Joshua Huizar

10/1/18

CRL – Just Mercy

Racism continues to plague our country, especially in our justice system. This has led to

the mass incarceration of many innocent people, some of which are put on death row. Author and

lawyer Bryan Stevenson brings attention to this problem in his book “Just Mercy”, which tells

his story of helping prisoners on death row.

In Chapter 8, Stevenson’s main purpose is to show the problems in the justice system

when it comes to racial minorities and minors. He tells the stories of three teenagers, all racial

minorities, that were sentenced to life in prison for the crimes they had committed, even though

those same crimes would warrant a vastly decreased sentence if they were adults. He consistently

uses pathos when retelling these stories to make the audience feel more sympathetic towards

minors that have been given unusually harsh punishments in the justice system.

One of the most effective uses of pathos is when telling the story of Trina Garnett, who

was sent to jail at the age of fourteen for accidentally setting a house on fire, killing two boys.

Stevenson starts by talking about Trina’s horrifying upbringing, including living in a town with

“extraordinarily high rates of poverty, crime, and unemployment … intersected with the worst-

ranked public school system among Pennsylvania’s 501 districts”, constant abuse towards her

mother and siblings from her father, and living on the streets for years after running away from

home. All of this “exacerbated Trina’s emotional and mental health problems”, leaving her

traumatized and nonfunctional after the accidental arson. By telling her backstory before getting

to her crime, Stevenson makes the audience deeply sympathize with all of her hardships and
events leading up to her incarceration. When he gets to her sentencing and life in prison, we only

feel sorry for her and other people in similar positions. He even includes words from the judge,

who said “This is the saddest case I’ve ever seen”, since that was the only sentence he was

allowed to give for the crime.

Understanding his use of pathos is instrumental in understanding the book as a whole,

since it is filled with stories that make the reader sad and angry at how our justice system

allowed these kinds of things to happen.