My Culture Source: Just Mercy
Released on: January 10th 2020
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
The Movie Just Mercy revolves around the real life case of Walter McMillian which took place in 1986. Walter McMillian was arrested and placed on death row for murder of a young girl without proper evidence or conviction. The real reason Walter McMillian was arrested was not because he committed a crime, but because of the color of his skin. Throughout McMillians trial he explains to his new lawyer, that when he was first taken into custody it was clear that the lawyer the state provided, did not do everything in his power to prove McMillians innocence. Throughout the movie it’s clear that the justice system didn’t treat Walter McMillian fairly, they barely treated him as a person. Not only was he treated poorly in the justice system but so was his lawyer, who was also a person of color. When McMillians lawyer would visit him he received degrading comments by the officers. The officers had also made it a point to have him be strip checked, despite lawyers not needing to go through that. Once the council had been made aware that Walter McMillian was wrongfully convicted, they refused to release him from death row. They believed there was no point and that the court had made its decisions and it should stay the way it is to give people peace of mind. It wasn’t until the very end that Walter McMillian was finally released and reunited with his family. I feel like this movie accurately portrayed how our legal system treats black people of color. Although there is a major time gap between the original case and now, there are still the same problems just disguised. Throughout the years more cases have come into light of police arresting citizens for minor crimes or misidentifying them because of the color of their skin.Our judicial system does not properly recognize black people of color and their cases are often brushed off and they do not receive the help that would normally be given to a person of a lighter skin tone.
