“We have serious problems and important work that must be done in this state” (Stevenson). Within the book, Bryan Stevenson describes the stories of people who have received excessive and unfair punishments for crimes that they either did not commit or didn’t deserve such severe punishments. Throughout all of these stories, Stevenson wants the reader to know just how broken our justice system is and how we need to put some effort to eliminate this problem. Stevenson really surprised me right off the bat in Just Mercy because he described these innocent people like Walter McMillian, receiving life imprisonment or worse, capital punishment. In most of the cases the prosecution had very little to no evidence to prove them guilty. Now why would the jury or judge convict them as guilty in these cases? Well most of the time the jury or judge was paid off or they were very biased against the defendant. This also just challenged my original thoughts and feelings because I always thought our justice system was the best in the world, but that just made me notice how naive people are in the twenty first century. Just Mercy really opened my eyes at how little I know about the justice system or anything relating to court cases. I had taken Mock Trial in 7th and 8th grade, but Stevenson showed me of how I’ve only scratched the surface of how the justice system works. In that class I learned the basics of how the justice system works, but the class never prepared me for having discrimination and bias within the system. After reading about this bias and discrimination it helped me change how I perceive stereotypes. Everyone just assumes that the justice system will be as fair as it can be, but nobody notices how it’s broken until you’re the one being treated unfairly or you’re attempting to help the unfortunate like Stevenson. Overall this will all help me to be more aware of how things work in today's society and not to just assume it is the best of the best. Finally, within the book Stevenson says, “The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.” I believe that everyone should read this book to really see how their character truly measures. By Landon M.
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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