Question

After reading chapters 1-6 of Just Mercy and considering Stevenson’s use of persuasive appeals to support his claims, write a short response in which you analyze one way that Stevenson uses the appeals. Be sure you identify a claim he is making and one persuasive appeal he uses to support that claim. Provide textual evidence in your response.

Answer 1

In "Just Mercy," one notable claim made by Bryan Stevenson is the pervasive inequality within the criminal justice system. Stevenson employs the persuasive appeal of pathos to evoke emotions and empathy. An example of this is when he describes the case of Walter McMillian, an innocent man on death row. Stevenson narrates McMillian's struggles and the emotional toll of being wrongly convicted, appealing to the reader's sense of compassion and injustice. This emotional connection strengthens Stevenson's argument against the flaws in the legal system.