Raleigh Heck Tate Opening Statement

Opening Statement for Sheriff Heck Tate Good afternoon, my name is Madelyn Kessler, and it is my honor to represent Maycomb County in proving a man guilty of poor investigation and documentation. The defendant was called to the Ewell residence on November 21st and found Mayella Ewell beaten up and hurt. Later the defendant was also called to the scene where Bob Ewell was found dead underneath a tree. There, Mr. Heck Tate failed to find complete evidence that Bob Ewell had killed himself. The defendant used his position of authority to allow him to lack effort in the investigation process, causing there not to be proper law carried out. At the conclusion of the case, after you have heard all of the evidence, I am confident that you will conclude that the defendant has overused the

Tate also did not thoroughly explore the possibility of Bob Ewell not killing himself on his own and did not know for sure that it was Bob Ewell who brought the knife to the scene where Jem and Scout were attacked. Mr. Tate was fine with taking “the easy way out” and just letting the dead bury the dead (Lee 317). Sheriff Heck Tate is guilty of laziness and lack of logical thinking skills. Members of the jury, the defense, may claim that Sheriff Heck Tate had no reason to call a doctor because Mayella seemed fine and did not have any specific life-threatening injuries. However, since Mayella claimed to have been raped, it would only have been proper to call a doctor and figure out if she actually had been raped. A second thing the defense might claim would be that Sheriff Heck Tate only meant to cause less harm to more people by claiming Bob Ewell had killed himself, without thorough investigation. The truth is, moreover, if Bob Ewell did not kill himself, then there is someone dangerous still lurking in the shadows of Maycomb County. A third thing the defense may say would be that there was no possible way to figure out who had killed Bob Ewell, due to the lack of light