Race Justice In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

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Henry Louis Gates once said: “I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.” Indeed in this day and age, comments like these are not generally uncommon, especially with race relations becoming a nationwide priority after recent cases like Ferguson. But how much truth is there really behind these sweeping generalizations? By investigating this question further through the lense of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, it becomes apparent how unjust America’s justice system really is through the illumination of biased racial representation and the prosecution of juveniles in adult criminal court. Racial representation in death row proves that justice system consistently shows bias, primarily through crime victim treatment. Though originally the Supreme Court
For one, unlike Ian he was convicted and found guilty of a non-homicide crime yet still also found himself in a life sentence. For better or for worse, Joe wasn’t confined but “was [instead] repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted,” the trauma from which eventually caused him to develop multiple sclerosis (Stevenson 259). Unfortunately, these two cases are not uncommon in the justice world. As a matter of fact, “by 2010, Florida had sentenced more than a hundred children to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide offenses,” (Stevenson 153). One of the primary reasons for this originated in the idea that harsher punishments will act as a deterrent for kids who want to break the law. However, recently studies have suggested that because the prefrontal lobe of the brain is still in development until the age of twenty, children don’t have the mental capacity to make the best decisions, especially under stress. Additionally, children normally wouldn’t have access to weapons or drugs, which allows the argument that adults should be held responsible for making such objects available to them in the first place

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