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To What Extent Did Tom Robinson Have A Fair Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the South of the United States in the 1930´s, the justice system was very unfair towards colored people. Colored people that were sent to court could not receive a fair trial because of the prejudice and racism from the jury. This happened all the time, especially in Maycomb Alabama. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a colored man named Tom Robinson was convicted of assaulting a white woman just because of the color of his skin. Tom Robinson should have been found not guilty for many reasons. First, Tom Robinson should have been found not guilty because he was right handed. Mayella the victim, was punched in the face on the night of the crime. On page 235, Mr. Heck Tate stated that Mayella had a black eye on her right eye …show more content…

No medical evidence was ever collected or shown to prove that the crime ever took place. On the night after the assault, Mayella Ewell was never seen be a doctor. She was never examined to prove that Tom Robinson did anything to her. Mayella stated that she was beaten that night, so she should have gone to the doctor to get checked out. There is no proof of any crime, so there should not have been a guilty verdict. The Ewells could have been lying because most likely Mayella tempted Tom. Back then if you were involved with a colored person you were disgraced by the whole town. Mayella could have been trying to cover this up and get Tom arrested so he wouldn't be able to tell anyone. The jury convicted Tom Robinson because he was colored and back then white people believed they had to stick together against the colored people. This shows that based on the evidence Tom Robinson was only convicted because of his skin color. Based on all the information provided at the trial of Tom Robinson the jury should have found him not guilty. But in the south, white people were racist towards people of color. As a result of this Tom Robinson was found guilty with no evidence to prove that he was. In this trial, the jury was racist and prejudice towards Tom Robinson and that lead to him being found guilty of a crime that had no medical evidence at

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Mayella Ewell, the prosecutor, blamed Tom Robinson, the defendant, of rape on the night of November 21, 1935 at Mayella’s home in Maycomb, Alabama. The trial brought up included Tom Robinson, Mayella and Robert Ewell, Heck Tate, and Atticus Finch. Heck Tate and Robert Ewell were the witnesses for Mayella’s side and Atticus was the lawyer to Tom Robinson. This was such an important trial, whether the event actually happened or not, because Tom is a black man and Mayella is a white woman. The evidence provided shows that Tom most likely did not rape or beat Mayella, but her father was the one who could have beat her.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

In conclusion, the trial of Tom Robinson was biased, and unfair. All of the reasons put together do conclude that this trial was indeed unfair. He had a partial jury, a jury that ignored very important evidence, and a jury that had almost no evidence at all, just their word against his. In brief, Atticus Finch had proven that Tom Robinson was innocent, and the jury was so biased that they could not take in the evidence given to them by Mr. Finch, and help Robinson’s freedom. There was no actual information proving this innocent man

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384 Words | 2 Pages

On the day of Tom Robinson’s trial in the courtroom, Tom Robinson received a guilty verdict. Tom Robinson received a guilty verdict because he is a black man, a “Negroe” and black people can’t be trusted, according to the society. People filled the courtroom for Tom Robinson’s trial. Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white young women, Mayella Ewell who was 19 years of age. The judge was judge Taylor.

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355 Words | 2 Pages

Tom Robinson is innocent because there is a lack of solid evidence linking him to the rape of Mayella. During the trial, Mayella claims that she screamed the whole time Tom allegedly took advantage of her; however, when Atticus questions her, she is not able to come up with any probable answers to prove Atticus’ statements wrong. Atticus asks her, “‘Why didn’t the other children hear you?’. . . ‘Or didn’t you scream until you saw your father in the window? You didn’t scream until then, did you?’”, but Mayella always has no answer to his questions (Lee 250-251).

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64 Words | 1 Pages

This had a great impact on Tom Robinson's trial because he was seen as inferior to the jury, Bob Ewell, and his daughter, Mayella Ewell. The jury decided to take the words of the superior even though Tom was not guilty. The results of the trial were biased because of the unfair laws that even influenced the decisions of the jury during the

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854 Words | 4 Pages

How would you like it if you were innocent but found guilty because of your skin color? This may sound crazy but this was extremely common in the 1900s. Being a black male during this time period was one of the toughest things to do. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that addresses this situation in such a way you would think it really happened. Tom Robinson (a black male) was accused of raping Mayella Ewell (a white teenage girl).

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727 Words | 3 Pages

Like when the prosecutor stated, ‘“You were given thirty days once for disorderly conduct, Robinson?”’ (Lee 223). This is followed by the fact that Tom got into a fight. Showing that he has a history of violence, also proves that he could easily harm someone with only one working arm. This ties in with Mayella’s injuries, bruises were found all over the right side of her face.

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888 Words | 4 Pages

His left hand doesn't work, so he couldn't have beat Mayella. Also, no medical evidence was ever presented for the case so no evidence of a rape occurring actually exists. After the jury had been gone for 3 hours discussing the testimonies, they entered the courtroom with the final verdict. Tom Robinson was found guilty. After he was taken to jail, he was shot 17 times and unfortunately killed.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

Despite these facts, and the fact that MayElla Ewell basically admitted to perjury, Tom Robinson was still convicted and later murdered brutally in the same way that Rodney King was beat brutally. Ultimately, black-white trials were a series of back and forth situations, he-said-she-said encounters, whose word is more valuable than the other paradoxes. And whether or not an African American individual being tried with a crime was actually guilty, if they were put up against a white person, their word would automatically be unavailing (or futile) in comparison. No matter what they said, they were still black and that was enough for most juries to

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463 Words | 2 Pages

According to the book To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, I believe Tom Robinson is innocent. The crime that Tom Robinson is getting charged for is that he had raped Mayella Ewell. There are many reasons of why I believe Tom Robinson is not guilty. For instance, Tom Robinson’s left arm was not strong enough nor working, so he didn’t have the strength to do what Mr. Ewell and Mayella said he did. One reason why it is believed that Mayella was raped was because she had said, “I said come here nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me” (Lee 241).

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436 Words | 2 Pages

All evidence pointed to Mr. Ewell as the offender, a man who spends all his money on whiskey and lets his children cry from starvation. While, Tom Robinson is a good person, with a good job and a good family but with a bad, bad skin color. And that's the important factor. The judge, jury, both lawyers, practically the entire town knew that Tom was innocent.

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1093 Words | 5 Pages

On top of this, the court and jury are biased enough to even overlook evidence that proves Tom’s innocence. According to Mr. Heck Tate, he found Mayella “bunged up on [the right] side of her face,” which would had been his left, while looking at her (Lee 225). The importance of this is, Tom Robinson would had not been able to punch Mayella on the right side of her face. This is because of the fact that he was “crippled… [and] his left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right… [and] ended in a small shriveled hand,” thus proving that he would be unable to punch Mayella on the right side of her face, as that required the dominance, and power, of someone who actually had a left hand (Lee 248). Therefore, proving that Tom had no part in harming Mayella.

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682 Words | 3 Pages

In this paragraph I will be questioning the Ewells’ reasoning for lying. While reading the court scenes, I got the feeling that Mayella and Bob had separate motives for trying to convict Tom. There are quite a few reasons that Bob would want Tom Robinson convicted. His most demanding motive would have to be the need to cover up the fact that he abuses his children.

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579 Words | 3 Pages

“Now don’t you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…” (Lee 179). This quote from Reverend Sykes in To Kill a Mockingbird is a sort of summary of how and why Tom Robinson was wrongly convicted guilty. It also gives a lot of insight on race relations in this time period. Unfortunately, racism has yet to leave society.

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952 Words | 4 Pages

Because the jury did not favor black men, Tom Robinson did not receive a fair trial, although Atticus made a great case. Segregation directly disobeys the fourteenth amendment, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” Maycomb Alabama is where the story, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place. Tom Robinson’s trial out come was not based on factual evidence. Mayella was lying to the jury, while Tom was completely innocent.

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