Brianna Austin
Professor Broderick
Human Development
Spring 2018
Just Mercy
Just Mercy is a great book about the development of young African American men in our American society. Although Bryan Stevenson focuses on the injustices of our criminal justice system and targeting African American men, he is really vouching out for all minorities in our country. Bryan Stevenson stresses the fact that our criminal justice system is functioned in a way to keep the people in power out of trouble and to keep the powerless individuals in a state in which they are more likely to be targeted for certain crimes.
Just Mercy emphasizes the importance of active resistance to unfair institutions. Bryan Stevenson describes the racism, corruption, and cruelty that pervade American court systems and lead to the systematic abuse of marginalized communities. Despite the power and presence of these problems, Stevenson continues to give power to the resistance of these acts and advocacy to change conditions for individuals and for marginalized groups overall. Both of the legal aid organizations that Stevenson has worked for, the Southern Prisoners Defense Fund (SPDC) and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), have made concrete changes in the American legal landscape on behalf of those who have been sentenced unfairly or inhumanely. For example, Stevenson’s representation of wrongfully-convicted people like Walter McMillian, mentally ill prisoners like George Daniel, or harshly-sentenced juveniles like Kuntrell Jackson leads, in each case, to the court overturning an unjust conviction. Over and over, Stevenson describes court cases in which the court-appointed lawyers of marginalized defendants have failed to present evidence, explore leads, or make appeals that could have freed their clients. Having an attorney like Stevenson who is willing to go to any lengths to help his clients—in other words, an advocate who is committed to reforming the justice system—can literally mean the difference between life and death for these individuals.
Stevenson’s stories detail how legal structures—which are meant to ensure that all Americans are treated fairly—can contribute to the systemic oppression of marginalized groups, such as African Americans, women, the poor, and the disabled. By favoring individuals and groups who have more power, the criminal justice system perpetuates a cycle of vulnerability, poverty, and racial inequality in the United States. Stevenson demonstrates this claim through historical research, personal experiences, and political analysis, and his moral reflections suggest that such abuses of the justice system dehumanize both the victims and the perpetrators of oppression.
While Stevenson discusses many of his clients’ cases in order to demonstrate the failures of the justice system, his primary case study is that of Walter McMillian. McMillian, a black man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death, faced obstacles including incompetent court-appointed lawyers, political corruption, racial prejudice and profiling, and media sensationalism. His case is used in Just Mercy to demonstrate the numerous ways in which the legal system can deliberately betray those it is meant to protect and the fact that justice is not immune from individual corruption and cruelty.
McMillian’s case, like all the other case studies in the book, is meant to personalize the experience of discrimination and miscarriage of justice in order to help readers understand the tremendous individual suffering that results from abuses of power. Stevenson often refers to the “collateral consequences” of the penal system: McMillian not only lost years of his life from his false conviction, but he also lost his reputation, his mental and physical health, his business, and his family’s limited financial resources. The case studies in the book are also meant to demonstrate the larger forces that structure the American justice system. McMillian’s case, for example, illustrates the all-too-common phenomenon of an innocent black man being blamed for a crime against a white woman. Other case studies point out that the prisons are full of populations that American society would rather criminalize than provide resources for the poor, the mentally ill, and victims of trauma, for example. Rather than committing collective resources to social problems or empathizing with people from marginalized groups, the justice system scapegoats people who are often victims themselves.
Furthermore, Stevenson demonstrates that this problem is not isolated to the present day. The systematic oppression enacted by the justice system has direct roots in inhumane institutions that date back to slavery. Like slavery, many legal and judicial structures have the direct or indirect result of limiting the power of African Americans and separating out poor and minority populations from whites. For example, poll taxes, which were used in the Jim Crow era to prevent African Americans from voting, have now been replaced by laws barring inmates and convicted felons (who are disproportionately black) from voting. Stevenson shows how seemingly-innocuous legal phenomena like preemptory strikes in jury selection, mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes, or the overburdening of court-appointed attorneys results in a system of discrimination and oppression reminiscent of the slavery and Jim Crow eras. Slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration, Stevenson argues, are historical manifestations of the same phenomenon: racism.
Just Mercy illustrates how the media influences the knowledge and views of its consumers, thereby shaping the public’s opinion of criminal justice issues and cases. Stevenson suggests that, because of this power, the media can be used either to educate the public about the court system, thereby propelling justice, or to perpetuate injustice through sensationalism. His accounts demonstrate how a lack of access to historical context and accurate information normalizes prejudiced ideas and actions, and he further shows how public opinion, whether founded or unfounded, impacts the fate of individuals facing the criminal justice system. Stevenson ultimately indicates that justice requires the media to take responsibility for how they disseminate information.
At the heart of Stevenson’s book is the idea that everyone is capable of making mistakes, even terrible mistakes, and that, at one time or another, everyone will need to be granted mercy. Harsh punishments, in Stevenson’s eyes, perpetuate violence rather than deter it: for Stevenson, giving and receiving unexpected and undeserved mercy is the only way to break the escalating cycles of violence, punishment, and hatred that characterize the criminal justice system.
Stevenson argues that achieving a more just society and fostering an ethic of mercy requires individuals from all sides to become more empathetic. Prejudice and injustice flourish when individuals can be condemned as “other” or “criminal,” a designation that creates a separation between “us” and “them.” In order to bridge that separation, Stevenson invites readers to hear and understand the personal stories of inmates. He contends that looking at people’s lives and experiences “up close” is a prerequisite for the kind of empathy that can lead to mercy.
Part of looking “up close” at people affected by the criminal justice system involves, for Stevenson, presenting a more holistic and humane story of their crimes, alleged or real. For example, Ashley Jones was sentenced to life without parole as a teenager for a murder that she did commit. However, the appropriateness of her sentence seems more ambiguous when her whole story is told: she murdered a relative while trying to escape from her abusive home. Stevenson uses several similar stories to illustrate that people who commit crimes often come from traumatic and violent backgrounds, and he believes that they deserve to have their actions understood through the lens of their formative experiences of suffering. Furthermore, Stevenson argues that time, reflection and new experiences can teach a person new views and habits, which can lead to rehabilitation. Many of the people Stevenson profiles, particularly those convicted as juveniles, have developed nuanced and positive views on violence and morality. By describing the kindness, wisdom, and achievement that he has witnessed in his clients, Stevenson makes the case that “criminals” should be given the opportunity to reform.
Central to the book is the idea that all Americans—even those with no personal contact with the crime or the judicial system—are implicated in abuses perpetrated by the justice system because the justice system claims to operate in the name of protecting and preserving American society. Propping up such a system, actively or passively, is dehumanizing to the accused and the accusers, and Stevenson argues that one way to preserve humanity in the face of injustice is to extend forgiveness and mercy.
Stevenson makes the notion of mercy personal through a story from his own childhood. Once, Stevenson’s mother overheard him mocking a boy with a speech impediment, and she forced Stevenson to apologize and tell the boy that he loved him. Stevenson did as he was told, and the boy hugged Stevenson and told him that he loved him, too. Stevenson was moved by this act of mercy because he knew he didn’t deserve it, and it was the unexpected kindness of the boy’s act that startled Stevenson into reforming his own cruel behavior, not his mother’s scolding. Stevenson also writes about Ms. Baigre, the woman that fourteen-year-old Ian Manuel was in prison for injuring. Ian reached out to Ms. Baigre to apologize after he was incarcerated. She not only forgave him, but she also testified in support of his defense, remained his friend while he was in prison, and helped to reverse his life sentence. Through this and other stories of forgiveness, Stevenson praises those who forgive the accused instead of seeking harsher punishments for them.
I would recommend this book to almost everyone because Bryan Stevenson preaches that the only way to reduce these injustices and high crime rates is to have mercy on these individuals. It is a different perspective and focuses on the macro level of crime by stating that it is not just one individual but how our entire society reacts to crime.