Is it just mercy, or is the mercy just?
The innocent grace the cells of death row across America due to human error, ego and the color of the inmate’s skin. Bryan Stevenson, grew up poor, a descendant of slaves, and his grandfather was murdered in Philadelphia when he was a teenager, maybe these were the factors that lead him to become an advocate for the innocent living on death row. Stevenson writes about his experience defending death row inmates in his book, Just Mercy. His first big, almost life altering client, Walter McMillan an African-American man who lives in Alabama, is the main story throughout his book.
When we first meet McMillan, he is on death row for the murder of a white woman in Monroeville, Alabama, the hometown of Harper …show more content…
In the chapters that didn’t mention McMillan, were stories of children, most with special needs being convicted as adults and placed into adult prison, where abuse, and neglect only furthered the disability or created a new one. There was another story of a vet with PTSD who conjured up a scheme to win back his girlfriend, but the plan failed and ended up killing a young girl. In this case, Stevenson didn’t deny the death, he only argued the mental stability of his client.
Stevenson founded Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to help people in McMillan’s situation. The center’s staff grew at a slow pace, but the case files were plenty. Stevenson highlighted a few of the employees, but stayed focused on the names and cases of his present, past and future clients, at times I found a bit confusing, so many names, no identifying timeline and a lot of the cases had similarities that blended together.
60 Minutes did a piece on Stevenson and McMillan and really brought the subject of racial injustice in front of people who may not have realized it was still going on well into the 20th century. Blatant injustice that went to some of the highest state courts, filled the police forces and cities all over the United States. McMillan’s release can be attributed to this segment from 60 Minutes, because it became a case that was now nationwide, and no one could longer ignore
The innocent grace the cells of death row across America due to human error, ego and the color of the inmate’s skin. Bryan Stevenson, grew up poor, a descendant of slaves, and his grandfather was murdered in Philadelphia when he was a teenager, maybe these were the factors that lead him to become an advocate for the innocent living on death row. Stevenson writes about his experience defending death row inmates in his book, Just Mercy. His first big, almost life altering client, Walter McMillan an African-American man who lives in Alabama, is the main story throughout his book.
When we first meet McMillan, he is on death row for the murder of a white woman in Monroeville, Alabama, the hometown of Harper …show more content…
In the chapters that didn’t mention McMillan, were stories of children, most with special needs being convicted as adults and placed into adult prison, where abuse, and neglect only furthered the disability or created a new one. There was another story of a vet with PTSD who conjured up a scheme to win back his girlfriend, but the plan failed and ended up killing a young girl. In this case, Stevenson didn’t deny the death, he only argued the mental stability of his client.
Stevenson founded Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) to help people in McMillan’s situation. The center’s staff grew at a slow pace, but the case files were plenty. Stevenson highlighted a few of the employees, but stayed focused on the names and cases of his present, past and future clients, at times I found a bit confusing, so many names, no identifying timeline and a lot of the cases had similarities that blended together.
60 Minutes did a piece on Stevenson and McMillan and really brought the subject of racial injustice in front of people who may not have realized it was still going on well into the 20th century. Blatant injustice that went to some of the highest state courts, filled the police forces and cities all over the United States. McMillan’s release can be attributed to this segment from 60 Minutes, because it became a case that was now nationwide, and no one could longer ignore