Closing Statement Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Lennie Smalls has been charged with the crime of voluntary manslaughter. This charge states that the defendant intended to cause injury but not bodily harm; it also states that the defendant had no prior intent to kill and was given a reason-either through anger or harassment-by the victim This charge does not apply to Lennie. Lennie Smalls is nothing more than a gentle giant. He also tends to be unaware of the consequences of his actions until they come about. Lennie while inhumanly strong, does not know how to control his strength. This fact has been proven repeatedly through the statements of our witnesses. Lennie also freezes up every time a stressful situation occurs. This statement was …show more content…
She talked about how Lennie grabbed her dress, and she started yelling he kept his hold because she didn’t know any better. Given the boisterous and sometimes bothersome nature of Curley's wife, it is possible she did something that stressed him out and caused him to freeze up; maybe while he was doing something that could potentially endanger he life. This was again proven during when Curley came to the stand. He had a similar encounter with Lennie while he was beating him up. He held Curley's hand only as a way to get him to stop punching him I.e. self-defense. When Curley started yelling and freaking out Lennie froze, as he always does because he didn't know what to do and he didn't let go until after George told him; forcefully. These two testimonies are clear proof of Lennie's lack of control in trying …show more content…
When George talks about Lennie always feels remorse when he accidentally hurts or kills things; further showing that he didn't want to kill anything in the first place. Even though Lennie killed Curley's wife. At the end when Lennie talked to George for the last time he was crying and he said. "I done another bad thing." Lennie was clearly very upset about what had happened. If he knew that his actions would cause him to feel this upset it would preposterous to think that he would do them in the first place. Furthermore, if he froze up like he tends to do then he would have stopped doing said dangerous thing-but only if he knew he would end up killing her. Additionally, there was also a dead puppy in the barn. It is highly likely that Lennie killed the puppy. Lennie loved the dogs, many times during his time on the ranch his love for them was mentioned. This means that the death of puppy was most likely not a crime of hate. If his interaction with Curley's wife to his interaction with the puppy then he may have been doing something seemingly innocent with her and just been too rough. This relates back to the story about the mice and how he always killed them because he simply just petted them too