American society is obsessed with security. We are spending millions of dollars to put systems in place to try to keep citizens safe. What is often overlooked is the corruption within America's criminal justice system, the transgressions that occur daily, and how these issues disrupt the lives of thousands of innocent people each year. In his story Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson highlights many of the problems surrounding the American criminal justice system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get the original essay His personal accounts of his own experiences in the American criminal justice system reveal that criminal and social justice, race, and mercy are all closely linked to the United States. Company. These questions all relate, in their own way, to classic American ideals. Just Mercy demonstrates the need for American society to recognize the social injustice that occurs in American criminal proceedings – based on racial and wealth gaps – and to demonstrate mercy and compassion to combat injustice. Many American citizens would associate criminal justice with a feeling of security. This is a system that our government is supposed to have in place to catch criminals and put them behind bars, allowing people to go to bed at night feeling safe. However, Stevenson takes a different approach to criminal justice. Rather than highlighting the benefits, Stevenson talks about the injustice that occurs within our so-called criminal “justice” system. Stevenson practices law in Alabama and Georgia, two Deep South states with a cultural undercurrent that significantly impacts his work. Many of the clients Stevenson represents are African American and part of a community still trying to recover from legal segregation, such as Jim Crow laws. In addition to recovering from the Reconstruction South, the African American community still faces serious hate crimes. This element of racism leads to injustice in Stevenson's cases, where poor black teenagers are often wrongly accused or punished in extreme ways. The main story followed by Just Mercy is that of Walter McMillian, a black man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit. Despite overwhelming evidence of Walter's innocence, the racist culture in Alabama meant that many justice officials simply ignored the evidence. Stevenson notes that "reading the file showed him that there were people willing to ignore evidence, logic and common sense to convict someone and reassure the community that the crime had been solved and the murderer punished” (Stevenson 112). ).This shows that in this case, and in many cases similar to the McMillian case, American society was willing to disregard truth and justice in order to gain a false sense of security. Law enforcement officials didn't care about catching the right criminal as long as they had a scapegoat, especially if said suspect was African-American and couldn't afford a good lawyer. The notion of social justice is closely associated with the notion of criminal justice. Stevenson's book shows that by practicing social justice, we can achieve criminal justice that is not corrupt. Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson dedicated his life to creating social and criminal justice. For Stevenson, a lot of it was about building relationships andtrust with its customers. Despite his busy schedule, Stevenson always became close to his customers, stating in his book that "we talked about the food (Walter) liked, the jobs he had had when he was younger. We talked about race and power, about things we saw that were funny and things we saw that were sad” (Stevenson 103). Stevenson also tells Walter that “everyone needs help, so we try” (Stevenson 103). Trying to improve the world, one life at a time, is how Stevenson made a difference and how he practiced social justice. He recounts how he depicted a young boy who shot his abusive stepfather (Stevenson 121), and stories of children who were tried as adults and sentenced to die in prison. Writing about discovering, exposing, and attempting to overturn these injustices has painted a clear picture of what social justice really means: fairness and equality for all, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. 'a person. Unfortunately, racial divisions play a significant role in creating injustice. This reveals America's hypocrisy: we value diversity and call ourselves the "great melting pot." We value justice and equality, two principles on which our country was founded. Yet despite all of this, justice officials continue to make ridiculous accusations against men like Walter, simply because they don't care about bringing justice to a black man, and they can get away with it. without problem. Stevenson references a story by WEB Du Bois about the lynching of a black man who became a teacher. Stevenson questions the impacts of lynching on this man's community, speculating that "there would be more distrust, more animosity and more injustice." (Stevenson 101). Similarly, Stevenson believes that everyone in Walter's hometown of Monroeville will judge the black community based solely on Walter's beliefs: "Walter's family and most of the poor blacks in his community were equally overwhelmed by Walter’s conviction… The pain in this trailer was tangible – I could feel it. The community seemed desperate for any hope of justice. This realization left me anxious but determined” (Stevenson 101). In this way, it becomes evident that the injustice in these small southern towns is a vicious cycle. The richest and most powerful whites refuse to grant blacks truly “equal” rights, belittling them like Walter was, ignoring the evidence, and keeping them in slavery. prison when they do not necessarily belong there. For-profit prisons help enrich whites and keep blacks poor, so the African American community has little chance of breaking the cycle of whites continuing to subjugate blacks. Even Stevenson, a middle-class man and practicing lawyer, is the victim of hate crimes based on his race. In his memoir, Stevenson recounts an experience where he was held at gunpoint after listening to a song in his car, simply because there had been minor crimes in his car. neighborhood recently. The officers who attempted to arrest Stevenson blatantly broke the law, and even though Stevenson knew this because of his legal history, he was too afraid to challenge it. Reflecting on the incident the next day, Stevenson comments that I was a twenty-eight-year-old lawyer who had worked on police misconduct cases. I had the judgment to speak calmly to the police officer when he threatened to shoot me. When I thought about what I would have done when I was sixteen, nineteen or..