The American judicial system is riddled with corruption, racism, and privilege. In his book, Just Mercy, author and lawyer Bryan Stevenson chronicles the unfortunate and rapid deterioration of the mental health of his client and friend Walter McMillian following his release from death row. Mental illness resulting from wrongful imprisonment on death row stands as a deplorable and preventable collateral consequence of the negligence of the judicial system.
The trauma of the death row experience as an innocent man sparks Walter’s symptoms of anxiety and dementia. Walter’s newly won freedom is initially blissful and long-deserved; however, his memory soon begins to lose its sharpness and he claims that he is, “anxious all the time and that the alcohol calm[s] his …show more content…
Unlike his plan of care, Walter is permanently condemned by the scar of his felony conviction, even though he is proved to be innocent. While Walter does not pay with his life in prison, he pays with his mind in freedom. It is impossible to say whether pretreating McMillian’s mental health at his release would have prevented his suffering later on and allowed him to enjoy his freedom in the comfort of his own home; however, pretreating all exonerated death row inmates would certainly allow doctors to at least be prepared to monitor the onset of diseases such as anxiety or dementia. Instead, Walter, the ultimate victim of a merciless judicial system, continues to digress in condition to the point where he cannot tell the difference between the nursing home and death row and even cries to Stevenson that “They done put [him] back on death row” (278). While he may be mentally ill, the differences between prison and the temporary home are actually fairly slim; he is trapped in a place that is not his home, he expects to die there, and he is at the mercy of his caretakers. Walter is freed from one prison and ushered into another, and ultimately suffers a loss that greatly exceeds his years in prison: his
The trauma of the death row experience as an innocent man sparks Walter’s symptoms of anxiety and dementia. Walter’s newly won freedom is initially blissful and long-deserved; however, his memory soon begins to lose its sharpness and he claims that he is, “anxious all the time and that the alcohol calm[s] his …show more content…
Unlike his plan of care, Walter is permanently condemned by the scar of his felony conviction, even though he is proved to be innocent. While Walter does not pay with his life in prison, he pays with his mind in freedom. It is impossible to say whether pretreating McMillian’s mental health at his release would have prevented his suffering later on and allowed him to enjoy his freedom in the comfort of his own home; however, pretreating all exonerated death row inmates would certainly allow doctors to at least be prepared to monitor the onset of diseases such as anxiety or dementia. Instead, Walter, the ultimate victim of a merciless judicial system, continues to digress in condition to the point where he cannot tell the difference between the nursing home and death row and even cries to Stevenson that “They done put [him] back on death row” (278). While he may be mentally ill, the differences between prison and the temporary home are actually fairly slim; he is trapped in a place that is not his home, he expects to die there, and he is at the mercy of his caretakers. Walter is freed from one prison and ushered into another, and ultimately suffers a loss that greatly exceeds his years in prison: his