Sunday, September 23, 2012

During the trial in Chapter 19 of To Kill a Mockingbird, did the jury of the court choose to ignore any of the evidence?

Sadly for Tom Robinson, the jury--as Atticus had already
predicted--seems to have made up its mind before the trial began. The fact that the jury
was all-white and that Tom--a Negro--was accused of raping a white woman, it did not
bode well for Atticus' defense. However, he certainly made it clear to the readers--if
not the jury--that Tom could not have assaulted Mayella. Atticus proved that the marks
on Mayella's face could only have been done by a left-handed man; Tom's left arm was
crippled. Bruises were found all the way around Mayella's neck; again, Tom could not
have caused them with his bad arm. Both Mayella's and Bob's testimony was contradictory,
and Mayella changed her story several times. Sheriff Tate never called a doctor to
examine Mayella, and no rape kit was available in the 1930s. Tom gave his testimony
clearly and without contradiction, and he claims to have run away after Mayella began
kissing him. Since the jury was supposed to have found Tom not guilty if reasonable
doubt was sufficient, they seemed to have ignored virtually all of the
testimony.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What is the meaning of the 4th stanza of Eliot's Preludes, especially the lines "I am moved by fancies...Infinitely suffering thing".

A century old this year, T.S. Eliot's Preludes raises the curtain on his great modernist masterpieces, The Love...