Now writing this blog post, I'm finished just about halfway through Just Mercy. And although there haven't been any big legal surprises yet (in Walter's favor), these last few chapters have still been really interesting. In the first few chapters, Stevenson just focused on Walter's case. But in what I've just been reading, Stevenson really comes face to face with underlying issues of racism and poverty in Walter's community.
This is really important to Just Mercy's plot progression. Now knowing a little bit about Walter's case, Stevenson's choice to look a little more closely at racism at its heart helps us understand what steps Stevenson needs to take to secure Walter's freedom.
For the whole book now, we haven't really seen or learned much about Walter and his past. This changes in Chapter five, when Stevenson visits Walter's family and talks about his case.
The McMillan's are very poor. They are a big family and their house is very dilapidated. Yet, when Stevenson arrives, the McMillian's are very kind and appreciative, with Mrs. McMillian even offering to make Stevenson dinner.
I pulled into the driveway and was surprised at the profound disrepair; this was a poor family's home. The front porch was propped on three cinder blocks piled precariously beneath wood flooring that showed signs of rot. The blue window panes were in desperate need of paint, and a makeshift set of stairs that didn't connect to the structure was the only access to the home (94).
The whole family is a victim of poverty and racism.
What caught my eye, though was something we learn later: they are the family of someone on death row and yet they really don't know what's happening to Walter. This really is saying something about Walter's community. Racism has everything to do with Walter's court case. It affects his ruling, but it also affects his presence in the community, and who is backing him up. With an all-white jury and white judges, and a division between white and black communities, Walter's family is cut out of the picture. And with a poor background, they just don't have the same abilities to support Walter.
It also supports the idea that racism and discrimination are a trap that even over several generations, you can't get out of. The American Dream isn't very real for Walter's family -- all of whom are poor, uneducated, and can't escape their reality.
What caught my eye, though was something we learn later: they are the family of someone on death row and yet they really don't know what's happening to Walter. This really is saying something about Walter's community. Racism has everything to do with Walter's court case. It affects his ruling, but it also affects his presence in the community, and who is backing him up. With an all-white jury and white judges, and a division between white and black communities, Walter's family is cut out of the picture. And with a poor background, they just don't have the same abilities to support Walter.
It also supports the idea that racism and discrimination are a trap that even over several generations, you can't get out of. The American Dream isn't very real for Walter's family -- all of whom are poor, uneducated, and can't escape their reality.
Another important character I just read in the next chapter was Charlie. Although he is only 100 pounds, five feet tall, and fourteen years old, Charlie is charged as an adult for shooting his stepfather. We later learn Charlie shoots and kills his stepfather in self-defense. But being black, Charlie is nevertheless sent to an adult prison where he is assaulted. Charlie means no harm - but the legal system he is in uses every excuse it has to put him up to the maximum sentence for a minimum sentence crime - because of his background: his race. Like we saw in Walter's case - changing a life sentence ruling to a death row punishment is not too difficult. With black suspects, like Charlie, being in the prison system means being exposed to the worst possible punishments.
This boy seemed way too short, way too thin, and way too scared to be fourteen. I looked at the jailer, who seemed to share my surprise at how small and terrified the child appeared. I asked them to remove the handcuffs. Sometimes in jails like this, the guards resit uncuffing clients, arguing that it's not the same or permitted to the handcuffs of a suspect during a legal visit. They worry that if a person gets upset or becomes violet, being uncuffed will make him or her harder to subdue (121).
Charlie's case makes an interesting argument against capital punishment and life sentences. Is it right to even have punishments like a life sentence? Does anybody really deserve this? In cases like Charlie's court decisions can be so complex. What is the point of a life sentence for someone who is still learning how to behave, and someone that can still learn? It seems like the life sentence emerges in Charlies and in Walter's case as an easy way to put troublesome people away - submerging them into a never-ending legal process, or getting rid of them nevertheless.
One third character Stevenson dives deep into in this reading is Ralph Myers. Although Ralph is white, he too is easily manipulated by a prison system that is trying to control him. He is poor, white and serves as a pawn for a corrupt legal system to indite Walter. In an interview with Stevenson, Ralph admits to being coerced into accusing Walter of being involved in the murder. Myers lives in the same reality of Charlie and Walter. They are all below the system - all for various reasons and deserve fair rulings.
Works Cited
One third character Stevenson dives deep into in this reading is Ralph Myers. Although Ralph is white, he too is easily manipulated by a prison system that is trying to control him. He is poor, white and serves as a pawn for a corrupt legal system to indite Walter. In an interview with Stevenson, Ralph admits to being coerced into accusing Walter of being involved in the murder. Myers lives in the same reality of Charlie and Walter. They are all below the system - all for various reasons and deserve fair rulings.
Works Cited
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. First edition.
New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2014.
Hi Theo! This is a very well written post and is so interesting to read. I totally agree with the surprise that came about when Stevenson visited Walter's families home to find it to be less than average! The quote you used was also extremely effective with your argument.
ReplyDeleteWhen you pointed out that you were surprised that a family on death row could know as little as they did, I also related this to the point in the book when Stevenson met Vickie Pittman's aunts, who expressed the same amount of concern. They mentioned on page 140, that they were extremely underwhelmed with the way that they were treated by the government and the lack of information they were getting.
As well as your second point about how Charlie, I completely agree. I also noticed that while I was reading, during court, Charlie was being spoken of by adults as if he was one and someone who had complete understanding of what his actions were. Do you think that if those within court had remembered that Charlie was a child, that he would have had a different outcome?
Can't wait to keep reading this with you!
Hi Theodore,
ReplyDeleteIt is very sad to see how the criminal justice system takes advantage of race and poverty. It uses wealth and power to play around with people as if they aren't even humans. Walter's situation as well as their manipulation of Ralph Myers makes me wonder what they are hiding. Are they playing with people because they like the sense of power it gives them, are they hiding something, or both? Maybe one of the prison system's own people, a white person, murdered Ronda Morrison. But since they are white, they have the ability to hide it and create a new story to make it seem like it was never them. There are people out there that knew that the whole Walter McMillian story was false and there was a murderer running around out there on the loose. Yet somehow putting an innocent black man behind bars and onto death row was more important than finding the actual murderer.
Hi Emma,
DeleteI don't know if the intention was from the start was to put another black man behind bars. I think more than anything, the town was angry and tried to find a scapegoat to pin recent problems on that would be believable. But you are totally right - it is crazy how even with witness the court system is able to find a way to pin Walter. In a sense, I feel like this is the fault of even some rules of the court. How is this possible that there are so many loopholes? I love your idea also of it not mattering who the real murderer was. This is really sad - it exposes so many faults with the judges and police system in Walter's town. How is it possible that real judges do not want to pursue justice?
You've raised some good points about the reading. Remember to make it clear what aspect of the assignment you're focusing on in each section.
ReplyDelete