Kally's Thoughts on Just Mercy

Hi Readers! For this week’s reading, I learned more about Walter McMillian’s trial and the outcome of his situation (which is good news). After a long wait and many hours of work, Walter McMillian is now a free man! While it was long overdue, it was still nice to see that Walter finally got some justice after everything the system had put him through. Also, while Walter’s freedom was the most exciting part of the reading, there were still other things that Stevenson talked about. The reading started off by talking about mental illness both throughout prisons and in criminals. Lastly, Stevenson talked about how women are also criminalized easily and sent to jail with little or no crime committed. Now, as we are approaching the end of this fantastic book, I thought it would be good to discuss what Bryan Stevenson’s arguments are. Stevenson’s main argument throughout the book is that the criminal justice system is severely flawed and is racially biased towards black people. On top of that...

  Hi Readers! I am a little over halfway through the book Just Mercy and it continues to get even more interesting. I continued to learn even more about Walter McMillian and his case. Ralph Meyers, the white man who had accused McMillian of the murder, met with Bryan Stevenson and his colleague and came clean about the allegations. Stevenson was able to compile a boatload of evidence that would prove to the court that he was innocent. Then, in court, Stevenson had a good three days of presenting the evidence to the judge and bringing in people to testify that McMillian was innocent. However, the most interesting part of the reading was chapter 8 when Stevenson talked about three children who had been sentenced to life in prison without parole. This is the part that I will be reflecting on today. The first child was Trina Garnett. Trina was convicted of second-degree murder for starting a fire that killed two boys. Next, Stevenson told the story about a young boy named Ian Manuel. ...

As I continue to read the book Just Mercy, I also continue to get pulled into the way that Bryan Stevenson writes. During my reading, Stevenson began to mention many other cases that he was looking at and people he was helping while also helping Walter McMillian. He worked tirelessly every day yet still gave it his all to his clients. Stevenson uses these stories of his other clients as part of his rhetoric to draw the reader in and to help them understand the depth of the criminal justice problem. In the chapters that I read, we learn about two new men: Herbert Richardson and Charlie. Both were being punished for capital murder and were put on death row, which was an excessive punishment for their crimes. We also learn more about the McMillian family and how desperate they are to help Walter. The McMillan family is very large and caring but struggles to bring money in, which is why Stevenson was brought in to work this case. With these new and old stories being told, I was completely ...

Before this year, I wasn’t much of a nonfiction reader. However, after starting the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson I might start to read more. The book is enjoyable to read and digs deep into racism and the injustice in the criminal system in America.  At the beginning of Just Mercy , we begin to learn about Stevenson's background and how he made his way through law school. At Harvard Law, Stevenson was first unsure that he had made the right decision. He knew that he was to work with the lives of the poor and deal with the long history of racial inequality in America but was unsure of the path he had to take to do this work. It wasn’t until after he took a course on race and poverty litigation that he truly knew what he wanted to do ( Stevenson 5). He spent time working with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC) in Atlanta for his course. After graduating, Stevenson traveled back down south to help defend underprivileged black men and women in court. Throughout the ...