Post #3: Reflection

 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. He was charged with armed robbery and attempted homicide along with two older boys. Lastly, there was a story about Antonio Nunez. Antonio was charged with aggravating kidnapping and attempted murder of a police officer. 

The first story, about Trina, was hard to read. “Trina was the youngest of twelve children” (148) and was struggling financially. Her father was also very abusive. He would often beat his wife until she was unconscious and then “would shove a stick down her throat to revive her for more abuse” (148). This was absolutely terrifying. As a young child, watching this happen and living in this type of environment is damaging to your mental health. After her mother’s death, her father began sexually assaulting her so she moved to live with her older sister and her husband, who also sexually abused her. She was never in a stable state so when she was accused of intentionally murdering two boys in a fire, she was traumatized. She was only fourteen at the time and was tried as an adult. When under trial, the judge could not consider “Trina’s age, mental illness, poverty, the abuse she had suffered, or the tragic circumstances” (150) so Trina was sentenced to life imprisonment. This story was one that I thought about the most. Trina was only fourteen years old. At fourteen, your brain isn’t fully developed, and in her case, mental illness had plagued her life. Having to spend the rest of her life in prison, where she was sexually abused again and gave birth to a baby boy. All between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. That is around the age of my younger sister. Imagining someone of this age going through this stuff is heartbreaking.

Ian Manuel was a thirteen-year-old boy who was with two older boys when they tried to rob a woman named Debbie Baigre in 1990. When Baigre resisted the attack, “Ian shot her with a handgun given to him by the older boys” (151-152). After being arrested, Ian’s lawyer told him he should plead guilty because he would only be sentenced to fifteen years in prison. However, this was not the case. He ended up being sentenced to life in prison without parole. Since Ian was so small and was put into an adult prison, the prison staff had had to “cut six inches from the bottom of their smallest pants” (152). He was also placed in solitary confinement because children that young are more likely to be sexually assaulted in an adult prison. While in prison, he was allowed one phone call a month. Every month, he would call Baigre and talk to her. The fact that Ian was sentenced to life in prison when he didn’t even kill anyone is baffling to me. He was also barely a teenager when the incident happened and was influenced by older boys. Ruining a child’s life over something like this should not happen. 

Ian Manuel and Debbie Baigre in 2016. They have now formed 

a friendship. (Baigre)

The last story about Antonio Nunez was also tough to read because Antonio was a good kid. He grew up in a dangerous neighborhood and was always told to be careful when he went out. One time when he was out riding his bike, he was shot and badly injured and his brother was killed. He spent a lot of time in recovery and was traumatized by the event. After returning from a juvenile camp where it was reported that he had “positively responded to the structured environment” (155), Antonio met two men who were much older than him. “They were planning to fake a kidnapping to get money from a relative” (155) and they wanted a then fourteen-year-old Antonio to join them. While being chased, Antonio was told to shoot at the vehicle behind him which actually had two undercover police officers in it. In court, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for kidnapping. Antonio’s sentencing made no sense to me because no one was physically hurt in the incident. He never hit the police officers with any bullets and I doubt that Antonio would have even shot at them if he knew they were officers. Antonio was being manipulated by an older man and it ended up ruining his life.

These three stories were obviously very saddening and made me upset. I will never understand why any child, no matter the crime, should be tried as an adult. There is plenty of science behind how a child’s brain develops and it is definitely not developed by the time we are thirteen or fourteen. That is why there is a law saying that we can’t drink until we are twenty-one. Your brain is more developed by then so you can make more logical decisions. Also, there is a reason that we have juvenile institutions: to put children there who have committed crimes. I am not denying the fact that these three children committed a crime. They just don’t need to be punished the same way adults do. 

Works Cited

Baigre, Debbie. Debbie Baigrie and Ian Manuel. Today, 28 Nov. 2016, www.today.com/kindness/mom-helps-get-man-who-shot-her-face-freed-prison-t105231. Accessed 18 Mar. 2021.

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