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#5 - Final Thoughts - 4/1

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(BOOK REVIEW)     This past week I finished up reading Bryan Stevenson's book, Just Mercy . I really enjoyed reading the book for many reasons, and I was surprised by how intrigued I was with the legal side of it. As you all know by now, Stevenson is a Harvard lawyer who spent nearly his entire career done south helping underprivileged people with legal troubles. Most of the time he worked on getting completely innocent clients off of death row. While his book does keep a very modest tone to a subject usually overflowing with emotion, Stevenson definitely has an opinion on the matter and makes sure it's known to his readers. I've said this countless times, but I feel that it is something that still needs to be said, Bryan Stevenson does an outstanding job making you agree with him without actually making you. He lets you come to your own conclusions but realizes that with the information he presents there are no other conclusions to come to except for his. In this blog post...
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Post #4 - Relevance - 3/25

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    In this week's blog, I am going to focus on the relevance that different parts of Bryan Stevenson's still have today. However, this book being only 6 years old makes it so that it's already both about and related to most of today's topics. I'm going to focus on two main passages from my book and talk about how they are still prominent topics and issues today.     The first passage I am going to cover is an interaction that Stevenson had with an Alabama judge during a court case where the jury was unfairly chosen. Stevenson was arguing that it was unfair that not a single black juror was picked and that it was unfair to the defendant because juries were already considerably racially biased. The judge did in fact grant Stevenson's motion, but not without saying something extremely foolish first. He said,          "I'm going to grant your motion, Mr. Stevenson, but I'll be honest. I'm pretty fed up with people always talking about minority r...
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Post #3 - His Argument - 3/18

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    For this post, I've decided to write about the overall meaning, or argument, of Bryan Stevenson's book, Just Mercy . While all of our books that we are reading have to do something with race, whether it be about the historical side or even the modern side of it, Stevenson bases his entire book off of the legal side of it. Him being a lawyer gives him a high level of credibility when it comes to the judicial and law enforcement aspects surrounding race. Throughout his book, he talks about and shows examples of the injustices that African Americans must endure both on the streets and in the courtroom. I feel that it is beyond safe to say that Stevenson's argument is that our legal system is, most specifically in the '70s, '80s, and '90s, built to give black Americans an extreme disadvantage in any situation involved with the law. (Disclaimer: I would like to point out the all of my information being presented is from between the years 1970 and 1990 and in no w...
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Post #2 - Charlie's Story - 3/11

    For this post, I’ve decided to make it more of a reflection rather than doing a required response. The most recent chapter I read from my book was a little bit of a side story when it comes to the main focus of the book. It was about Bryan Steveson’s attempt to protect a 14-year-old boy named Charlie from death row. First off, I want to point out that this boy is nearly three years younger than I am right now, placing him in middle school. Secondly, I want to reiterate the fact that this boy, or should I say child, was sentenced to death. Imagine yourself as a little 8th grader, still innocent enough where the harsh reality of the world hasn’t yet sunk in yet. Now picture yourself knowing that within the year, you would be electrocuted to death by a machine that had previously taken the lives of serial-killing adults. I feel that it is fair to say that sentencing a 14-year-old to death, no matter what the crime they committed, is outrageous.     While ...
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Post #1 - Rhetorical Analysis - 3/4

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     Bryan Stevenson, the author of the New York Times bestselling book Just Mercy , was a lawyer before he was a writer. His professionalism and loyalty to the facts come out very clearly in his writing. In the pages I have read so far, Stevenson appeals to logos (logic and proof) the most. For covering a topic that is so personally connected to him, he definitely limits the amount he appeals towards pathos (emotion). This straight-to-the-point style of writing he uses makes his book extremely effective. While I will be covering the argument of his book in more depth during a later post, I feel that is far more than fair to say that even in his introduction to the book he successfully shows us the readers that there is something very wrong with the justice system and that for black Americans, these flaws in the system are that much more catastrophic.      When I say Stevenson sticks to the facts, I mean it. While his views on racial injustice and the Ameri...
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