ipl-logo

Tom Robinson's Trial Research Paper

713 Words3 Pages

"I got somethin' to say an' then I ain't gonna say it no more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me an' if you fine fancy gentlemen don't wanta do nothin' about it then you're all yellow stinkin' cowards, stinkin' cowards, the lot of you." (Lee 251) Mayella Ewell said this in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird in Tom's trial. For this essay I will be informing you on Tom Robinson's case and the Scottsboro Boys case. Tom was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. She lied to cover up from her father beating on her. The Scottsboro Boys were also accused of rape, but police officers told Ruby Bates and Victoria Price to say they got raped by the nine boys, Haywood Patterson, Clarence Norris, Andy Wright, Ozzie Powell, Willie Roberson, Charles Weems, Eugene Williams, and Olen Montgomery. Tom Robinsons and the Scottsboro boys cases are similar in that they both are charged with Rape. They are different in one of the girls confessed they were lying and some of the charges were dropped. Both Tom and the Scottsboro boys were charged with rape towards white women. For Tom's case he was invited in a white women's home and she kissed him on the cheek and she wanted him to kiss her back and he didn't want to. He shoved her so he could leave …show more content…

Although two boys were sentenced to death. "Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty..." (Chapter 21) But for Tom he didn't get his rape charges dropped because his verdict was guilty and he died before he got to go to a higher court and try to straighten things out. The Scottsboro boys got lucky that Ruby confessed. If she didn't, the boys probably would have all be sentenced to death. Reason being is that the colored's didn't get treated right with the law. Tom was shot to death in prison trying to escape. If they would of believed the truth he would be alive and with his loved

Show More
Related
395 Words | 2 Pages

In 1931 nine african american from Alabama were accused of the rape of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The youngest boy was 12 and the oldest was 17. The boys were apprehended in Paint Rock, Alabama while hoboing on a train shortly after an altercation with a group of white boys traveling from Chattanooga to Memphis, Tennessee. These 9 boys were wrongly convicted of the rape of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates.

Read More
1459 Words | 6 Pages

He did talk to Judge Horton in private and told him “he did not believe the girls had been raped [and] was convinced [they] were lying as they were not even red” (Carter 214). At the end of the trails the boys were found guilty again, as the jury had reached a verdict without looking at the clear reports provided by the doctors. Seven months later Judge Horton looking past the “political suicide”, overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial for the Scottsboro Boys. Not only did he turn against his own race he also ended his own career as a result of his actions. He chose the moral thing to do even if it came with sacrifices he had to make.

Read More
198 Words | 1 Pages

Before we can explain the trials, we need to understand what racism is. Routledge states, “...people sometimes use prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behavior to boost their own self-esteem.” An example of this at Scottsboro is during the trial, where all the black boys were tried together at the same time. Normally, only one person would

Read More
569 Words | 3 Pages

The charge of raping white women was an explosive accusation, and within two weeks the Scottsboro Boys were convicted and eight sentenced to death, the youngest, Leroy Wright at age 13, to life imprisonment. (D. Carter para. 2). At the time, during the trial the Alabama legal system was very prejudice, bias, and unconstitutional. First, the legal system was prejudice because the council that was provided was inadequate to defend his defendants and also the trial only took two weeks.

Read More
342 Words | 2 Pages

The Tom Robinson trial has many similarities and numerous differences to the Scottsboro trial. In both cases, black men were falsely accused of rape by white people. Also in both trials, there was no physical evidence of rape, the only evidence of rape was the ‘victims’ of the crime. Next, in both trials, the defendants were convicted only because they were black and the jury had racial prejudice against them. Several differences between the two cases were Tom being the only defendant in the Tom Robinson Trial case, meanwhile, there were nine teens in the Scottsboro Trial case.

Read More
1367 Words | 6 Pages

In the 1930s, African American men were believed to have strong sexual desires towards white women so extreme that they couldn’t even control themselves, that whenever they saw white women they would rape them right then and there. The Tragedy of the nine Scottsboro Boys was rumored as “Negros are going to beat up the whites”. When the train got to Jackson County on March 25, 1931, dozens of armed white men rounded up with ropes and weapons in order to beat the nine black youths, and during the time of this chaos, two white women raised their voices, claiming that they had been raped by the nine scottsborro boys. At that time in Alabama, whenever black people saw a group of white men, they feared and knew they were in a lot of trouble due to the fact that Alabama was one of the most aggressive and violent states towards African Americans.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

Racism and Segregation in the South During the 1930’s, the Great Depression caused poverty throughout the United States. People all over the country went to extreme measures to earn money and survive. Several people hopped on trains illegally to travel and try to start new lives for themselves. Some women resorted to prostitution around these hobo camps to earn their living. Two such women were Ruby Bates and Victoria Price.

Read More
667 Words | 3 Pages

Tom Robinson is an innocent man who was accused of rape because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Firstly, Tom is a kind man who has positive intentions. When Tom was accused, he was at the Ewell place chopping a chiffarobe for Mayella Ewell. Mayella called Tom over to help her with her task and he gladly accepted and went inside the fence. Tom continued to help Mayella complete her tasks almost every time he passed by, only when she called him over to help.

Read More
1024 Words | 5 Pages

None nice, and none fair, nothing but disrespectful, and hatred towards those who where different from them, mainly those of a different color. For the nine boys to be accused of rape by none other than Southern white woman, sent the South into nothing but pure rage. When South white men where appointed to the jury, the trial was already set up for those boys to be guilty; They didn't need to hear any evidence, that verdict was already set in stone. Lawyer Samuel Leibowitz presented every piece of evidence that could've proved the boys innocence, but anybody could've guessed that the trial the boys got was anything but fair. It wasn't until Samuel Leibowitz stated that the boys hadn't gotten a fair trial and suggested that there needed to be an African American man on the jury, that was when the people started listening.

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

Although it would affect the younger members of the group, their incompetent lawyers were willing for the court to try all of the boys together. The two white women who accused them of rape, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, were questioned quickly before the all-white Alabama Jury

Read More
565 Words | 3 Pages

Scottsboro argumentative response Ignorance and prejudice seems to plague the Southerners and this idea of ignorance and prejudice is exemplified in this case. In 1931, Haywood Patterson and eight other African American teenagers were falsely charged for rape and all the boys also received the death sentence after accommodating a train with the victims Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Haywood Patterson is innocent due to three reasons, no evidence of rape from the doctor’s notes, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were prostitutes, and Ruby Bates claimed that Victoria and her were lying the whole time. Admittedly, Haywood Patterson is guilty.

Read More
489 Words | 2 Pages

The forefathers of the United States built this country on the ideals of freedom and equality for all people. Unfortunately, the fight for equality and freedom did not end with the revolutionary war. The fight has continued throughout the decades. Many of these issues were fought in the courtroom. Auburn University created an online Alabama Encyclopedia, there, the following quote stated, “Scottsboro became an international cause celebre that dramatically encapsulated the American south troubled post reconstruction history of legal and extralegal racial violence, the social and political upheaval of the great depression, and the lingering cultural divide between the north and south.”

Read More
424 Words | 2 Pages

Ewell takes a stand to defend Mayella in the courtroom when Atticus starts to realize that Mr. Ewell could’ve been guilty for Mayella’s rape. Atticus tries to prove that Mr. Ewell is guilty by intentionally asking Mayella questions, but Mayella refuses to prove that Mr. Ewell is guilty and responds to this saying “I got somethin’ to say an’ then I ain’t gonna say no more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me.. “ (Lee 251). This quote symbolizes the judgement that Mayella made on Tom Robinson to prove that he’s guilty.

Read More
1657 Words | 7 Pages

Injustice The Scottsboro Case shed light on the racial practices expressed in law that made a great impact on the legal system today. The actual victims of the Case did not receive a fair trial due to the color of their skin. The ones who played the victims planned the crime, and their stories made no sense. But like many of the trials during the time it wasn’t based on the actual evidence that was found,or even the defendants ' stories.

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

Being falsely accused of rape is devastating enough as it is in today’s society; being a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman during the Great Depression is practically a death sentence. And in To Kill a Mockingbird, it is. Though just sentenced to prison, which Atticus hopes to appeal, Tom could not handle the sentence and fled, which ultimately cost him his life. The case, Atticus knew, would be an uphill battle, because of the deeply held prejudices of the citizens of Maycomb. In his defense of Tom, Atticus says, “...You gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women” (Lee, 273).

Read More

More about Tom Robinson's Trial Research Paper

Related Topics

Open Document