Just Mercy Book Review

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Throughout the quarter, we have read books that address a number of complicated legal topics. Author and journalist Barry Siegel’s book, Claim of Privilege, concerns the case Reynolds v. United States, a suit against the US government that began as a simple investigation into a freak Air Force plane crash but quickly metastasized into a conversation about the necessities of governmental secrecy. Author and journalist Jon Krakauer’s book, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town, concerns a number of suits made against [BLAH]. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption details author and attorney Bryan Stevenson’s work with death row inmates in Alabama, and the numerous trials and tribulations he faced in attempting to get them freedom. All three of these books, despite the differences in their content, deal with the concepts of victimhood; in each of the provided scenarios, [AAA]. All three authors utilize victimhood in a strategic way in order to get the reader to sympathize with the defendants in these cases and see the greater picture as to how these legal proceedings end up affecting those who are thrown into them. Just Mercy’s subject matter deals with inmates on death row. Throughout the book, Stevenson details his efforts as a …show more content…
United States. In the book, three women – Patricia Reynolds, Phyllis Brauner, and Betty Palya – attempt to get answers from the Air Force after their husbands (Bob Reynolds, William Brauner, and Al Palya) die in an unexplainable plane crash. The Air Force, reluctant to explain the accident as it would expose its gross negligence in the matter, begins to abuse notions of state secrecy in order to save face. What ensues is a multi-generational struggle between the wives, the wives’ children (Judy Palya-Loether, Susan Brauner, and Cathy Brauner) and the US government to figure out what really happened to the men in the

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