Atticus Finch Trial Essay

The Introduction

Good afternoon, my name is Noah Oberfeld, and it’s my honor and privilege to represent The State of Maycomb and be the prosecutor for this case. On Aug 26, 1936, the defendant Atticus Finch failed to defend Tom Robinson because of his dereliction of duty. At the end of this case, and after you have heard the evidence, we are sure you will determine that Atticus Finch is guilty of his charge.

The Theme and Theory Members of the jury, this case is about a man that let his dereliction of duty get to him. This happened because Mr. Finch didn’t think he would win the case from the start so he didn’t put full effort into it and just did the case so his reputation would stay good. These events led to Tom Robinson losing his case

The first piece of evidence is that Scout asked Mr. Finch if they were going to win the case and he said “no honey” (Lee 100). Mr. Finch from the beginning thought he wouldn’t win the case. Now tell me why would the lawyer who is defending someone think that they weren’t going to win? The next piece of evidence is that Atticus Finch never put Link Deas on the witness stand to testify for Tom (Lee 255). Link Deas was Tom’s boss and Mr. Deas could have told them about how Tom is a hard-working man. Link Deas could have also told them what Tom was doing the day that the alleged crime happened. The third piece of evidence is Mr. Finch should have had Tom show more that his arm didn’t work. Mr. Finch knew that “Mr. Robinson couldn’t have punched Mayella” (Lee 253). So, why would he not show that there was no way that Tom could have punched the left side of her face? Another piece of evidence is that he should've asked better questions to Bob and Mayella Ewell because both of their stories were different. Mayella said “papa was in the room standing over me hollerin' who done it, who done it?” (Lee 242) and Mr. Ewell said “that he saw Tom beating Mayella” (Lee 321). So, that shows that they were lying about what happened. The next piece of evidence is that Mr. Finch should have also brought Hellen Robinson to the stand. Hellen is Tom’s wife and she would’ve known what he would have done that day. She would have

But, that is completely wrong because he could have had Tom try to do something with his arm. Mr. Finch only had him talk about his arm and instead show that he can’t use his arm. The defense may also that did the best he could with what he had. But, Tom had a few other witnesses that he could have brought to the stand. That would have let the Jury understand more of what type of person Tom was and that he is a very loving husband and father. They would have also helped with telling when they saw and talked to Mr. Robinson that day. The defense also might say that Atticus is a hard-working person. But, in this case, Mr. Finch could have worked so much harder to defend Tom Robinson and he had so much more people and evidence that would have helped Tom be not guilty instead of