judging McMillian’s character based on racial biases and the controversy surrounding interracial relationships, signifying that they were unable to set aside their preconceptions of him and take the newly discovered information into proper consideration. These prejudices ultimately led to an innocent man being sentenced to death, devastating McMillian and his family. Though McMillian was falsely accused in this case, there are many prisoners who were convicted for crimes they did commit who also suffer from these biases. The novel touches on the story of Ian Manuel, a thirteen-year-old African American boy who shot a white woman during a bank robbery attempt. Afterwards, Manuel was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted murder and endured years of solitary confinement, a seemingly appropriate punishment for a dangerous criminal, which was how the public perceived him. However, this view disregarded the other factors that shaped his character, such as his rough upbringing and the fact that he was a child at the moment of his crime, making him unable to understand the consequences of his actions, which must be taken into account in order to understand the full picture of the situation. Considering the

In the midst of describing many criminal cases, the author, Stevenson, relayed an account of his own experience with law enforcement, in which had been sitting in his car listening to music when the police confronted him based on mere suspicion. Even though he was doing nothing wrong, he still felt afraid and had to resist the instinct to run. After he was free to go, he related his fear and confusion in this situation to the way that many black children struggle or react violently when stopped by the police not because they are necessarily guilty but because they have more reason to fear the police, as black individuals are far more likely to be killed by the police than white people. By using his own experiences to put himself into the shoes of others who have been in similar positions, Stevenson’s account demonstrates how this newfound empathy caused him to gain a deeper understanding of the incarcerated clients he works with. The importance of empathy is shown yet again when Stevenson arrived at a prison to meet with a client, Avery Jenkins. Upon his arrival, Stevenson was confronted by a guard who forced him to undergo an unrequired strip search in order to humiliate him, clearly illustrating that the guard held biases against Stevenson, who was African American. However, after hearing Stevenson’s argument that Jenkins had been punished unfairly due to