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Mental Health Issues In The Justice System In Just Mercy By Robert Louis Stevenson

797 Words4 Pages

“My work with the poor and incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.” (Stevenson 18) The wrongful convictions of people with mental health issues in the justice system are widely discussed in the book ‘Just Mercy’. In the chapter ‘Mitigation’, Stevenson’s focal point is on the mistreatment and injustices that mentally ill people endure while in the system. This chapter in particular opened my eyes to the struggle these people face, ways we can help to prevent it, and how I have started seeing it in my everyday life. Wrongful convictions happen all the time but, the majority of them are due to the inability of the accused to defend themselves properly and the prior struggles they face. George Daniel is a prime example of this injustice, he had been in a car crash and experienced hallucinations as a result. He was convicted of murder after an altercation with a police officer and wasn’t given a proper trial. George was not appointed to the appropriate counseling and therefore they did not actively fight for him or achieve justice. Once Stevenson took over this case he instantly …show more content…

For most of my life, I thought that I wanted to become a doctor like my mom so I could help people and I had never thought about much else. A few years ago I realized that being a doctor was not for me and it crushed me because I felt like I was not going to be able to achieve my goal of helping people and improving the world around me. I remember watching a show with my family, How to Get Away With Murder, and realizing that I could still help people even if it wasn’t in the way I was expecting. Reading Just Mercy has just reinforced my hope that one day I will be able to aid in ridding the justice system of wrongfulness and be able to improve the lives of those who might not be as fortunate as others and myself

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Stevenson Quotes In Just Mercy

659 Words | 3 Pages

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson tells a first person account of his years defending the people who were wrongly convicted or punished by the US justice system. At the heart of the novel is the story of Walter McMillian, a man wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row. Throughout the novel, Stevenson presents examples of individuals who were wrongfully punished due to racism and discrimination. He shows the readers how our criminal justice system unfairly impacts members of the Black community. He also highlights the destruction and devastation this can cause.

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Summary Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

539 Words | 3 Pages

Bryan Stevenson wrote the book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, in his novel he discusses multiple cases that influenced him into creating what we now know as The Equal Justice Initiative it is a group that has helped create a void in unfair sentencing. Bryan was born in Delaware in 1959, he grew up in a poor neighborhood where he witnessed a division in both social and economic class. The division of classes lead to the start of Stevenson’s journey to inform and make members of the community aware of injustices in our country. There are multiple career paths that he could have chosen that benefited his desire to bring about awareness.

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Kentucky Stevenson Just Mercy Summary

901 Words | 4 Pages

Dyaan Sharafat Meltreger English I 16 April 2024 Reforging Justice Through “Just Mercy”, the idea of justice has been the main focus of the government's way of intending to solve misbehavior and bring back balance in the community. However, the concern of what justice requires specifically for those who have committed crimes, stays complicated as well as even. In Bryan Stevenson's story, "Just Mercy," we look into this by analyzing our criminal justice system and its effectiveness in providing justice and equality to those impacted by it. Stevenson's point of view convinces us to face the system's injustices and think about the reformation of the faulty justice system, which requires the development of a much fairer system.

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Injustice, Dehumanization, And Opression In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

713 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever wondered why a particular scene in a book is there? Well, in many cases, they are inserted for a reason. Encompassing many scenes of violence are in stories for a reason, in which, these scenes end up contributing to the meaning of complete work. Numerous events in “Just Mercy” exhibit violence of racial injustice, dehumanization, and oppression such as the scenes in which Bryan Stevenson was falsely accused of burglary, and a young boy being assaulted in a men’s prison. To start, a considerable amount of events in Just Mercy exhibit violence of racial injustice, dehumanization, and oppression.

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A Brief Summary Of Just Mercy By Bryon Stevenson

646 Words | 3 Pages

In the book Just Mercy, by Bryon Stevenson, he shares the story of his upbringing as a lawyer and company Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Through his career, he was able to understand the full extent of mercy and its ability to bring out people’s humanity. Additionally, Stevenson argues how people who act upon prejudiced beliefs are just as broken as those who have been condemned to life in prison without parole and on death row, because they have all been defeated by a sense of hopelessness and animosity within their own lives. In my critique, I describe my new found understanding of the cruelty behind the death penalty. Moreso, the trauma and brutality it brings to all the players involved, especially to those who are placed on death row.

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Social Unjustness In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

674 Words | 3 Pages

Mary Kwentus Mr. Singleterry ENGL 2250 22 May 2023 Social Unjustness In Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy Stevenson gives his first-person accounts of the social justice system in America and marginalized Americans who are unfairly punished. The novel retells the cases of Stevenson. Stevenson fights to end the justice system’s unjustness and racial discrimination. The novel follows Stevenson as he and his company the Equal Justice Initiative work to help prisoners on death row and give them the legal representation they deserve.

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Rhetorical Analysis Of Just Mercy

1037 Words | 5 Pages

The (In)justice System “‘I feel like they done put me on death row, too. What do we tell these children about how to stay out of harm’s way when you can be at your own house, minding your own business, surrounded by your entire family, and they still put some murder on you that you ain’t do and send you to death row?’”(Stevenson 93). In the memoir Just Mercy, we follow the life story of Bryan Stevenson who we see start out as a young Harvard law student and as the novel progresses transforms into a lawyer helping those on death row who do not have any help. He has many experiences where he sees people change, statistics that prove injustice, and where he experiences injustice. All of these are examples of rhetorical strategies, which are

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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.

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Cruelty In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

1170 Words | 5 Pages

“But today our self-righteousness, our fear, and our anger have caused even the Christian to hurl stones at the people who fall down, even when we know we should forgive or show compassion.” (Stevenson) This short quote from Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, perfectly summarizes the message and theme of this fantastic novel. The main point of the novel is that even if we have certainty of someone’s guilt, we do not know the full story behind the alleged crime or the person convicted. We can not possibly imagine what drove them to commit such acts or say with certainty in most cases if they committed the crime at all.

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Behind The Scenes Of The Justice System In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

2644 Words | 11 Pages

This all sounds good for the government in that it is earning it more money, but it is giving the officers “perverse incentives” (EJI Research) and persuading them to arrest more people, which is then leading to wrongful convictions. In the book, Bryan Stevenson had to deal with lots of pressure from the surrounding communities of his clients that he was working for. With that, it became difficult for Bryan to remain focused solely on the client and not give into the thoughts and opinions of their families and friends. When Stevenson was working on his case involving Walter McMillian, a man who was wrongfully convicted and placed on death row, he put a lot of stress on himself to make sure that justice was served. However, even more pressure was placed on Bryan once Walter’s family came into view.

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Cheryl Beridon Research Paper

1533 Words | 7 Pages

Wrongful convictions are one of the major problems that the justice system faces. Much worse is that there are people whom the judicial system has sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. A wrongful conviction is a terrible injustice that is magnified when an innocent person spends years in prison or death row. The number of exonerated ex-offenders is steadily rising, however growing awareness of the injustices occur every day in American courts, it helps raise profound doubts about the accuracy and fairness of the criminal justice system. Cheryle (Hayes)

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Justice And Redemption In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

596 Words | 3 Pages

Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, is a profoundly emotional and enlightening story of the injustices faced by those in poverty and of color due to the criminal justice system. The book follows the story of Stevenson’s experience representing the poor and marginalized as he fights in court to free the wrongly convicted and improve the system. The characters in the book range from the clients he represents in court to the judges, lawyers, and other court personnel that Stevenson deals with. Through Stevenson’s story, the themes of redemption, justice, and mercy become evident, and this paper will analyze how these themes are depicted and explore how they can apply to the reader. Redemption is the idea that people can grow, learn, and be forgiven for their mistakes.

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Injustice In Just Mercy

1337 Words | 6 Pages

1/5/23 Racial injustice has been a prominent issue in the American criminal justice system for centuries prior to Bryan Stevenson's entry in the criminal justice world. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, goes in depth on specific unjust criminal charges based on racial assumptions. Bryan Stevenson does work on ending these suffrages and freeing clients who have been unfairly accused on death row. Throughout the book, Stevenson addresses systemic racism through examples of jury selection, several case studies of unfairly incarcerated individuals, and police brutality which his advocacy for inmates overcomes by creating racial justice within the criminal justice system.

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Summary Of The Documentary The New Asylums

602 Words | 3 Pages

Their are around 500,000 mentally ill people that are put away in prisons and jails. In the documentary “The New Asylums”,Ohio's state prison system reveals the issues that are ongoing with mentally ill inmates. The major problem we have today is that no one is taking care of the people of these people. Most mentally ill people live by themselves with no family or friends to take care of them and they are off their medications. The mentally ill come in to prison on non violent offenses such as disturbing the peace, trespassing, etc. After leaving mental hospitals they usually end up on the streets and become homeless.

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Passion Project: Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

1405 Words | 6 Pages

Bryan’s clients have experienced unimaginable suffering, injustice, and cruelty, and their hope, strength, and `resilience set an example for Stevenson and inspire him to keep fighting. case studies point out that the prisons are full of populations that American society would rather criminalize than provide resources for the poor, the mentally ill, and victims of trauma, for example. Rather than committing collective resources to social problems or empathizing with people from marginalized groups, the justice system scapegoats people who are often victims

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