The True Measure Of Justice In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

“The true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavoured, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned” (Stevenson 18). The novel, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, is a true story about the redeeming potential of mercy. It follows a gifted attorney, Bryan Stevenson from Alabama, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned and those trapped in the criminal justice system. “He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners,

“The prison population has increased from 300,000 people in the early 1970s to 2.3 million people today. There are nearly six million people on probation or on parole. One in every fifteen-people born in the United States in 2001 is expected to go to jail or prison; one in every three black male babies born in this century is expected to be incarcerated” (Stevenson 15). For our society to function, we need to fix areas that are broken. One is the perception and treatment of African Americans. If we keep discriminating against them, their race becomes broken and our society therefore becomes broken. Justice, based on the rule of law, affects many individuals worldwide and yet no one understands how it shapes society today. Stevenson states, “The bureau of Justice statistics reported that black men were eight times more likely to be killed by the police than whites” (Stevenson 43). The state of Alabama has nearly a hundred people on death row as well as the fastest growing condemned population in the country and yet it has no public defender system, which means that large numbers of death row prisoners have no legal representation. Walter states, “They put me on death row for six years! They threatened me for six years. They tortured me with the promise of execution for six years. I lost my job. I lost my wife. I lost my reputation. I lost my – I lost my dignity. I lost everything” (Stevenson 254). In Walter’s

Many judges who evaluate whether prosecutors are illegally excluding black and brown potential jurors are former prosecutors who engaged in the same racially restricted jury selection tactics before coming onto the bench; they therefore tolerate a lot of racial bias and discrimination in jury selection” (Stevenson 210). The fate of Walter is in the hands of the jury and this jury is bias. Once Walter was accused of murder, he knew that he would not be getting out of prison soon. It was his word against a white person’s word. The almost white jury sentenced him to life in prison and the judge overruled with the death penalty. If our Justice system followed the rule of law for every race and treated everyone equally, our society would not be in such chaos. Discrimination has been around for centuries and is still strong