Blog Post #5: My Final Thoughts

 Hi Readers!

I have recently finished the book Just Mercy and let me just say this: wow. After I finished reading the book, I sat for several minutes in my bed just thinking about what I had read. Bryan Stevenson brought up so many interesting thoughts and concepts in the last couple of chapters that I wasn’t really expecting. He continued to talk about how he was fighting for justice for so many people that had unfair sentences. He, along with the Equal Justice Initiative, has helped free many people from prison or had helped them get reduced sentences. Also, one of his biggest accomplishments was putting a ban on life imprisonment for children who committed a non-homicide crime. 

While I agree that all of Stevenson’s accomplishments are important and need recognition, the part of this week's reading that I liked the most was when Stevenson started talking about how we were all broken in some sort of way. Stevenson wrote “we are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent” (289). This section of the book really made me reflect on myself. I had never considered myself as “broken” but like everyone else in the world, there have been things that have hurt me. This sense of brokenness among everybody helps us connect to each other. Of course, everyone’s level of brokenness is different, but we truly are all broken in some way. And being broken isn’t necessarily something bad. As stated by Stevenson, “our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing” (289). Our brokenness helps us find what we need to fix about our lives. It leads us on new adventures and ways to find ourselves. 

This book has changed the way I look at so many things in life. It has opened my eyes to the injustices within the justice system and how easily and often manipulation is used in trial cases. The examples and statistics used throughout the book were extremely effective in helping the reader understand what Stevenson was trying to say. Learning about the McMillian case and how an innocent man, who was charged with capital murder without any physical evidence, was put on death row for six years and received very little relief once released. Then learning about all of the children who were sent to die in prison, for a non-homicide crime, just because the color of their skin was different. The blatant racism that was displayed throughout the book is something that I, a white teenager in a non-diverse town, am not used to hearing about. But it is something that I should hear about. 

Just Mercy also goes beyond just the racism in the justice system. This was one of the many things that I loved about the book. Stevenson would spend a couple chapters in the book discussing how the justice system is also sexist and classist. He mentioned how the system would target pregnant women whose babies didn’t survive childbirth. They would say that the mothers killed their child and then would be charged with capital murder. They would then be put either on death row or sent to prison for life. 

The justice system would also target people who are affected by poverty. There is a common stereotype that poor people are always drug dealers or users so they are also targeted. Learning about how the justice system is not only racist but also sexist and classist continued to open my eyes and realize that the system that is supposed to be fair is not fair at all. 

This book was so well-thought-out and well written that once the book was over I wanted to find another book about race and continue reading and learning. I have deeply enjoyed reading and learning about race and it has opened up my mind in so many ways. I hope that I can continue to learn about these injustices and continue to educate myself.

The title of this book, Just Mercy, had been the major phrase throughout this entire book that I have had questions about. Why did Stevenson title his book "Just Mercy"? I asked this question to myself almost every time I read the book. It wasn’t until I finished reading the book that I think I truly understood what Stevenson meant by titling his book with this phrase. At first, I thought that by titling the book with “Just Mercy,” he was trying to say that everyone deserves mercy, no matter what crime was committed. While I do think this is true and is partially part of the reason why the book is called Just Mercy, I think that there is also more to it. The criminal justice system is extremely harsh and finds ways to put people in prison for longer based on something unrelated to the crime. They lock up innocent individuals because they “look bad” and they don’t allow these individuals to ask for mercy. Even if these individuals are proven innocent and are taken out of prison, they are still given no mercy because of the color of their skin or their status in the community. Saying “just mercy” is saying that people of color and of lower-class deserve to have at least mercy. Even if that is the only thing that they get, they deserve to have it.  

As I said earlier, this book is a spectacular read and a book I would recommend to anyone. It is definitely a must-read for everybody as it is a very eye-opening experience, especially if you are unaware of the injustice taking place in America. This country’s justice system is in desperate need of reform and it needs it quickly.

Michael B. Jordan and Bryan Stevenson (Licari)

Also, on a side note, I have also watched the movie based on this book that was released in 2019 (I own the DVD so I didn’t watch it as part of the unit). The movie does a very good job at portraying what Stevenson said in the book and is very moving. Even if someone hadn’t read the book yet and just watched the movie, it should still have a major effect on the person because of how accurate and well they portray the content of the book into the movie. 

Thank you to everyone who read any of my blog posts and I hope you consider reading this amazing book (if you haven’t already). 

Works Cited

Licari, Matt. Michael B. Jordan and Bryan Stevenson. 16 Dec. 2019. AP News, 24 Dec. 2019, apnews.com/article/bd70be13456b8206f7e5a0fc918f57ff. Accessed 31 Mar. 2021.

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. 2019 ed., New York, Spiegel & Grau, 2019.