Jailine Zavala

Dr. Maura M. Tarnoff

English 1A

October 2018

Rhetorical Analysis: Just Mercy

Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and author of “Just Mercy,” Bryan Stevenson

actively seeks justice for those who the criminal justice system often fails. He does this through

his free legal assistance services for the less fortunate and literary works that shed light on the

issue. In his book, “Just Mercy,” Stevenson persuades his audience that the opposite of poverty is

justice rather than wealth. By bringing awareness to this topic, he makes a call for action to fix

the broken criminal justice system in this country. Stevenson is able to achieve this through his

use of rhetorical techniques such as ethos, doxa and shifts in diction.

Throughout the book, Stevenson describes the case of Walter McMillian, an African man

who is wrongfully convicted for the murder of a white woman and sentenced to death. When

describing Walter, Stevenson states, “The more time I spent with Walter, the more I was

persuaded that he was a kind, decent man with a generous nature. He freely acknowledged that

he’d made poor decisions, particularly where women were concerned. By all accounts-- from

friends, family and associates like Sam Crook-- Walter generally tried to do the right thing”

(Stevenson 104). Through this description of Walter, Stevenson is able to humanize him and

highlight an important issue; as a society, we often perceive those deemed criminals as their

worst mistake rather than as people with complex lives and genuine personalities. We fail to

acknowledge that the incarcerated population is human too and that they have loved ones just

like the rest of us. This is one of the many examples of ethos that can be traced in Just Mercy.
Stevenson makes an appeal to character because if the reader has a more positive concept of

Walter’s persona, he or she is more likely to be persuaded by Stevenson’s claim or more likely to

take action. This suggests that if we always had a proper understanding of criminal suspects’

personalities and backgrounds at trials, we’d be able to make legal decisions more fairly and

accurately. In this specific situation, Stevenson is pleading for his audience to actively work

towards humanizing convicted criminals or those on trial.

Another way in which Stevenson makes a call for action by shedding light on the broken

criminal justice system in the United States is through the stories of its victims. He emphasizes

the way in which the system is consistently biased against the underprivileged, most commonly

black men. Through the rhetorical technique of doxa, Stevenson highlights the way in which the

same system can differ so vastly from one group of people to the other. He uses the example of

the shared cultural value of religion or faith. Throughout his writing, Stevenson occasionally

mentions the church. One example of this can be seen when he states, “It was the kind of

wordless testimony of struggle and anguish I heard all the time growing up in a small rural black

church” (Stevenson 92). Although, his references to the church may appear of little significance

at first glance, they reveal information of valuable support to Stevenson’s point upon further

analysis. The reader is able to make the connection that similar to the criminal justice system,

religion serves an immensely different purpose in the lives of the privileged when compared to

the lives of the underprivileged. Often times, through a privileged perspective, religion is viewed

as tool to demonstrate gratefulness or a set of ideas to live by. On the other hand, through an

underprivileged perspective, religion can be utilized as a coping mechanism for the injustices one

is living through or a method with which to hold on to hope that life will get better. One can go

as far as to say that both religion and the criminal justice system can be used to control or even
manipulate the underprivileged population in America. While African Americans are

disproportionately incarcerated, it can almost be said that the sense of hope that religion provides

its members keeps the oppressed away from speaking and acting out against injustices. This idea

can explain why many churches are segregated. If religion served the same purpose across all

backgrounds and experiences, then there would be no reason for there to be such a racial

separation within a religion. In his statement, Stevenson labels his church as a black church

rather than a church of the specific religion to which it belongs. This demonstrates the power that

their black identity holds in the church; it might hold even more power than the religion itself. It

becomes clear that similar to the way in which the criminal justice system favors and protects the

privileged while it often violates the rights of the underprivileged, religious practices can be very

pleasant experiences for the privileged while they can be a cry for mercy for the underprivileged.

By illustrating the shared cultural value of religion, Stevenson is able to highlight injustices

within the criminal justice system and society at large.

Another powerful technique that Stevenson utilizes is shifts in diction. For example, in

the Chapter Broken, he makes a meaningful shift from making “I” statements to “we” statements.

While other techniques serve to shed light on and bring awareness to issues within our criminal

justice system, this technique is a part of Stevenson’s greater goal to make a plea for action to

actively work towards fixing such issues. Throughout his book, he describes the brokenness of

his clients and the system. However, in a passage within this chapter, he connects their

brokenness to his own brokenness. He determines that the his own brokenness is what motivates

him to do the kind of work he does everyday. While making these descriptions on his own

brokenness and motivation, he uses the word “I.” It is clear that his daily duties are exhausting,

but he feels as though they necessary. He then proceeds to change his use of “I” with “we” in his
descriptive statements. Stevenson pulls his audience in and show that we, as his readers, are

broken too. This can be seen in the sentences:

I do what I do because I’m broken too. My years of struggling against inequality,

abusive power, poverty, oppression, and injustice had finally revealed something to me

about myself. Being close to suffering , death, executions, and cruel punishments didn’t

just illuminate the brokenness of others; in a moment of anguish and heartbreak, it also

exposed my own brokenness. You can’t effectively fight abusive power, poverty,

inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it. We are all broken by

something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt.We all share the condition of

brokeness even if our brokenness is not equivalent (Stevenson 289).

This makes a strong implication that that if we experience the same brokenness that inspires him

to actively work towards justice in the system, then we should also feel compelled to actively

work towards justice in the system. With this, the reader cannot help but feel some sort of moral

obligation to join Stevenson on his journey towards genuine humanity in the criminal justice

system.