Wounds of the Past Battles were fought, lives were taken and wounds were made, some of which remain as an indication of victory or stay as a mark of failure. Whichever one it may be, there were different strategies that were used to try to heal injuries that occurred on the battlefield, more specifically during the Civil War. The problem was, there were more men dying of diseases than men that were falling on the battlefield. Doctors were required to have only two years of medical training, therefore medicine was not as profound back then compared to present day advancements. Three of many brave men that experienced injuries during the Civil War in the book Killer Angels by Michael Shaara were Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Buford, and
Morrison was robbed and shot three times in the back of the head. Morrison was a white woman and McMillan is a black man who was at the time dating a white woman. Locals were outraged to find out that their local handy man was having a relationship with a white woman named Karen. He and another man Ralph Myers were both dating the same woman and Myers is who accused McMillan and implicated him in the killing of Morrison. The south condemned interracial relationships and as law enforcement already felt great pressure to make an arrest for Morrison’s murder they and the jury found McMillan to be a great suspect.
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.
The book Just Mercy tells the long and sad story of what African American lawyer Bryan Stevenson had to go through in fight towards freeing Walter Mcmillian from his wrongly accused sentence. Walter Mcmillian was put in this position because of the murder of Ronda Morrison who was a white teenage girl that lived in Monroeville Alabama. There was no evidence on the crime scene and the only reason the police arrested Walter was because of a false accusation of man who wasn't even at the crime scene and the whole trial only lasted 2 days. As a result of his case, he ended up with a 30-year sentence in prison for murder but only ended up spending a total of 6 years due to his retrial that was led by his lawyer. Bryan Stevenson, his lawyer, is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization with the goal of fighting for people who have experienced any form of racial injustice or discrimination.
This year at Elon University, all first-year students were given a summer reading. The author Bryan Stevenson, a gifted attorney, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative; fights to raise awareness about the injustices in the United States legal and social systems. Just Mercy, his book magnifies his early career, where he fought for people on death row. This book talks about the injustices that happened back in the 80’s and 90’s but, these same injustices by the police are still around today, but justified by law now.
Ashley Tinajero Mrs. Trull AP Language and Composition 27 December 2022 Just Mercy The book Just Mercy tackles many different issues throughout the novel however its most notable one being the political injustice that consistently damages people of color and to be specific Americans the author Bryan Stevenson translates this issue through his thoughtful rhetoric and eliciting a sense of hope and sadness within the reader to emphasize the issue of the flawed justice system targeting African Americans and imposing rules that are purposefully set to ensure African Americans do not succeed in trials of any sort. In the novel the main case is that of Walter Mcmillion who is wrongly accused by a white man of murdering a young girl with the blatant
The United State's 2018 Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith is a renowned author, well known for her book of poems titled Life on Mars. Throughout her poems, a recurring theme of grief is presented by Smith. The grief in Smith's work can be attributed to the loss of her father which was the inspiration for her poetry. Another inspiration for Smith's poetry is the artist David Bowie. Bowie plays an important role in assisting Smith in coping with her father's death and he is also the inspiration of many of her other poems, including "Savior Machine," which shares a name with the Bowie song.
In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson tells a first person account of his years defending the people who were wrongly convicted or punished by the US justice system. At the heart of the novel is the story of Walter McMillian, a man wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row. Throughout the novel, Stevenson presents examples of individuals who were wrongfully punished due to racism and discrimination. He shows the readers how our criminal justice system unfairly impacts members of the Black community. He also highlights the destruction and devastation this can cause.
Various minority groups have long histories of oppression, including Native Americans, and the brutality that they endured in the past has shaped their race today. In an attempt to advocate for better conditions, Native Americans are spreading awareness for a greater future. Linda Hogan is a writer of Chickasaw Native descent and often incorporates “Southeastern tribal histories and [native] spirits and culture” (Wikipedia contributors) in her work. “Tear” takes on the perspective of a Chickasaw Native, first in the past recounting hardships, then to the present to reflect on the speaker’s connection to others in her tribe. The poem also describes the environment that surrounds natives and the neglection of their lives.
I am 21 and for as long as I can remember I have heard many stories about innocent people being accused of and being punished for crimes they did not commit. On Monday, March 20th of this year, I met Anthony Ray Hinton and learned about his story. Arrested on suspicion of two capital murders at age 29. He was convicted and sentenced to death despite having a reliable alibi and passing a polygraph test. It was only after repeated efforts by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) team that the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned his conviction based on his attorney’s deficient representation and he was eventually exonerated after 30 years in solitary confinement on Friday, April 3rd, 2015.
Wrongful convictions are a problem that most government officials won’t admit. The United States and other countries such as Australia have been susceptible to these miscarriages of justice. This can arise from a snowball effect of scenarios such as witness misidentification, perjured testimonies, coercive methods of interrogation, prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective counsel. These are some of the reasons that can potentially lead innocent people to be convicted of crimes they did not commit. The thousands of exonerations in the United States has caused concern for other nations to reevaluate their criminal justice system.
1/5/23 Racial injustice has been a prominent issue in the American criminal justice system for centuries prior to Bryan Stevenson's entry in the criminal justice world. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, goes in depth on specific unjust criminal charges based on racial assumptions. Bryan Stevenson does work on ending these suffrages and freeing clients who have been unfairly accused on death row. Throughout the book, Stevenson addresses systemic racism through examples of jury selection, several case studies of unfairly incarcerated individuals, and police brutality which his advocacy for inmates overcomes by creating racial justice within the criminal justice system.
Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing” (Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander, 2010). Therefore, the war on drugs was a systematic effort to target and arrest African Americans on the pretense of suspicion of drugs, which accounted for a higher incarceration rate among communities of color creating a racial divide. With this intention, the criminal justice system is a racial based institution that marginalizes and controls the fate of African Americans. In the book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson represented Walter McMillian who was wrongfully convicted of murder and put on death row without legal and fair representation states, “We’ve institutionalized policies that reduce people to their worst acts and permanently label them criminal, murderer, rapist, thief, drug dealer, sex offender, felon- identities they cannot change regardless of the circumstances of their crimes or any improvements they might make in their lives” (Stevenson, 2015). With this in mind, Walter McMillian’s case is one of the many racial segregated cases that was denied effective representation and prosecutorial misconduct because he was black, which has subjected many African Americans to unfair treatment by the criminal system leaving
“I thought killing those fools would make me feel good, but it really didn't make me feel anything. I just knew that I could kill somebody, and if I had to, I could do it again”(Caine from Menace ll Society). This quote is a prime example of how physical and mental conflict shapes a person mentally by making them tougher but weaker at the same time. In the book Dear Justice by Nic Stone, conflicts because it makes them stronger, but also damages people’s emotions, and shows the lack of support in his life. Physical conflict has a significant impact on how tough and mentally and physically strong you are.
Though it may be difficult to accept one’s identity, one must learn to accept themselves in order to heal. Lee Maracle’s poem “War” illustrates the internal conflict between her opposing cultures and her journey of healing her intergenerational scars. In this tercet poem, the battles of her Salish/Cree heritage and colonial standing are portrayed through varied poetic devices. In stanzas one to four, Maracle personifies her body as the Salish and Cree territories, along with the invasion of the colonizers.
