Death is something all humans have in common. Everyone dies, some sooner than others, some naturally, some by accident, and others have their lives taken from them. Death is a subject that permeates Bryan Stevenson’s memoir ¬Just Mercy completely. In the book, Stevenson recounts his early days as a lawyer in the southern United States. He becomes intrigued with the cases that involve death sentences and makes it his goal to fight for those who are wrongly accused and sentenced to death. He meets a myriad of people incarcerated for many different reasons, but most of them share one commonality; the death sentence they have incurred is unjust. In fact, in most of these cases, it is the system that fails these people and sentences them to die.
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Ralph testified on behalf of the prosecution, but his testimony was a complete lie. He was thought it would be a good way to gain some favor with the local police, a group he was not the most popular with. “He’d been promised that he wouldn’t get the death penalty and would get favorable treatment in exchange for his testimony…” (Stevenson, 52), but after he had second thoughts about blatantly lying in court and decided to admit to his perjury, the death penalty was reinstituted. This made Ralph really nervous and he had thoughts about sticking to his lie until he finally came around after sharing his story with other people on death row. In this case, it can be no more apparent that the death sentence was used as a tool to control Ralph. He originally faced the death penalty, but after testifying favorably for the prosecution, his sentence was reduced. Later, when he wanted to recant his testimony, he was put back on death row in an effort to persuade him to stick to his story. This almost worked until he shared what he had done with the other inmates who were on death row with him, and they convinced him to do the right thing. One would be hard pressed to find a better example in this book of the death penalty being used as a tool for manipulation rather than
Ralph testified on behalf of the prosecution, but his testimony was a complete lie. He was thought it would be a good way to gain some favor with the local police, a group he was not the most popular with. “He’d been promised that he wouldn’t get the death penalty and would get favorable treatment in exchange for his testimony…” (Stevenson, 52), but after he had second thoughts about blatantly lying in court and decided to admit to his perjury, the death penalty was reinstituted. This made Ralph really nervous and he had thoughts about sticking to his lie until he finally came around after sharing his story with other people on death row. In this case, it can be no more apparent that the death sentence was used as a tool to control Ralph. He originally faced the death penalty, but after testifying favorably for the prosecution, his sentence was reduced. Later, when he wanted to recant his testimony, he was put back on death row in an effort to persuade him to stick to his story. This almost worked until he shared what he had done with the other inmates who were on death row with him, and they convinced him to do the right thing. One would be hard pressed to find a better example in this book of the death penalty being used as a tool for manipulation rather than