'Guilty In Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy'

In the book Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption Bryan Stevenson details his story of his experiences as a lawyer fighting for justice. This story encompasses over twenty-five years worth of impactful cases and how policy changes, due to major Supreme Court cases, were dealt with locally. The main issue that he was dealing with was the death penalty, and how it was systematically being misused. The main focus of the book to showcase this was on the case of Walter McMillian. After the murder of Ronda Morrison, a well known white woman in the area, there was a lot of pressure exerted by the community on the sheriff to make an arrest on the case.

“You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close”(Stevenson 13). This reality that Bryan Stevenson’s grandmother voices in Just Mercy expose the many issues that plague the criminal justice system today. How the alienation of the convicted causes a disconnect between the prosecutors and the persecuted, the lack of empathy and effort to get close to the ones who are most vulnerable. Only by utilizing empathy are we able to further resonate with the condemned as humans and understand the inhumane nature of the punishments we give.

“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.

This is the moment of exigence for Stevenson and his commitment to becoming a lawyer to help those in need while facing capital punishment. His tone shifts from his feelings in a narrative to his realization of the flaws in the American justice system. He describes the United States as having a "radical transformation that would turn us into an unprecedentedly harsh and punitive nation and result in mass imprisonment that has no historical parallel" (15). This description of the United States also shows his reasons for becoming a lawyer.

Back in 1796 there were more than 10 innocent people killed and today about 4.1 percent of the people executed are innocent, and that’s more than enough. I think it is un fair to families, friends and the defendant to have their life taken if they are not guilty, If the law officials cannot prove whether or not the defendant is guilty then the death penalty should be abolished. Now on the other side, executing someone who is actually guilty; I do not support this either. I strongly believe that someone who commits a capital crime and has received the death penalty deserves to suffer for the rest of their life. Democratic leaders will be the ones to change the death penalty.

In Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy,” there is an underlying sense of hope that is seen in spurts through the constant stories of injustice and unfairness that take place. Throughout the book there are multiple people that are wrongly condemned and have to suffer on the dreaded death row. All of the inmates of the row know they will eventually be executed, but only a select few stay positive and give the reader a sense of hope in such a negative situation. Mr. Jenkins is one of those men. The mentally ill man was in and out of foster care as a child, and his terrible experiences lead to more serious brain damage.

Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, is a powerful book that provides you with another perspective of racial injustice. This book features injustices done to young people and innocent people. Some kids as young as middle schoolers have been put behind bars for their entire lives. Being a caucasian male, I have never been the victim of racial and sexual abuse. Learning about our justice system made me sorrowful and outraged.

Just Mercy Final Reflection In the United States, child incarceration has been a longstanding problem. According to the Sentencing Project of 2021, there are nearly 50,000 juveniles being held in detention centers, prisons, or other correctional facilities. This issue was brought to light from Just Mercy by Bryan Stevensons, which chronicles the work of Stevenson as a lawyer advocating for those who have been wrongly convicted, including children. Stevenson’s book is mainly centered around Walter McMillian, a black man wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death.

Bryan Stevenson generated an inspiring and serious voice in his memoir Just Mercy. The novel by Stevenson is something that weighs on the reader’s heart due to the naked truth revealed in almost every case presented to the audience. The tragic and real events throughout the book are heavy and difficult to grasp, especially when all of the events happened recently. Every chapter exploits the raw corruption of the justice systems, as well as the proof that there are good and just people in the world. Stevenson tells half of the story from his perspective, and the other half as a third party narrator.

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.

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.

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.

Just Mercy is an astonishing book in which Bryan Stevenson describes many court cases of mental illnesses and racial inequalities. Stevenson is a young defended attorney who shared his experiences about his client’s background and what is going on in the justice system. While meeting up with his client, he noticed many connection and similarities through most of his cases. He discovered that his clients had all gone through many hardships while they were in prison. While these clients were at risk from execution, they revealed that they were falsely accused of the crime they did not even commit.

Support for capital punishment requires valuing retribution over rehabilitation. Those who favor capital punishment value highly the closure it provides to the families of the victims, and they believe that it deters would be murderers from killing. Retribution, closure and deterrence are the main reasons in favor of the death penalty. Opponents of capital punishment generally believe that it is hypocritical and immoral for the state

1. Which social problems are treated in this book? Why did they develop? Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption focuses on many social problems, including the miscarriage of justice to the poor, disabled and minorities; along with the poor living conditions in prisons, and the cruel and unusual punishment. The miscarriage of justice developed throughout our country’s history.