“Just Mercy “ plus Justice

“Just Mercy”- Bryan Stevenson

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of justice is- the quality of being just, impartial, or fair. This is the definition that our judicial courts are based off of, but up until Bryan Stevenson’s involvement in the law nobody ( or very few people) challenged or questioned courts decisions on cases involving death sentences and life imprisonment.

For Charlie, a 14-year old poor, black boy who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his mother’s abusive boyfriend, justice was incredibly hard to understand. He was a teenage boy who was place in an actual adult jail and less than a week into his sentence he had been sexually assaulted (raped and yes men can be raped too) various times. This event is one in hundreds, if not thousands, of cases where defendants are falsely accused of crimes or evidence is misinterpreted against them. Although this unpleasant to know of our past justice system Charlie and his supports (the Jennings are a rural white couple who lost their only grandchild to suicide) came to cope with what had been done to them and the story of the Jennings’ friendship with Charlie demonstrates the book’s emphasis on redemption, hope in the face of suffering, and the importance of community.

• “We’ve been through a lot, Bryan, all of us. I know that some have been through more than others. But if we don’t expect more from each other, hope better for one another, and recover from the hurt we experience, we are surely doomed.”- Mrs. Jennings

Taken as a whole, “Just Mercy” ask us to consider the notion that the opposite of poverty is not wealth – it is justice.

Another aspect that connects death row to justice is helping the helpless and unavailable- in other words the poor. Throughout his book Stevenson mentions countless clients and victims who had fallen into the hands of corrupt individuals and who were used to others’ advantage just because they were poor. Take into account all the individuals who aren’t fully represented by their assigned lawyers, because their lawyers know they won’t win that much ($=capital) even if they win their poor client’s case. As is the case in Alabama where defense lawyers are paid so little they decide not to work. Bribery, blackmailing, false witnesses, racism, perjury, Rand misinterpretation of the law are few of the many forms of corruption that occur in our judicial system.

• “ I have a vision that our criminal justice system ought to do better than a system that treats you better if your rich and guilty than poor and innocent…”- Bryan Stevenson

These types of injustice occurred in Walter McMillian’s case; the backbone story of “Just Mercy” where he spent six years on Death Row for a crime he didn’t commit; he was actually placed on Death Row for 15 months before going to trial, which only lasted a day and a half, and the main witness against him had a long criminal record. The fact that this man suffered 6 years on Death Row for a crime he didn’t commit fully displays the crime and corruption head officials in both politics and law were involved in order to just charge someone with a crime. Officials had him detained and although he had more than a dozen alibi witnesses that claimed it was impossible for him to have committed the crime (being that he was more than 11 miles away from the crime scene according to the time it occurred) they were disregarded because most of the witnesses were poor and African American. Officials also bargained with the “main witness” Ralph Myers and threatened him jail time (and possible Death Row) if he did comply with the “facts” police and prosecution presented him to say. The dead ends in the murder of Ronda Morrison and the added pressure from the White community made law officials desperate to find “the murder” and they pulled all kinds of strings to lock up Walter McMillian.

This is just one story of the type of injustice and corruption that occurred in our past justice system. Not too mention all the lynching that Stevenson documents in “Just Mercy” that occurred prior to the Civil Rights Movement up until the lynching of a black individual in a city miles away from where the book revolved around. The hopelessness presented in the cases is what Stevenson fought to protect and to truly bring to light the truth.

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.

Here is the link to Bryan Stevenson TED talk “We need to talk about an injustice” where he delivers a tremendous speech targeting the horrible facts explaining the world’s largest country with incarcerated inmates- the glorious United States of America.

https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Here is a short video of Bryan Stevenson talking to Oprah about life’s biggest questions.

https://youtu.be/gOKyzpQOd6s

Quiz questions

1. What event completely changed our author’s point of view on inmates and those incarcerated and inspired him to help the helpless?
2. What non-profit program did Bryan Stevenson found to help Death Row inmates receive through and just investigations?
3. Whose story was the narrative backbone to “Just mercy” and was falsely accused of murdering a white woman?
4. Which types of corruption occurred in the justice system to keep citizens happy and capture the “crooks”?
   
   Discussion Questions

1. Do you think it's unethical to imprison minors to death or life sentences?
2. How would your view on Death Row change if it was someone you knew and love on it?
3. Do you think our justice system has improved prior to the racial injustices done even in courts during the Civil Rights movements up until the 1970s?

Hello guys this is just my blog post where I reflect on what I said. Feel free to read it and comment on it.

Kevin Hernandez Ovalle HO2

“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson

In his book Bryan Stevenson makes very clear that his goal is to establish a facility or organization, the Equal Justice Initiative, whose goal was to challenge court rulings of cases involving those on Death Row. Although he was a young black man, residing in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson was determined to make a change in the current justice system after his early experience as an internship at Stephen Bright's Southern Center for Human Rights impacted his life when he witness first-account the cruel treatment towards inmates in these prisons. This prison was the exact place that kindle his life's calling: to help condemned people get to higher grounds. Everyday there is someone who’s sitting in a prison cell smaller than a tradition children’s bedroom staring at prison cell wall; who has been falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to either life in prison, without parole, or is awaiting the dreadful day of being put to death by the tradition electric chair. Now to many of us what comes to mind is that person probably deserved what they got, but what would we say if that was someone we knew or even a love one. We wouldn’t sleep comfortably at night knowing that each passing day was another day lost for our loved one because of a misguided, incorrect justice system decision. That’s what Mr.Stevenson was trying to make noticeable. During his years, especially his early ones, of working in the court justice systems he mentioned in his book the multiple occasions where court-base rulings were made solely on a defendant's race (major contributor), reputation, family ties, and local drama connections (Ex.if you were said to be involved in a scandal or affair). All these factors were considered more than actual evidence that was presented by the defendant’s lawyers. These are few of the many alternatives courts took when deciding on a defendant’s destination. Briberies, paid witnesses and false claims, community pressure and racist, biased judges were other factors that were covered up to leave unnoticed the injustice done when doing justice. Many Americans, colored and poor, were condemned to unfair, false punishments that ultimately left a smudge on the justice system of the United States. Today there are over 2.3 million incarcerated inmates contrary to less than half a century ago where there were only 300,000 people in prisons in the United States.  The imagination of all those who could actually be innocent is unimaginable and that’s what people like Mr.Stevenson are pushing to challenge in this era where our word are powerful enough to leave someone without a job or reputation (especially in this era where social status and social media go hand-and-hand). An example is rape accusations towards the male population where a male individual can be sentenced to jail twenty folds the amount of time a woman who falsely accused someone of sexual assault. The illogic and confusion is even present in our courts and police departments, just like in the 1900s. I share this mentally and philosophy that Mr.Stevenson displays. That everyone deserves a second chance. If not, a thorough investigation and finally the opportunity to be invested in to improve themselves. Instead our present steps are leaving inmates to rot in prison and to keep investing billions of dollars in their maintenance where we could instead try to better them. This an important topic that should be resolved very soon in our current countries state. Just ask yourself the next time when you hear about mass incarceration.