Blog Entry #1: Initial Thoughts on the Beginning of Just Mercy

    

Hello everyone and welcome to my first blog post. I am hoping to share my thoughts, concerns, and opinions on my page. I recently began reading the novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and I can say it has already been eye-opening. I am only three chapters in, but I have already gotten sucked into the book.

Just Mercy is the story of “justice and redemption”, and it has been a New York Times Best Seller. This novel shows the disturbing hidden sides of the Criminal Justice System that go unnoticed and captures the large problem of racial profiling. Bryan Stevenson is a very talented attorney and he shares a glimpse of his story of what it is like being involved in defending those who have been wrongly condemned in the criminal justice system. He stands up for those who don’t have a voice. In the novel, small cases are intertwined with larger ones, and so far, the main focus has been on a young man named Walter McMillian.

Walter McMillian

Bryan Stevenson

At the beginning of the novel, it starts with sharing the background of Mr. Stevenson and his profession. Bryan Stevenson attended Harvard Law School, and throughout his schooling, he began thinking he made the wrong decision of pursuing a career in law. He was intimidated, as one could probably assume….attending one of the best universities in the US can certainly come with many stressors. He also didn’t know much about law school, and never actually had met a lawyer. But something had drawn him in….the thought of helping and defending those who couldn’t help themselves.

One part that stood out to me was when Bryan Stevenson experienced racial profiling firsthand. He was sitting in his driveway listening to the radio when this all happened. He wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary; especially not committing any crimes. A SWAT police car drove over to him and demanded Stevenson to get out of the car with his hands up. His first thought was to run but realized he would have looked guilty and could have possibly been shot. The police scrummaged through Stevenson’s belongings and then left seeing how he was innocent. They assumed he was involved in a burglary in the neighborhood. When I read that passage my heart sunk. He was doing nothing wrong but was interrogated just because he had the “looks” of a burglar. This was another reason he was motivated to become a lawyer to fight against this unnecessary racial profiling. This part of the novel reminded me of events that recently happened last spring. Police brutality was placed in the spotlight when George Floyd was killed. He was accused of paying with a counterfeit bill for a pack of cigarettes. "Seventeen minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three officers, showing no sign of life" (Hill). The question of if the police have too much power and if they should be defunded was ongoing and BLM protests began. When this interrogation happened to Stevenson personally, he was furious and he contacted the Police Department about this unnecessary event. They apologized but it still didn't sit right with him in the end. 

Around four years after he graduated from Harvard, Stevenson was assigned the large case of Mr. McMillian. One of his colleagues, Robert E. Lee Key had called Stevenson warning him to not take up this case. He exclaimed “Why the hell would you want to represent someone like Walter McMillian?” (Stevenson, 20). That argument made Stevenson even more committed to helping McMillian because he knew nobody else would. McMillian’s case was very complicated and had many loose strings surrounding it. On November 1, 1986, a white woman named Ronda Morrison was shot and killed and found dead on the floor of Monroe Cleaners; the local shop where she worked. This tragic event shocked the town and people were furious about the incompetence of the police and how nobody had been arrested several months later. The question of who did it and why did they do it was constant.

Eyes turned towards Walter McMillian, as there were no suspects more than six months after Morrison’s death. McMillian already had strikes against him; as he was known for his affair with a white woman: Karen Kelly. She was more than eighteen years younger than him, and he was already married to a lady named Minnie. Kelly was married as well, and that sparked tension in her family because of her scandalous excursions. She also began using illegal drugs which made Walter look even worse. At this point in the novel, McMillian remains to be the prime suspect to society, and that is where Stevenson comes in to fight for Walter’s case. I am eager to continue reading to see if Walter McMillian is innocent and if Bryan Stevenson can defend him to the public and get him off death row.

I have found so far that the novel Just Mercy is very well written. The style, tone, and mood of the book work together to intrigue the readers. I personally like how the novel is from Bryan Stevenson's point of view. The mood is one of excitement and hope. In addition, the book has a lot of imagery which pulls his arguments and ideas together. 

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, or concerns. I would love to hear other’s thoughts regarding the beginning of the novel Just Mercy.

Works Cited

Bryan Stevenson. Baltimore Sun, Mary Carole McCauley, 25 Feb. 2015, www.baltimoresun.com/

entertainment/arts/bs-ae-author-stevenson-20150225-story.html. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.

 
Hill, Evan. "How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody." The New York Times, 31 May 2020,

www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html. Accessed 4 Mar. 2021.

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. 2019 ed., New York, Spiegel & Grau,

2019.

Walter McMillian. Sky News, Gemma Peplow, 4 Oct. 2020, news.sky.com/story/

just-mercy-the-true-story-behind-powerful-death-row-drama-11913545. Accessed 3 Mar. 2021.