just mercy chapter 4 :.)

How do Alabama's partisan elections of its judges impact sentencing? What emotion can we infer this agitates?

Fear—judicial candidates appeal to voters by trying to be seen as tough on crime. They stoke fear of crime and criminals in voters.

How is Herbert Richardson, one of the author's death row clients, representative of the struggle of many combat veterans?

Richardson had served in Vietnam. He, like many combat veterans, experienced trauma that made it difficult to reintegrate into civilian society. In the mid-80s,almost a fifth of inmates were veterans (74-75).

How is the Supreme Court case Atkins vs. Virginia relevant to the author's legal advocacy?

This case prohibits executing people with intellectual disabilities. Many of the inmates the author works with have such disabilities (71).

What was the above organization eventually named?

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) (68).

How does the above attitude go against the aims of this book?

The author wants the readers to see those on trial and convicted as human, who, just like anyone else, have stories, complexities, challenges, mitigating life factors, etc. He wants people to be seen as more than the crimes they are accused of and/or committed. He argues that we all need mercy.

On the evening of his execution, Richardson reflects on how people had been offering to help him or get him things all day. What irony about this does he identify?

Throughout his life he was in desperate need of help, but he didn't receive it. Now, when it's too late to save him, everyone wants to help him (89).

Despite being overwhelmed with cases, the author and his nonprofit take on the case of Michael Lindsey, whose execution date was impending. What is odd about the sentencing in this case?

The jury had not actually sentenced him to death, but rather, they had sentenced him to life in prison. The judge overrode this and sentenced him to death (69-70).

The night of Richardson's execution, the prison played the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross" at his request. Why is this a fitting song and the cross a fitting metaphor?

The song is often played at somber occasions. The cross is a long-standing metaphor for struggle and burden; an "old rugged cross" would be a burden one had carried for a long time. This likely felt significant to Richardson who had had a difficult life culminating in the horrors of death row and execution (87).

As he reflects on the execution, the author argues we're comfortable with the death penalty because we think it can be carried out in a way "that doesn't implicate our humanity" (90-91). How does the atmosphere pervading Richardson's execution refute this?

There is a pervasive sense of sadness and shame amongst everyone. Everyone, even those associated with the prison and the "system", seemed to feel the wrongness of what was going to happen.

1.) What obstacles did Eva Ansley and the author encounter when they opened their nonprofit law center serving Alabama death row inmates?

They lost sources of funding and office space and had difficulty recruiting lawyers (67).