Frida Arias Rivera

CTW1

CRL: Just Mercy 5-8

Bryan Stevenson uses ethos and logos to communicate his message about the justice

system and the life-threatening issues it can cause. Poor people and minorities are at a consistent

disadvantage in the system; the reason being racial bias/discrimination and lack of support given

to those communities. Stevenson focuses on being the change and calling out the cycle of

injustice among the justice system, especially people who are wrongly convicted of crimes. He

motivates the reader to take action on those injustices. Stevenson uses the appeal to pathos to

connect to the reader's emotions by sharing the stories of the clients and families he has chosen

to help and support. The story that impacted me the most in this reading was Charlie's story on

pages 117-120. Stevenson shares the night leading up to Charlie's arrest. Though it was only one

night of Charlie's life, so much detail about the type of person Charlie is that as a reader, I was

able to sympathize heavily with Charlie. Those three pages said so much about the kind of life

Charlie live that as a reader, I was hurt and angry when I got to the part where Charlie breaks

down due to the experiences he’s had in his three days in jail. This story made me truly feel for

Charlie and made me realize the severity of the problem that Stevenson presents. The reading is

more empathetic and understanding of Charlie because we see a different side of him which

cause frustration when reading about how the judge who convicted him sees him.

The appeal to logos is also used to show the consistent injustices happening in

courtrooms. Throughout the book, Stevenson presents different court cases that are related to the

case that he is working on. He primarily refers to these court cases to predict the outcome of the

case he is working on and to show how the law has developed over time. The facts of each case
show the audience the time Stevenson has invested in his cases and how he works for the best

outcome for his clients. He works on improving from past injustices to help his cases. Stevenson

also presents incarceration statistics throughout the book to deepen the readers understanding of

the injustices that happen daily. To show how the prejudice within the justice system, Stevenson

shares that “65 percent of all homicide victims [in Alabama] were black, [but] nearly 80 percent

of people on death row were there for crimes against victims who were white” (142). In other

words, crimes against a white person are taken more seriously and usually treated harsher if the

person committing the crime is black. The racial bias in the courts causes the reader to think

about the actual progression we have made since the segregation era and how this plays a role in

our daily lives.