Semester Two: Unit One Exam Review (Just Mercy, Chapter 8)

What are two CENTRAL ideas stated in chapter 8 of Just Mercy?

• Criminally accused adult and brutally remorseless children facing trial are entitled to treatment and services.

• Ending poverty and improving the juvenile judicial system proves that “no person is seen as at a disadvantage will ever serve time in jail.

• Defendants who are deemed incompetent and have experience horrific trauma cannot be tried in adversarial criminal proceedings.

• Age mental, illness, poverty, and abuse have everything to do with sentencing an individual to the death penalty or a life of imprisonment without parole.

Which part of chapter 8 MOST CLEARLY supports the idea that swift action is needed?

• Section 1: Trina, fourteen-year-old African American forced to be tried as an adult for 2^nd degree murder regardless of her mental incompetency; life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

• Section 2: Ian, a thirteen-year-old Hispanic charged with armed robbery and attempted homicide; spent eighteen years in solitary confinement; life imprisonment without parole.

• Section 3: Antonio, a fourteen-year-old Latino condemned to die in prison for aggravated kidnapping and attempted murder [due to a joint trial with a twenty-seven-year-old co-defendant] became the youngest person in the United States in which no one was physically injured.

• Section 4: George, a fourteen-year-old African American convicted of rape and murder by an all-white jury that deliberated for ten minutes before sentencing him to be executed within three months after trial ended

In chapter 8 how does Stevenson connect the reason for his visit to a maximum-security prison in California to his responsibilities as a lawyer?

• He suggests that most people in the United States have not experienced poverty first-hand, but those that have are vulnerable to adult prosecution and punishment .

• He explains that the “black and brown” adults and children living in poverty does not mean that crime is their ultimate goal.

• He implies that poverty is more widespread in particular states, and by visiting those states he can envision more productive ways to help combating it.

• He indicates that it is to draw attention to the plight of the impoverished children in the United States who had been sentenced to die in prison.

In chapter 8, what does Stevenson suggest when he says it is “The Stinney execution was horrific and heartbreaking, but it reflected the racial politics of the South more than the way children accused of crimes were generally treated. It was an example of how policies and norms once directed exclusively at controlling and punishing the black population have filtered their way into our general criminal justice system.?“

• “Black and brown” children have sentencing in the south based on the result of Racial Politics.

• “Black and brown” children are equally treated.

• “Black and brown” children are punished in the juvenile judicial system based on the norms trickled from society.in relation to poverty

• “Black and brown” children are sentenced to executions far more than others seeming to be inviting and exhilarating.

How does the structure of Chapter 8 with the story of “Trina” contribute to Stevenson’s argument?

• It compares children to adults suggesting both should be tried and sentenced equally.

• It identifies specific problems in the juvenile judicial system and solutions Stevenson believes must be addressed.

• It gives in chronological order immediate action-steps necessary to ensure success in the juvenile judicial system.

• It tries to convince and persuade the reader that Stevenson's thoughts of reforming the juvenile justice system can be easily implemented.

Which sentence from the text implies that children may not be equipped for prosecution and sentencing through the judicial system?

• If a child were thirteen or fourteen when the crime was committed the adult system would intervene on unusually high-profile cases if committed by a black child against a white person.

• The appointed lawyer discouraged Ian to plead guilty, assuring him that he would be sentenced to fifteen years in prison, not realizing that two of the charges against him were punishable with sentences of life imprisonment without parole.

• It is a Society where no child will experience domestic violence, and no child will go unprotected.

• He [the Judge] could consider Trina’s age, mental illness, poverty, the abuse she had suffered, or the tragic circumstances surrounding the fire.

Which statement most accurately describes two central ideas of Stevenson’s belief of children and the juvenile justice system?

• Defendants who are deemed incompetent and have experience horrific trauma should not be tried in awkward criminal proceedings.

• Age mental, illness, poverty, and abuse have everything to do with sentencing an individual to the death penalty or a life of imprisonment without parole.

• Children facing prosecution and sentencing are entitled to treatment and services when deemed incompetent.

• Ending poverty and improving the juvenile judicial system proves that “no person is seen as at a disadvantage will ever serve time in jail.

Which predicament does Stevenson define as elements of “plight of children in the United States“? Select THREE that apply.

• A. poverty

• A. mental and intellectual improvements

• A. trauma

• A. homelessness

• A. wealth

How does Stevenson use a reference to “’This is the saddest case I have ever seen,’ he [Judge Reed] wrote” in page, 1st paragraphs to develop his argument?

• The fact that the judge could take the absence of intent into consideration during sentencing.

• The fact that the judge could take age, mental illness, poverty, the abuse suffered or tragic circumstances.

• That fact that the judge in Pennsylvania could not be inflexible sentencing laws inflexible.

• That fact that the judge could take into consideration when a juvenile is being prosecute and imprisoned for life without probation or the death penalty.

In Chapter 8, “All God’s Children” on the juvenile justice system, what are TWO main arguments that Stevenson’s makes?

• In order to demand equal rights for juveniles within society, people should take a stand for all regardless to treatment.

• In order to defend the rights of juveniles, society must go to battle for their rights.

• The rights of juveniles are always protected by society.

• In an equal society, “black and brown” children should be provided all of the same rights as children of non-color.