“Just Mercy”

Posted for 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.