Analysis Of The Emmett Till Trial

In the weeks after the hate crime, the kidnapping and murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam began. At the time, blacks and women were rejected from serving jury duty, the two men were tried before an all-white male jury (The Murder of Emmett Till.). Despite the overwhelming amounts of evidence and witness reports, the panel of jurors acquitted Bryant and Milam of all charges after a little over an hour of deliberation. Emmett Till’s murder had then become a source of total outrage across the country. Instead of murdering a young boy, who had his entire future ahead of him, the individuals involved could have easily called authorities and had the right amount of justice be served. Therefore, by taking authority into their own hands, they

Robinson is on trial for the rape of a young white woman named Mayella Ewell. In relation with the Emmett Till case, Robinson was set to be tried in front of an all-white, all-male jury. The truth behind the trial is that it was all a cover up for Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father who beat her up when he saw her with Tom. Tom is considered very courteous, treats everyone with respect, and strives on doing the right thing (Lee). Atticus’s cross-examination of Bob Ewell is very revealing when he asks Mr. Ewell to write his name. Unlike Tom, whose left hand was caught in a cotton gin when he was younger, Mr. Ewell has two perfectly good hands capable of strangling a woman. Without a doubt, Tom Robinson was innocent of this crime, but the jury was not convinced. They convicted Tom of the crime and he was sentenced to jail time (Lee). While awaiting a retrial, Tom felt as though there was no way he was going to ever be free again due to the extreme racism in Maycomb at the time. He took a leap of faith and when he had the opportunity he ran away from cops. Without even thinking twice, the police shot Robinson a gruesome seventeen times (Lee). Rather than simply injuring Robinson and arresting him the officer decided to take authority into his own hands and use excessive amounts of lethal force. The officers easily could have just shot Robinson once stunning him and preventing him

One in particular that represents racial profiling is the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. He was your typical high school student who lived in Miami Gardens, Florida with his mother. While on a ten-day suspension for a discovery of drug residue in Martin’s backpack he was spending time with his father in Stanford, Florida. In response to an increase of robberies and burglaries, the residents of the community established a Neighborhood Watch in September 2011 (What Happened the Night Trayvon Martin Died). George Zimmerman, one of the residents, was selected as the programs coordinator and specifically was in charge of making sure the neighborhood was safe. Zimmerman normally patrolled the streets and was licensed to carry a firearm. From August 2011 to February 2012, Zimmerman had called police several times to state he had seen individuals whom he had accused as being suspicious. All of the reported figures were black males. On the evening of February 26th, Zimmerman called police in report of a “suspicious person” in the neighborhood (What Happened the Night Trayvon Martin Died). He was instructed by law enforcement not to get out of his car or approach the person. Moments later, neighbors report hearing gunfire and screaming. Zimmerman acknowledges that he shot Martin, claiming it was in self-defense. In a police report, officers conclude that Zimmerman was