Kathy Tran

Professor Turner
ENGL 1A | 11:45-12:50 PM
25 October 2018
Section 1. Reflecting on your writing process

How did you begin? What was your reading process like? What about planning/drafting?

I began by looking at my past journal entries and chapter annotations. I then planned out what to
write in each paragraph and created my thesis. For my reading process, I took notes on what I
thought was important as I was reading each chapter. For my drafting/revision process, I went
through my essay to fix or expand on certain aspects that others have commented on and sug-
gested!

Section 2. What part of this writing assignment are you struggling with? Can
you highlight 2 or 3 specific places in your draft for your partner to offer feed-
back on?

Try to avoid “grammar” and “format” as one of these three things. In our writing groups, we are
focusing on the higher order concerns like analysis and synthesis. However, if you do feel like
you need assistance with grammar, please feel free to set up an appointment with me or contact
the Writing Center.

What part of writing project 1 are you strug- What specific places in your draft show this
gling with? struggle?

1. Choosing which quotes to use as evidence. The quotes I used may have not been as effec-
It was hard to decide which quotes would be tive as other possible quotes in the book.
more effective to use and convey Stevenson’s
message.

2. Trying to summarize and analyze all of Ste- My essay might be lacking some of the au-
venson’s main points. thor’s main arguments.

3. Organizing my essay. Some paragraphs might be too long or certain

sentences might not have placed in effective
places.

Section 3. What part of this writing are you feeling good about?
I feel good about grasping most of what the author is wanting to say to his audience as well as
understanding why he used certain rhetorical strategies.
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The Fight for Justice

In the book, Just Mercy, the author, Bryan Stevenson, describes his experience as a law-

yer for prisoners on death row that do not have the money or sufficient resources for effective

representation. He writes about the many issues those in poverty and people of color have to

face, such as police brutality, homelessness, sexual harassment, and unfair imprisonment.

Through the stories of his clients described in the book, Stevenson aims to bring awareness to the

mass incarceration and extreme punishment within America’s criminal justice system as well as

introduce new perspectives on certain environments that are often unexposed, in particular, envi-

ronments marked by abuse, violence, poverty, and discrimination. He challenges several rules

and legal policies in our criminal justice system to abandon the use of the death penalty and re-

verse wrongful incarcerations. Although Stevenson mostly writes in personal narrative through-

out the book, he utilizes his personal experiences as a successful death row lawyer as well as var-

ious pieces of data, statistics, and research to create logical, credible arguments to gain justice for

his clients.

In Just Mercy, the author writes about his personal experiences as a lawyer for prisoners

on death row and how he has changed countless criminal justice policies during his career. As a

result, his extensive experience and success make his legal writing very credible. His degree

from Harvard Law School and his use of multiple legal terms, such as litigation, exculpatory evi-

dence, and specific legal rules like the rule of sequestration, throughout the book further show

that the author is very knowledgeable about the legal subject material presented in the book. Ste-

venson is also the founder of the non-profit organization, the Equal Justice Initiative, which has

had a lot of legal success over the years. He notes, “We had won four reversals in death penalty

cases in 1990, four more in 1991, and by the end of 1992, we’d won relief for another eight death
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row prisoners.” (Stevenson, 373-374). But despite his career as a lawyer for marginalized prison-

ers and EJI being successful, Stevenson still struggles to gain justice for his clients. The process

to reverse death row decisions is an extremely long and tedious process. Therefore, Stevenson

hopes the audience would take action to fight for the changes he proposes in the book and help

alleviate the length of this process to justice.

In the book, Stevenson fights to reverse the injustices done to marginalized prisoners who

were falsely convicted or harshly punished by America’s criminal justice system. To support his

arguments, he presents multiple sources including numerical evidence and neurological research.

Stevenson fiercely argues that it’s extremely unfair how young teenagers are forced to spend

their lives in prison for a crime they did when they were at an age that is easily influenced by

others and has not fully matured mentally. He strengthens his argument by referencing scientific

data, noting “Contemporary neurological, psychological, and sociological evidence has estab-

lished that children are impaired by immature judgment, an underdeveloped capacity for self-

regulation and responsibility, vulnerability to negative influences and outside pressures, and a

lack of control over their own impulses and their environment” (Stevenson, ch. 14, par. 40). By

using this data, Stevenson is able to delve beyond the field of law and employ other areas of

study to reinforce the reasoning behind his arguments. The evidence provided shows that adoles-

cents lack mature judgment, control of their impulses, and are easily influenced by their environ-

ment and outside pressures, which greatly makes them more vulnerable to criminal behavior.

America’s legal system assumes that these teenagers are mature and knowledgeable enough to

commit their serious crimes and thus, place them in adult prisons. But Stevenson’s choice of evi-

dence contradicts this assumption, revealing the immatureness and unstableness of the adolescent
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mind, and acts as useful support to Stevenson’s claims that adolescents shouldn’t be sentenced to

life imprisonment or tried as adults for their crimes.

Another way Stevenson utilizes logos to strengthen his arguments is through the thorough

narratives of his clients. He first informs the audience about the clients’ backgrounds and situa-

tions and further employs that information to argue why these individuals shouldn’t have been

punished or imprisoned. In Chapter Eight of Just Mercy, the author details the cases of several

young teens, such as Trina and Antonio, who were unfairly punished for their crimes without

their traumatic experiences taken into account. Due to her traumatic experiences as a child, Ste-

venson showed that Trina had severe signs of intellectual disabilities, which greatly affected the

outcome of her trial later on. He describes, “Her mother’s death, the abuse, and the desperate cir-

cumstances all exacerbated Trina’s emotional and mental health problems . . . could barely speak

when the police arrested her. She was so nonfunctional and listless that her appointed lawyer

thought she was incompetent to stand trial” (Stevenson, p. 94-95). For Antonio Nunez, he grew

up in a section of LA that was filled with gang violence and experienced domestic abuse by his

father, neglection from mother, and the death of his brother at the young age of 13. Stevenson

described how Antonio’s traumatic experiences caused him to struggle mentally and how the

criminal environment he was in highly influenced the young teen to partake in crimes. Through

the detailed accounts of these adolescents, the author uses their traumatic experiences as evi-

dence to argue that our criminal justice system should also take into account the environment

that prisoners grew up in and the traumatic experiences they have been through that might’ve

likely influenced their criminal actions.

The author utilizes his experiences as evidence for his arguments as well and in one ex-

ample, he recounts his own encounter with unfair treatment by police officers due to his race.
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During this encounter, Stevenson had a weapon drawn at him and feared for his life, was ille-

gally searched, and falsely suspected of burglary. He relates this experience to how numerous

people in minority groups are constantly subjected to racial profiling and false accusations. But

in his case, his experience as a lawyer who worked closely with cases of police brutality, he had

the knowledge to keep calm and minimize his actions to prevent being shot at. Stevenson writes,

“I was a twenty-eight-year-old lawyer who had worked on police misconduct cases. I had the

judgment to speak calmly to the officer when he threatened to shoot me. When I thought about

what I would have done when I was sixteen years old or nineteen or even twenty-four, I was

scared to realize that I might have run. The more I thought about it, the ‘more concerned I be-

came about all the young black boys and men in that neighborhood. Did they know not to run?

Did they know to stay calm and say, ‘It’s okay’?” (Stevenson, ch. 2, par. 38). Like what Steven-

son worried about, the majority of others who experience these police encounters lack the

knowledge and consequently, are fatally shot by police due to their race. This issue of police

shootings involving people of color is still occurring constantly today despite the events of the

book taking place so many years ago. Therefore, the author wants to expose this injustice and

challenge America’s criminal justice system to enact better policies.

Throughout the book, Stevenson provides numeral statistics and numerical data to

strengthen his arguments. He argues that racial profiling is a serious and sometimes, deadly issue

that needs to be fixed in America’s criminal system and further provides a statistic to support this

argument that states, “I found Bureau of Justice statistics reporting that black men were eight

times more likely to be killed by the police than whites. By the end of the twentieth century, the

rate of police shootings would improve so that men of color were ‘only’ four times more likely

to be killed by law enforcement . . .” (Stevenson, ch. 2, par. 39). This data helps prove how racial
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profiling is a big issue in the American criminal justice system. From the statistics provided, it’s

clear that men of color are more likely to be involved in fatal police shootings. Stevenson uses

the data to provide numerical evidence for his arguments of how our criminal justice system and

police forces need to change and be educated of this racial prejudice and police brutality. Similar

to how Stevenson himself was subjected to false accusations due to his skin color, thousands of

black males continue to be wrongfully suspected, imprisoned, and even killed because of their

race today. Consequently, the author urges America’s legal system to take action in abolishing

the death sentence due to the high possibility of wrongful convictions and reforming its policies

to prevent racial discrimination and injustices. To conclude, through the use of data, statistics,

and personal examples as evidence, Stevenson is able to form credible and rational arguments to

challenge the death penalty and injustices of the American criminal justice system.

By building his credibility as a trustworthy author, Stevenson's logical arguments

strengthen the book’s goal to enact justice in America’s criminal justice systems for prisoners in

minority groups. Furthermore, he presents himself as someone who has a lot of legal knowledge

and is fair in his presentation. Throughout the book, he depicts everyone in a fair, kind light, see-

ing the good in even the most corrupt officials. For example, one of the main clients Stevenson

talks about in Just Mercy is Walter McMillian, a black man who was falsely accused of murder

and sent to death row. Ralph Myers was the man that accused Walter and thus, was Walter’s and

Stevenson’s opponent. But despite being their opponent, Stevenson writes about Myers in a

calm, factual manner without any hint of negativity. He also makes sure to inform readers about

Myers’s side of the story as well, covering both perspectives, such as when he writes, “Having

read Myers’s testimony and reviewed the records that were available about him, I knew that he
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had a tragic background and a complex personality” (Stevenson, ch. 7, par. 27). In doing so, Ste-

venson showcases himself as a fair and unbiased author who purely aims to educate and inform

readers of his message of reforming our criminal justice system to focus on rehabilitation rather

than punishment. Like Myers, a number of prisoners get involved in crimes because of their trau-

matic experiences and backgrounds. Thus, the author argues that instead of punishing these indi-

viduals for their traumatic experiences that negatively shaped their behaviors, our criminal jus-

tice system should educate them in becoming better people. All in all, the author’s credibility as

a successful lawyer and as a fair, logical writer provides great assistance to the effectiveness of

his arguments.

To conclude, Stevenson utilizes several rhetorical strategies to strengthen his arguments

in Just Mercy. In the personal narrative, Stevenson sheds light on the many marginalized prison-

ers who were falsely convicted or too harshly punished. From young teenagers being unjustifi-

ably tried as adults to people being accused and jailed as a criminal because of their race, he fo-

cuses on the injustices done towards these disadvantaged individuals and advocates to change

certain legal policies in our criminal justice system to abandon the punishment of the death pen-

alty and prevent wrongful incarcerations. All in all, by exploring the contexts of Stevenson’s

book Just Mercy and his use of rhetorical strategies, it can be clearly seen that America’s crimi-

nal justice system needs to enact more justice and mercy for their prisoners.
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Works Cited

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A story of justice and redemption. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.