Foundations
This 1740 South Carolina law created a legal framework for controlling enslaved people and restricting their rights and movement.
South Carolina Slave Codes of 1740
In a criminal case, this person is accused of committing a crime.
Defendant
According to Bryan Stevenson, this is the opposite of wealth.
Justice
This man was accused of murdering Ronda Morrison and became the central case of Chapters 1 and 3 of Just Mercy.
Walter McMillian
What does EJI stand for?
Equal Justice Initiative
This 1850 federal law required authorities to return escaped enslaved people to slavery, even when they had reached free states.
Fugitive Slave Act
This person represents the government and attempts to prove that the defendant committed the crime.
Prosecutor
Stevenson argues that each person is more than this.
The worst thing they have ever done
This man provided the key accusation against Walter McMillian, despite serious problems with his credibility and testimony.
Ralph Myers
Name one issue that the Equal Justice Initiative works on or seeks to address.
Criminal justice reform, death penalty, children in adult prisons, wrongful convictions, excessive punishment, prison conditions, racial terror lynchings, or community remembrance projects.
This constitutional amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime.
13th Amendment
In the adversary system, the two sides present competing arguments and evidence before this neutral decision-maker, who determines questions of law.
Judge
Stevenson repeatedly argues that we need both justice and this quality of compassion or forgiveness.
Mercy
Why was the racial composition of Walter McMillian's jury such an important issue in his case?
Racially discriminatory jury selection was a major concern. Prosecutors could use peremptory strikes to remove Black prospective jurors, resulting in all-white or nearly all-white juries.
EJI works on wrongful convictions. Why are wrongful convictions especially serious in death penalty cases?
Because an innocent person could be executed. Stevenson notes that innocent people have been sentenced to death and nearly executed.
After the Civil War, Southern states passed these laws that restricted the freedom and rights of formerly enslaved people and helped maintain racial control.
Black Codes
A person who saw, heard, or otherwise has relevant knowledge about an event and provides information during a trial is called this.
Witness
Stevenson describes his grandmother telling him that you cannot understand most important things from a distance. What idea does he connect to this lesson in Just Mercy?
Proximity. Getting close to people who are condemned, incarcerated, marginalized, or otherwise experiencing injustice allows us to understand their humanity and the systems affecting them.
Herbert Richardson was sentenced to death despite the fact that his defense lawyer presented almost no evidence about his background, military service, or trauma. What does this suggest about the quality of his legal representation?
It suggests that Richardson received inadequate or poor legal representation. His lawyer presented little meaningful evidence about his background or circumstances.
In Just Mercy, Stevenson describes EJI providing legal services to people on death row. Why was this work necessary according to the experiences described in the book?
Many condemned people lacked adequate legal assistance, while the system could be biased, unreliable, or unfair. Stevenson and Eva Ansley created a nonprofit legal center to provide quality legal services to condemned people on death row.
This post-Civil War system allowed incarcerated people, disproportionately Black Americans, to be leased to private individuals or companies for labor. Explain how this system demonstrates a connection between slavery and later systems of punishment.
Convict leasing. It allowed states and private companies to exploit incarcerated labor, creating a system of racialized forced labor after slavery was abolished.
Imagine a prosecutor presents a witness whose testimony conflicts with physical evidence and with several other witnesses. A jury must decide whether the defendant is guilty. Identify two different parts of the criminal trial process that would be involved in evaluating this situation and explain their roles.
Answers could include evidence, witnesses, jury, prosecutor, defendant, judge, or the adversary system. Students should accurately explain how the selected parts of the trial process would be involved.
Stevenson writes that the “true measure” of a society cannot be determined by how it treats the powerful. According to his argument, who should we look at instead, and why?
We should look at how society treats the poor, disfavored, accused, incarcerated, and condemned. Stevenson argues that how a society treats people with the least power reveals its commitment to justice, fairness, equality, and the rule of law.
Compare the McMillian and Richardson cases. Identify one important similarity in the way the criminal justice system treated them and explain how Stevenson uses these cases to challenge assumptions about fairness and justice.
Strong answers could identify racial bias, inadequate legal representation, unreliable evidence, excessive punishment, or a lack of meaningful consideration of the defendants' circumstances.
EJI's work addresses issues including wrongful convictions, excessive punishment, racial terror, prison conditions, and the treatment of children in the criminal justice system. What larger idea connects these seemingly different issues? Explain.
They all involve questions about power, punishment, inequality, and who receives justice. They raise questions about whether the criminal justice system treats people fairly and humanely, particularly people with less power.