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Examples Of Unjust Legal System In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill A Mockingbird Essay
Throughout the course of history, there has always been racial conflict within the United
States. Even after slavery had ended, racial tension remained. This conflict was mainly due to the fact that there were so many unequal institutions present. One of these would be the unjust legal system. African Americans in the 1900’s were never awarded a fair court trial. The main reason for this was due to the selection of the “jury of peers.” Unfortunately the jury selected did not include any African Americans and it only consisted of white people. This was unjust because African Americans were already assumed to be guilty based solely on the color of their skin. During …show more content…

A very substantial one being, deciding the verdict of Emmett Till's trial. Emmett was without a doubt murdered, and there was clear evidence that two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam had committed the crime. Surprisingly these men were found not guilty, even though the jury was shown clear evidence that proved their guilt. One might wonder how an illogical conviction is even possible. During this time period juries were composed of all white men which meant that the African American race was not represented. Black men and women who testified in front of an all white jury historically stood no chance, which is why uniform juries are proof of how the legal system is unequal, and black individuals are discriminated …show more content…

However, they were not the only two that demonstrate how blacks all alike were discriminated against. Harper Lee wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, where a fictional court case took place after Tom Robinson, a black man, was falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. After standing up and proving he could not have beat her and raped her because his left arm was was a foot shorter than his right, he was still convicted because the jury was composed of all white men. After being named guilty, Tom was sent to prison, and later shot by guards after trying to escape his unjust

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The Unbalanced Law Being a black man in trouble with the law during the era of To Kill a Mockingbird is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. During the 1930’s when the book took place racism was the cultural normality. The definition of racism is to believe one race is superior to another's often resulting in discrimination. In the book we see racism displayed in a court case that’s basis is a white mans word verses a black mans word. Throughout the trail in To Kill a Mockingbird the main characters each have a strong but different way in response the the racism displayed in the trail and in their daily lives.

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242 Words | 1 Pages

Just because they were black, they were found guilty. Also, everyone on the jury was white. That is prolly why they were found guilty. If someone has a different skin color doesn't mean they are different. As you can see Plessy vs Ferguson was a very unfair case of Plessy.

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641 Words | 3 Pages

The Trial of Tom Robinson In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, racism is explored, and you are able to consider every factor in Tom Robinson’s trial. Tom Robinson, a black male, was accused of raping a white woman in the small county of Maycomb, Alabama. The woman was he was accused of raping is named Mayella Ewell.

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Tom Robinson would have lived if it were not for the citizens of Maycomb. This situation is shown by the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is set in the 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama. Tom was charged with raping a 19-year-old woman named Mayella Ewell. Through this trial, the different social standings of white and colored people make themselves known. Tom was given an unfair trial simply due to people’s beliefs that they are unwilling to change.

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Tom Robinson’s Trail In To Kill a Mocking bird by Harper Lee, Mayella accused Tom Robinson of rape. They go to trial but ran into some problems. I believe Tom Robinson did not get a fair trial. Although Tom got his time to talk, everybody is still against him because of his race.

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905 Words | 4 Pages

The Mistreatment of Tom Robinson Tom Robinson was a falsy accused man, all because of the community's biased opinion. Tom Robinson’s court case was shown in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Tom Robinson, was accused of beating and raping Mayella Ewell. Since the town of Maycomb thinks all African Americans are harmful, it is nearly impossible for him to win this court case. Even though the evidence did not line up to where it could not possibly be Tom, he still lost.

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This was due to the observation that the jury for the Simpson case was mostly black men and women. There were twelve jurors in the case, and nine were of black race, two were white, and one was hispanic. In fact, one of the Jury members in the Simpson case, Carrie Bess, claimed in the documentary The People Vs. OJ Simpson , that she was of 90 percent of the jurors plotting for revenge from the King verdict. Bess admitted to stating Simpson was not guilty in his trial due to the Rodney King verdict in an interview for the documentary.

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58 Words | 1 Pages

There are many racist caucasian people that serve in juries. They believe that African Americans should be in a position under them so they would do whatever they could to keep them down. During the Scottsboro Trials nine African American men were arrested for something that they did not do. They were accused of raping two white girls

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If they were accused of any sort of crime, the verdict usually came out as guilty and the sentence to death and jail time depending on the crime. A good reason why this happens is not only racism but that the jury is usually all-white. Although one of the rights of an accused person is to be judged by a jury of their peers. However, the black people would usually never be judged by a jury of the peers because most of the jury consists of entirely of Caucasians. Unfortunately, none of the jury consist even one black person already decided their own fate.

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One case in particular, McCleskey v. Kemp, was decided in The Supreme Court. Mccleskey v. Kemp was wrongly decided by the Georgia courts and then also by The Supreme Court, in which they decided that it did not violate the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. McCleskey v. Kemp was one of the few cases to reach the high level of impact that this

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Therefore, if one was colored the trial wouldn’t be in their favor. The trials either would end in the conviction of death or the least likely, time in prison. In the Scottsboro Case and the book To Kill a Mockingbird the victims lived hard lives and were influenced by others. Aside from that the physical evidence was weak as well as the testimonies. The Scottsboro Case was the only crime in American History to produce many trials, convictions, and retrials as the alleged rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on March 25, 1931 (Linder).

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388 Words | 2 Pages

Unethical Punishments Adults teaching children what is right and wrong can influence their behaviors and the consequences they face. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch, a young, confident, headstrong girl gets punished for defending her loving father, Atticus Finch. Scout retaliated and had an altercation with her cousin, Francis Handcock after he insulted Atticus behind his back. Scout's discipline was a spanking from her Uncle Jack Finch and being blamed for swearing and punching Francis.

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To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Racial equality and discrimination is a founding issue that has been spread throughout every part of the world, To Kill A Mockingbird was written and published by Harper Lee in 1960, this time was dominated by civil rights protests and some of the first hippie movements following the crushing reality of the Vietnam War, the 60s also saw the struggle against segregation and racial equality. It is no surprise that the extreme political conflict affecting her life and world would greatly impact her writing and influence how she perceived the world during the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. the influence of the fight for racial inequality is shown greatly in her book as she depicts the everyday life

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830 Words | 4 Pages

Tom Robinson is a young African-American who's been accused of raping and abusing Mayella Ewell, a young and closeted white woman. Racial discrimination is hinted throughout Tom’s trial as Atticus Finch explains to Jem that a white man’s word will always win over that of a black man’s - "... In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (220). Atticus explains to Jem that in the courts of Maycomb, a black man’s state of innocence or guilt is truly determined by a white man’s testimony.

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“African Americans are frequently illegally excluded from criminal jury service,” The Huffington Post explained. This piece of evidence justifies that black people are often excluded from jury time on cases. Another issue is how rare trials are for African Americans. Of the African American cases, only three to five percent of cases get a trial, the rest get plea bargained (The Huffington Post). This shows how the majority of African Americans never have a trial.

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