Essay Example on Such as schizophrenia bipolar disorder or PTSD

Do you know someone with a mental disorder Such as schizophrenia bipolar disorder or PTSD Post traumatic stress disorder Bryan Stevenson the author who wrote Just Mercy published October 21 2014 is a defense attorney and the founder of Equal Justice Initiative EJI which focuses on social justice and helping those who have been victimized by the United States justice system The purpose of this book was to get an audience to see what was happening within the criminal justice system A chapter in this book that caught attention was chapter ten where he explains his first hand experiences with clients on Death Row who have mental illnesses Bryan Stevenson has represented many different clients who have been wrongly accused because of the flaws in the justice system He effectively uses ethos logos and pathos to show the reader the massive flaws within the justice system and desperate need for change He uses his credibility by explaining in the first paragraph that before and after the spread of mental institutions prisons held large masses of people with mental disorders and how there needs to be more done to find the proper facility for the mentally ill especially since the guards working within the prisons are not trained properly to understand the prisoners with mental illnesses it created unprecedented problems In chapter ten Stevenson brings up a client by the name of Avery Jenkins Avery was sentenced to Death Row for brutally stabbing a man who he believed to be a demon When arriving to see Avery Stevenson comes across a truck with racial bumper stickers including one that says If I'd known it was going to be like this I'd have picked my own cotton 192 

This reveals pathos in the book because seeing that made Stevenson feel uneasy and then he ran into a new guard who put him through a strip search and sign in that made no sense to Stevenson since it is not required of lawyers to do he never had to go through that protocol before so he knew this had to do with the guard having an issue with his race When going through this Stevenson remains calm He challenges his audience and he encourages them to try and see the humanity in all people even those that have been sentenced to death He says America's prisons have become warehouses for the mentally ill 186 He says this to get the reader's attention about how these people are being treated Pathos is strongly used in the chapter he uses pathos in his writing by choosing words that can make the reader relate to the emotions felt in this book Throughout this chapter Avery is the main client that Stevenson is concerned about due to his history that no other lawyer seemed to pay attention too Avery suffered through a very harsh past his mother had passed away from a drug overdose his father was murdered and his foster parents abused him and tied him to a tree before hunters had found him after three days of being there 197 

This is how Stevenson noticed how severe Avery s mental illness was this led to Stevenson defending Avery because the previous attorney failed to provide effective information at trial because they did not bring into account of his disabilities Stevenson decided to make a follow up visit and when he arrived he was expecting the guard he ran into the last visit to do the same thing as before but instead the guard apologized to Bryan explain that he was moved from foster homes several times and that made him angry Eventually Avery was granted a new trial and taken off Death Row Even after Avery's trial Bryan was still determined to make it known of what was happening in prisons with mentally ill prisoners Stevenson uses logos by trying to raise awareness to the reader and make them understand what is happening within the justice system Stevenson states Reading the record had shown me that there were people who were willing to ignore the evidence logic and common sense to convict someone 112 He emphasizes the injustice in the system by describing personal cases Stevenson showed that the people that we see as criminals in our society have struggled with abuse mental illness oppression and poverty But most importantly Stevenson shows his audience that all people are broken and there is a strength a power even in understanding brokenness because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us 290 

The author wants to get a message across about those being incarcerated with mental illness and how much bigger of a problem will arise if they are not being treated properly It's not that Stevenson wants people to have sympathy for these ill people but more of an understanding of what they had went through and how the disorder occurred Throughout the book Stevenson uses ethos effectively by giving the reader sources of which he pulled information when writing his book which made it clear to the reader that he did his research instead of giving false information Therefore not all the characters in Stevenson s book are sympathetic and his defense of them does not always seem to be justified Bryan s heart may sometimes get in the way of seeing their crimes objectively especially as a defense lawyer He was taught a vital lesson Each of us is more than the worst thing we 've ever done 17 The author's belief in both the power of redemption and justice underlines his hope in the possibility of change