The issue of criminal justice reform is one of the most pressing of our time. Recently, media representation of falsely accused have brought the issue of the faults of the system into the public sphere. Just Mercy tells a very personal narrative of Walter McMillian, but the abuses of corrupt power featured in his case are tells of a massive systemic problem. The criminal justice system is rotted from the inside out, starting with its foundations in white supremacy. In the past summer alone, public awareness of the evils at work in our criminal justice system has inspired an educational movement that we have to take advantage of and inspire real change. We can use the personal stories of Walter McMillian, the Central Park Five, and many others as rallying points for the movement. There is so much work to be done to rebuild- and it begins with acknowledging the failures and supporting the groups working to resolve them.
One organization worth supporting (or even just following their cases) is the Innocence Project. They pursue cases of the wrongfully accused, often getting freedom for people that have been serving lifetime sentences- when their only crime was being Black in a system that further brutalizes the oppressed. The Innocence Project website often has profiles of their clients- I highly recommend looking into some of the ridiculous injustices people still face to this day.
I also believe this movie tells a story of injustice. The movie highlights the problems that stem from some of the highest law enforcers. I appreciate the piece about the innocence project in this post. I plan on looking deeper into this, because it seems to provide additional context to this movie that will prove helpful in my analysis on the topic.