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Samuel Powell

Mrs. Field

LNG322

29 March 2011

In the southern united states in the 1930’s white people still thought they are superior and

would not give a black man equal treatment even where it should be given most, a courtroom.

Tom Robinson is accused of rape by Mayella Ewell on the night of November 21. Mayella was

sitting on her porch when Tom came by and she asked him to fix a door for her. When Tom went

inside the door was fine and he said if there wasn’t anything he could do he should leave. But

Mayella came onto Tom and would not let him leave until her dad, Bob Ewell, saw. The jury

finds him guilty however they did not consider any evidence. Mayella was beaten mostly on the

right side of her face which means it was by someone who leads with their left, but Tom got his

left arm caught in a cotton gin as a boy and has no muscle in his left arm making it useless. The

jury also finds Tom guilty simply because he is black. The final reason why tom should be not

guilty is that the jury failed to realize the three testimonies of Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell, and

Tom Robinson contradicts each other.

Tom did not receive a fair trial because the jury did not consider the evidence. The fact

that Mayella was beaten mostly on the right side of her face and that Tom’s left arm was caught

in a cotton gin and now hangs there 12 inches shorter than his right arm means that he could not

have been the one that beat her there. Also nobody called a doctor to look over Mayella injuries;

all they were worried about was who did it. The jury should see that all they were concerned

about was getting Tom put in jail. The real reason why they wanted Tom put away was not
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because he did anything to Mayella but what Mayella did to Tom. Mayella broke a social code

and the only way to fix her mistake was to get rid of Tom. She came onto a black man. Not

illegal by law but illegal in society. It is society’s racism that forces her to make her decision of

accusing Tom Robinson of rape.

Tom Robinson’s trial was unfair because the jury found Tom guilty for one reason. He is

black and is accused by a white woman. The jury is made up of all white, country folks like the

Cunninghams. This created a jury that would accuse Tom of the crime no matter what the

evidence. Societies racism is what got Tom accused in the first the place. Tom was the only

person that was ever nice to Mayella. He would help Mayella whenever she asked, and she took

it wrong and came onto Tom. After she realized what she had done she had to do one thing, she

had to get rid of her mistake, Tom. Not only was the jury racist, they also failed to see that the

three testimonies contradicted.

The trial of Tom Robinson was unfair because the jury failed to see that the three

testimonies contradicted. In Bob Ewells testimony he said Mayella was beaten on her face,

however in Mayella’s and Tom’s testimony she was not. Also in Mayella’s testimony she said

she had not ever asked Tom to do anything for her, but Tom said that it seemed every time he

went by she had something for him to do and he had to go by the Ewell house every day to and

from the fields. Tom also said that the place was always filled with children, but when she asked

him to fix the door it was real quiet, and he asked Mayella where the children were and she said

she had saved for a year to save up seven nickels so they could get ice cream. This shows that

she had planned this for a long time. However in Mayella’s testimony she asked Tom to bust up

a chifforobe for her and she went inside to get a nickel and he followed her inside and jumped on

her and started beating her.


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Tom Robinson trial was a mistrial and he should receive another. Tom should be proven not

guilty for

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