Writing Resources
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
