In "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson, the author is a well-known civil rights attorney and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. The book delves into the injustices within the American criminal justice system, especially focusing on issues such as racial bias, wrongful convictions, and the death penalty. Bryan Stevenson wrote "Just Mercy" to show how unfair the American justice system can be, especially for people of color and those wrongly accused. Bryan Stevenson effectively exposes the flaws and biases within the criminal justice system, convincing readers to reconsider their views on punishment, equality, and justice. I chose this book because I am very interested in the criminal justice system, and I also like crime shows. While crime shows …show more content…
He graduated from Harvard Law School and has since dedicated his career to addressing issues within the legal system, racial inequality, and wrongful convictions. Stevenson did a lot of research using primary sources like court records and interviews with people involved in the cases he talks about. He also used secondary sources like academic studies and reports from advocacy groups to give more background and support to his points. Stevenson's experience as a lawyer and his thorough research in "Just Mercy" show he's qualified to write about the legal system. His use of reliable sources and firsthand knowledge makes his book credible and valuable. In "Just Mercy," Bryan Stevenson tells stories from his cases and adds legal insights and emotions. He talks about people like Walter McMillian, Anthony Ray Hinton, Herbert Richardson, and Darnell Houston to show how unfair the justice system can be. Stevenson's writing is personal and makes you see the human side of legal issues, not just the facts and rules. The book begins with an account of Walter McMillian, a wrongfully convicted man who spent years on death
In Bryan Stevenson’s essay, “Close To Death: Reflections on Race and Capital Punishment In America” he claims that there is a tremendous racial problem in our criminal justice system. Stevenson explains,
Bryan Stevenson is a defence attorney for a man named Herbert Richardson who 's on
The major premise of Berlow’s article is to show the many injustices that take place within our courts that could contribute to wrongful sentencing of innocent men and women. For example, Berlow highlights the case of Rolando Cruz. Berlow states in paragraph 2, “Despite the fact that the police
Many things contribute to the corruption of our justice system. Within the past five years, through police brutality the United States has shown how tainted it really is. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson argues that because of family history, misunderstanding youth, and background, our justice system is defined by error. His many points and examples give exceptional proof to his findings. While the government has made some changes over the years for the justice system subjects such as the incarceration of minors and police and laws within the system still need adjusting.
The author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, narrated the book. He was also the lawyer who represented the people he wrote about, mainly working with people on death row. He ran a non-profit organization called the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to improve the justice system and get people the right sentencing. The justice system from the 1980s to now has made changes, but not enough. EJI is working to end mistreatment of those sent to death row, children or people with disabilities going to adult prison, and children sent to and abused in adult jails.
North Carolina Laws for Imprisoned People In the United States, one in twenty-five people on death row are innocent (Ferner). This is true because people are wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit. Our judicial system is not as perfect as it seems. There are many factors that tie into this, sometimes information is withheld, or racism between citizens and the police becomes a conflict, and much more. In the book Just Mercy, a story of justice and redemption, written by Bryan Stevenson, it has many different stories about wrongly imprisoned people and their stories.
In the graphic novel Race to Incarcerate the mass incarceration of black men is refereed to as a new form of slavery. The system is set up to drag minority men into imprisonment. Once blacks are arrested they are more likely than white counterparts to be charged, convicted and serve harsher prison sentences. Sentences that go on their permanent record, that is if they are released. In numerous cases black defendants are unable to higher a lawyer, and given a Public defender, who tend to push plea deals onto clients. Plea deals can be pushed even if the person is truly innocent, as a way to end the case. And the very few cases that make it to trial with jury’s have a disproportionate number of all white jury’s and black defendants. Ultimately, these factors increase the likelihood of imprisonment for African Americans. But perhaps the most significant factor in the astonishing rates of blacks behind bars is the ongoing and longest war in American
Although the criminal justice system punishes those who have committed crimes against society, there are still flaws in the system that send innocent people to prison. Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, and Jim Dwyer, focuses on those problems connected to the incarceration of innocent people, as well as those who have been convicted and were ultimately exonerated. Confessions and racism are two major issues that are described in Actual Innocence that explain how these problems occur in our criminal justice system today and how innocent people are convicted of crimes.
Rhetoric Appeals in Just Mercy. Just Mercy is a passionate story full of different emotions. It makes the readers feel emotions by using ethos, logos, and pathos. Pathos appeals to the audience by using emotions, logos appeals by using logic or reason, and ethos appeals by the speaker having credibility or authority. Just Mercy was written by Bryan Stevenson and published October 21st, 2014.
Too often times, innocent lives have been wasted away through racial prejudice and societal bias. Innocent suspects of murders that capture media attention are often unlucky targets for capital punishment whose system is initially flawed. Statistics show that for every seven people sent to death row, one is innocent. Innocent lives have been wasted in prison because the case wasn’t thoroughly investigated; because the defendant wasn’t able to afford a competent legal representation; because the wisest and most experienced judges weren’t the ones making the decisions. This, coupled with the fact that society can never be free from racial prejudice and bias, makes correctly judging a capital punishment case extremely difficult.
Welch, Ronald H., and Angulo, Carlos T. 2000. Justice on trial: racial disparities in the american criminal justice system. Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Washington, DC
Discrimination against the minority population is a major problem in the United States society’s justice system. There are many examples where African American and low-income minorities are treated differently and not given the chance to prove their innocence. The law enforcement promises to treat all men or women equal opportunity, but the same system has put 120,000 innocent African Americans in prison. While most of them still remain in prisons, injustice by law enforcements is still a burden to the minorities in America. Moreover, wrongful conviction is a horrible injustice when a person spends years in jail. This is getting recognized by the U.S. system but often late. In many cases by the time a person is proven innocent, he or she might
Templeton, Jean M. "Death Row Reforms May Lead to a Fairer Criminal Justice System." Capital Punishment. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2008. Current Controversies. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
This, however, is not the case in today’s judicial system. Justice is not blind, as our forefathers had intended it to be. According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, on the racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system, African Americans are incarcerated in state prison at 6 times the rate of Caucasian Americans, and were sentenced to death at 5 times the rate. Furthermore, African Americans have an average sentence length of 40 months, compared to Caucasians average sentence length of 37 months. Those figures begin to widen exponentially as socioeconomic class is brought into the
Ogawa, Brian K. Color of Justice: Culturally Sensitive Treatment of Minority Crime Victims. Allen and Bacon: Needham Heights, MA, 1999.