Is each person defined by the worst thing that they have done? Can we as a society approve of hunting down and attacking the most vulnerable of people due to their vulnerability? Is it acceptable for the law to determine who deserves to die and who doesn’t? “Just Mercy” prompts its readers to explore these questions and many more. In this book, Bryan Stevenson, lawyer, social activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, documents his time as a young lawyer in Montgomery, Alabama working to save death row prisoners and those wrongfully accused and incarcerated. In a book that is both devastating and inspiring, Bryan Stevenson presents the cases of several of his clients who were either arrested for crimes they did not commit, or whose sentence did not match the crime. Stevenson forces you to consider the humanity of the accused; the life they lived before incarceration, the life they lived during incarceration. Among the cases presented, the ones that caught my acute attention were the ones of prisoners with mental and intellectual disabilities. In the chapter named “Mitigation”, Stevenson focused solely on the treatment of individuals with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. In many instances, prosecutors and judges neglected to consider mental and intellectual disabilities when …show more content…
George Daniel suffered a car crash one night and woke up in an upside-down car. He ended up going home without seeking any medical attention. Daniel incurred some brain damage after the accident which only progressed over time and resulted in psychotic behavior. One night, Daniel wandered into the home of an older lady; this lady called the police. The officer pulled Daniel out of the home, Daniel resisted and they ended up wrestling on the ground. Sometime during the ordeal, the officer pulled out his gun and during the struggle, the officer was shot in the
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.
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.
If there is one thing that the humans are historically bad at doing it's admitting their own faults. Hubris blinds us from seeing the bigger issues That, I believe, is the sole reason why the world that we live in is unjust. It's full of people who are misusing their power positions like Kim Davis, a disgruntled county clerk. There are also people prosecuted for crimes they never committed just because they are in poverty as Bryan Stevenson teaches us. People are also judged because of their skin color and not by their personalities like Ahmed Mohamed, a freshman apprehended for building clock .
Conferring to Anderson, & Hewitt, (2002), “individuals who show clinically significant improvement in general psychopathology are more likely to be perceived as restored to competency.” However, 50% of people who are diagnosed with mental retardation or acquired cognitive deficits are not restored; such mental disorders render the suspect irresponsive to the required court
Capital punishment has long been a heavily debated issue. In his article, “The Rescue Defence of Capital Punishment,” author Steve Aspenson make a moral argument in favor of capital punishment on the grounds that that is the only way to bring about justice and “rescue” murder victims. Aspenson argues as follows: 1. We have a general, prima facie duty to rescue victims from increasing harm. 2.
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.
Mercy. This is where one would be wrong. In the first couple chapters in the book readers are introduced to criminals put on death row with tragic backstories, many of which grew up poor and abused and in some cases have mental problems that in today’s world would not have lead these people to their death. The 1980s doesn’t seem that far away to us now, but to those that have read
“For the first time I realized that my life was just full of brokenness” (Stevenson 288). Stevenson realized that his clients struggle with racism, mental illness, and poverty and that they are not getting good legal support because of these
Another strategic technique used by Stevenson was logos, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason. Towards the ending of the chapter, the author assimilated facts and statistics about the increase in the variety of crimes and harsh punishment. For example, hundreds of thousands of inoffensive offenders are having to spend from years to decades in prison for harmless crimes such as writing a bad check or minor property crime (Stevenson 15). These shocking facts make the reader think if these people should actually be imprisoned for minor crimes for such long periods of time. The audience also thinks about the difficulties the families of the people who are in prison have to go through without them.
Rhetorical Analysis of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson, a young and impressionable lawyer, whose work with Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC), opened Stevenson’s eyes to the defenselessness of death row inmates. Coupled with his own experience with bias and unfair treatment, Stevenson wrote a book based on the lives of those he helped- and attempted to help. Slightly shadowed by his own bias, Just Mercy was an inciting piece of literature of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020.
In an excerpt from his book, Just Mercy, Bryan Steveson - renowned civil rights lawyer - utilizes contradictions and characterization to demonstrate to uneducated readers the racism and failure of the justice system in order to motivate them to fight to dismantle the corrupt system. Throughout the description of Walter’s illegal placement on death row - death row lawyer Byran Steveson - details the contradictory actions of the sheriff and the other inmates to reveal to the American readers the failings of the justice system. After discussing Walter's despair created by his imprisonment, Bryan recounts the arrest of Walter. Bryan narrates Walter’s complete confusion during his arrest due to the, “racist taunts and threats from uniformed police
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.
Racism means hate towards another race and injustice mean unfair treatment, according to learner 's dictionary. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, an African american lawyer, was helping people get justice for the colored community. Another book similar to Just Mercy is, To Kill a Mockingbird, which made in 1960 was written by Harper Lee. Harper Lee addressed many issues about racial injustice too. Just Mercy was written in 2014,
In addressing respect for human dignity, the Belmont Report (1979) incorporates two ethical convictions: first, “individuals should be treated as autonomous agents, and second, that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection.” (p. 5). Perry was a vulnerable population, incarcerated, and stripped of any autonomy. In addressing justice, an injustice occurred as there was no benefit to Perry in the “sense of ‘fairness in distribution” or “what is deserved’” (Belmont Report, 1979, p. 7).
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. By Bryan Stevenson. Spiegel & Grau, 2015. Pp. 368.