Just Mercy, 2019

May, 2023 | JENSI JAVIER CABRERA

Just Mercy is a film about Capital Punishment that came out in 2021. The story consists of a young lawyer Bryan Stevenson who graduated from Harvard and moved to Alabama to represent the wrongly condemned. One of his first cases was Walter McMillian who was sentenced to the death penalty after "murdering" a young girl from the town. Walter claims he is innocent and after looking at hard evidence, Bryan agreed. Bryan represented Walter and many of his inmates but during his journey is shown racism and many difficulties encountered since his decision to represent the wrongly accused.  

What makes humans so special is that every one of them has a brain, meaning they all have their own beliefs one way or the other. Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724, in Prussia and is one of the most influential political philosophers of his time. He is the founder of Kantian ethics which in his eyes are a set of universal moral principles that apply to all human beings. Morals are very significant to society because a lot of the times people do their actions based on their morals. 

Kant believed that these moral principles applied to the whole world without anyone being excluded from it. It all focuses on the imperatives which he states, “All imperatives command either hypothetically or categorically. Hypothetical imperatives declare a possible action to be practically necessary as a means to the attainment of something else that one wants (or that one may want). A categorical imperative would be one that represented an action as itself objectively necessary, without regard to any further end” (Kant). The difference between a Categorical Imperative and Hypothetical Imperative is the goal in mind. Hypothetical Imperative focuses on obtaining what a person wants and acting accordingly to it. Categorical imperatives are little different because it applies to anyone no matter what goal you have in mind.  They are seen as “unconditional” and should not be broken. 

I can relate this to the Just Mercy because how the death penalty was viewed in the movie. Kant favored the death penalty if the criminal had murdered someone, h thought that if you murder someone you opened the door to being murdured yourself and therefore retributive justice is considered fair. Not every theory favors capital punishment, so it was very surprising to find out that this one supports it. I can also see how this applies to hypothetical imperatives because if you don’t want to get killed by the government you should not kill anyone or commit any crime. One may wonder if the permissibility of Capital Punishment goes against the categorical imperative, since no one should kill anyone in general because it should never be broken.

Consequences are important when weighing if a person should do something or not. A lot of people see themselves not doing something because the consequence is bigger than the reward. That is one of the focuses when it comes to utilitarianism. When thinking of utilitarianism, two philosophers come into mind. John Stuart Mill who was born on May 20, 1806, in London was considered to be one of the most influential thinkers in history. The other philosopher is Jeremy Bentham who was born on February 15, 1748, also in in London. Bentham just like Mill was seen as an important philosopher in history. 

Mill states utilitarianism as, “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals "utility" or the" greatest happiness principle" holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure. (Mill).” This demonstrates that happiness is the thing which promotes us to do our actions. It is not happiness exactly but more of the pleasure that we get from doing the action. The Utilitarian view focuses on what brings the person joy and promoting that happiness while avoiding all the bad things. Mill mentions something very important in the text which most people do not make this comparison. He states, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides. (Mill)”. This is a very significant quote because pleasure is viewed depending on the way you are looking at it. This also shows how different the term is to Kantian Ethics. 

Unlike Kant, Bentham and Mill believed you should always go with the choice which produced the happiest outcome. Ethical Hedonism is mentioned in Utilitarianism as a basis of the theory. On how people should not only account of their pain & pleasure but also those around them because it is respectful. Jeremy Bentham was the original founder for Utilitarianism which correlated with Mill's. The difference between Bentham and Mill is that Bentham, “treats all forms of happiness as equal, whereas Mill argues that intellectual and moral pleasures (Higher pleasures) are superior to more physical forms of pleasure (lower pleasures) (Bizarro).” 

It is interesting how each of them argued for the same theory, yet they still had their own differences in how to explain it. This theory relates to the film because Bentham was Anti-capital punishment. Bentham  believed it would increase the suffering of the criminal. Utilitarians believe that the death penalty can only be justified if that punishment promotes the best happiness for society. For example, if it may take away the suffering from the community the death penalty might be the best choice. Just like in the film where the community wanted Walter to die because it would help them heal. No one questioned it but his family because they thought he had murdered the woman. Utilitarians may agree with the death penalty in this instance because the community agreed with the situation but in the eyes of Bryan and his supporters, they would have disagreed. Bentham however thought that over all the death penalty brings more misery than happiness and does not help prevent crimes, therefore it should not prevail.