The Theme Of Racism In Bryan Stevenson's Autobiography, Just Mercy '

Written by Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, tells a story of an upcoming lawyer who wanted to help falsely accused individuals get off death row. Bryan Stevenson actually wrote this book about himself. As an African American lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School decided to move to Montgomery, Alabama in hopes of opening his very own law firm. However, this was not going to be your stereotypical firm. Stevenson purposely made his law office a non-profit to help inmates who were falsely accused of committing a crime that ultimately sentenced them the death penalty.

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.

“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.

The novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson has brought to life the horrors of the prison system. Previously, I knew very little about the prison system, especially the level of injustice experienced by numerous prisoners. While I knew of the discrimination in the courtrooms for minorities, Stevenson’s stories added a personal touch to a harsh reality. I was especially shocked when Stevenson related the story of how he was stopped by police outside of his own house. Although he had done nothing wrong, the police immediately accused him of crimes, which he did not understand.

Passion Project: Just Mercy By: Ayah Benothman Standard 8.2 Theme: Pursuing justice through empathy Just Mercy is a memoir by Bryan Stevenson that stresses the significance of empathy towards everyone to oppose the racism, corruption, and cruelty that contaminate American court systems and result in the systematic abuse of marginalized cultures. Prejudice and inequity thrive when individuals are condemned as different (“other” or “criminal”). This designation creates a gulf between various parties.

We began our research by reading the Just Mercy book and watching the movie. The book provided less information on the story than the movie did. The movie showed more of Bryan Stevenson’s interpretation of Walter McMillian’s case. We got to see his interactions with the courts and jail county to learn more about how death row works, including how it impacts prisoners.

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.

Prisoners in America are constantly being mistreated, so it is hard to think that one would have hope or determination in prison. So how does one gain determination or perseverance? In the book Just Mercy, the author Bryan Stevenson explains the stories and hardships of prisoners like Walter McMillian or Jimmy Dill. These prisoners have had to overcome the injustice in the criminal justice system. For example, Walter McMillian was wrongfully accused of murder and put on death row for six years before getting released.

Just Mercy is a memoir that amasses and distinguishes the legal accounts of an activist lawyer’s [Bryan Stevenson] struggle against legal injustice. Stevenson was born into a low-income family living in a racially segregated community in Delaware. He made it to Harvard Law School after successfully graduating from Eastern College that is present day Eastern University. In his legal practice, Bryan Stevenson started representing poor clients in Georgia and later in Alabama, where he became a co-founder of the Equal Justice Initiative.

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.

Just mercy is a book of human experiences, and one of those experiences is injustice. Everyone has experienced injustice in their life in one way or another. However, the experiences that most people have had with injustice were something small. But that is not the case for Walter McMillan in just mercy.

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’s novel Just Mercy tells of his times as a death row attorney for inmates that were unjustly and inhumanely represented in the American court system. A #1 New York Times Bestseller, the book itself tells a story of a man named Walter McMillan who was sentenced to death row in an Alabama state prison. Walter landed in prison after a woman named Ronda Morrison from his hometown Monroe Alabama was found dead at her workplace Monroe cleaners on November 1st, 1983. This telling by Stevenson highlights the injustices and systemized racism that exists in our southern court systems, and without just attorneys like Stevenson to represent these disadvantaged men and women these inhumane practices will only continue.

One of the most tragic examples of this is the case of Kalief Broders. He was accused of stealing and put in prison until his trial. During his time in prison, he was subjected to physical abuse by guards and was placed in solitary confinement. Despite eventually being released, he suffered greatly from the pain and suffering he endured in prison and ultimately took his own life (Maule,2020). Cases like Kalief's highlight the urgent need to address the mistreatment of prisoners by guards.

Working with the inmates allowed for the advocate to see that perpetrators have feelings and hardships as well and helped the perpetrators to see how their actions hurt individuals and the community as a whole (Bernstein & Heriza, 2009). One perpetrator stated that he would see the face of the man he killed every night before he went to bed and used that as a way to remember what he had done and accept the consequences of his actions (Bernstein & Heriza, 2009). Such