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Review Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

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Mercy, a concept describing compassion or forgiveness towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. As a humanitarian, future world leader and citizen of America I’d like to think that the world I live in is a forgiving place where everyone gets a second chance. Unfortunately, in the court of law, this is not always true. By reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson I found that it is very hard to acquire justice and redemption to many civilians who have been incarcerated. This book explores various stories of injustices in the judicial system by incorporating people from different racial groups, socioeconomic background, mental disabilities and more. African American lawyer, Bryan Stevenson seeks for justice as he represents …show more content…

Stevenson’s main goal with death row sentences are to get them re-trialed and sentenced with a lower level punishment, for he believes killing someone is inhumane. The book provides shocking data in regards to death row cases; “By the end of 1989 the number of people executed by the state would double (p68).” “Since 1976 judges in Alabama have overridden jury sentencing verdicts in capital cases 111 times. In 91 percent of these cases judges replaced life verdicts from juries with death sentences (p70).” Time and time again, we see Stevenson working hard in the fight against the court’s decision to make these statistics …show more content…

As Stevenson advances in his career is a lawyer, he sees that the reason criminals continue to behave in misconduct is because they are broken. These criminals are broken by a cycle of oppression due to the court of law creating various roadblocks that bericade them from starting a new life. Prisoners cannot vote, and are not offered jobs or standard living quarters once they come back to society. Incarceration is the new Jim Crow, people can not break free of a system that only wants to hold them back, thus they lash out in rebelia because they are broken. In order to reduce the level of violence, Stevenson suggest that we should show mercy. Stevenson says, “The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it is most potent and strong enough to break the cycle… it has the power to heal the psychic harm and injuries that lead to aggression and violence, abuse of power and mass incarceration (p294).” In short, showing compassion to someone who does not do the right thing makes them want to do better. From personal experience, a friend of mine hates being punished and ridiculed for smoking marijuana. He lashes out in anger and has violent episodes anytime someone confronts him about the issue. Instead of bashing him, we tried the technique of showing him compassion. When his smoking habits get out of

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Have you ever had an experience that altered or shifted your understanding of something?  Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson examines the experience of Bryan as he fights cases for people on Death Row, including those who have been wrongly imprisoned and/or have a mental illness. Through his interaction with Henry, Marsha, and Jim, Bryan’s level of understanding redemption and hopefulness was altered.      Through his interaction with Henry, Bryan’s understanding of redemption and hopefulness was altered.

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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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In the book Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson is determined to help those who are treated unfairly in our justice system. He meets those who are treated unfairly because of race, gender, income or mental disabilities. Stevenson uses his law degree to win or receive new trials for the underprivileged. Stevenson believes that race, income, or other factors should not effect a court trial. The same goes for other aspects of life such as a college applications, financial aid, or scholarships.

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There were a few rare sympathizers, however, who identified with Jodi Arias’ anger at being used and lied to by a man and truly believed she murdered him in a fit of rage (Keifer, 2015). This would make the proper ruling manslaughter, and not premeditated murder, as the law dictates different punishments based on the premeditation, or lack thereof, of the killer. These sympathizers could argue that there was not enough mercy awarded by the court due to Jodi’s apparently sympathetic situation. What is the proper balance between mercy and justice? Should justice overrule mercy?

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“There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy (Stevenson 109) .” This bold statement is one of many as Bryan Stevenson sets the tone for his renowned award winning novel Just Mercy. As a young lawyer from Georgia, built the foundation for his company, SPDC (Southern Prisoners Defense Committee) to help convicts that are on death row or in need a second chance. Bryan Stevenson, a young lawyer from Georgia who fought for justice on the behalf of inmates on death row, showed tremendous intelligence in becoming a successful lawyer, demanding for not backing down in moments of refusal, and was an overall advocate

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Mercy and Punishment: Romeo and Juliet In the play Romeo and Juliet, the Prince declares, “Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.” (Act 3 Scene 1) The Prince reveals that murderers must be punished, otherwise, the authority is responsible for the crime. He also implies that showing mercy to murders will only let other killers do the same act.

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The definition of the word “injustice” means “a violation of the rights of others; unjust or unfair action or treatment”. Injustice and corruption are recurring themes in the novella, they are also crippling issues in prisons in our country and around the world. For example, the United States maintain the largest incarceration rate in the world, at 1.6million. Human rights research found that the massive over-incarceration includes a number of elderly people whom prisons are unequipped to handle, an estimated 93000 youth under 18 in adult jails, along with 2200 in adult prisons. Hundreds of children are subjected to solitary confinement in the hopes that they will reform.

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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.

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There are many victims of unfortunate circumstances in the world today, yet some of these results could have been easily avoided. In the novel, Just Mercy, the author Bryan Stevenson addresses many cases in which children under the age of 18 are incarcerated within the adult criminal justice system. By treating children as adults in the criminal justice system their innocence and undeveloped person, become criminalized. These children become dehumanized and only viewed as full-fledged criminals and as a result society offers no chance sympathy towards them. Stevenson argues that children tried as adults have become damaged and traumatized by this system of injustice.

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In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson concludes “the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice,” and by this he means that when there is no justice, most people will live in poverty, despair, and fear. Despair is the complete loss of all hope, and each of these characters felt that feeling. Bryan Stevenson was stopped and searched by the police, and he was full of fear because one officer had pulled a gun on him. Fear, Police rely on fear to break the law and do as they wish, because they know a majority of people are scared to go against the police. In chapter 3, Walter McMillian was in jail awaiting his trial and eventual execution, this alone drove him into a pit of despair.

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Have word got around about the free help Mr. Stevenson was offering to those on death row people started to want his help for other reasons; such as life imprisonment convictions. The cases began to overwhelm the staff at the EJI, but they worked everyday to get more convictions overturned and sentences reduced. They also began to work on the prison conditions around the United States and try to get justice for those brutally assaulted or raped in

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Suspect is 5 feet 10 inches, approximately 160 pounds. He’s being charged for breaking and entering as well as murder. The suspect admitted to doing so after the police came to his door in suspicion of foul play. He screamed in a fit of rage as he screamed “Villains, dissemble no more! I admit the deed!

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In In Cold Blood, the issue over the death penalty is prominent. Did Perry and Dick deserve to die? Should the severity of one’s crime determine one’s fate? Although Truman Capote writes the novel in a straightforward, “from a distance” way, he conveys, through his characters, theme, and plot development, that the death penalty is an issue that should be looked at from all sides and that the legal system itself is the real issue at hand, and that the death penalty is used as a means to suppress the distress and indignation of the citizens surrounding the case, instead of suppressing the victim himself.

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A controlled amount of cruelty, which harms a few, can avert widespread violence and lawlessness, which harms many. Mercy that allows the majority to suffer cannot properly be called mercy. This is an extremely old idea in Western jurisprudence, and one can still hear it cited as a justification for the imposition of punishment for crimes: Failing to punish wrongdoers penalizes the innocent people who would be harmed by the criminal‘s future actions.

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Is there a way that compassion can help with humanity? Compassion can help with humanity because we are a society that can help other people. Even though, there are people that don’t show compassion, there are people that do show compassion. In the book Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, compassion is assumed to be the answer to every question. Compassion is a non-ending tool that everyone can use in the world.

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