Blog 4

Respond to the trial! Wow. This might take a while.

To set the scene, let me say that this all takes place in the Maycomb County courthouse. It's an old, rustic building with plenty of seats for everyone.

The first person to vow to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth So Help Him God was Heck Tate, Maycomb County Sheriff. He's describing the events of the night of November 21st. Mayella Ewell, he describes, is "pretty well beat up... I asked her who hurt her and she said it was Tom Robinson." For Atticus' cross-examination, he asks if anyone called a doctor and if not, why not. They didn't because "no one thought about it at the time." Also, almost all of the bruises she got were on her right side, which means whoever hit her had to be left-handed.

Next up was Robert E. Lee Ewell, Mayella's father. He supposedly "heard Mayella screamin' like a stuck hog inside the house" and saw "the black n*****  yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" Really lovely word choice there, Rob. For Atticus' cross-examination, he asked logistical questions and we find out that he is left-handed.

Then came Mayella Ewell. She's young, unsure of herself. Her testimony included asking Tom to bust up her chiffarobe, fighting back, and fainting after it's all done. Atticus' cross-examination starts off very weird - he calls Mayella ma'am and asks if she has friends and she thinks he is trying to mock her. He asks her about specificites, to which she replies, "He got me around the neck cussin' and sayin' dirt" Atticus asks her if it was not Robinson who raped her, but her father. There's a long pause. Then she starts yelling, her "shoulders shook with angry sobs", and she refuses to answer anymore questions. There is a ten minute break. I'm sure it felt an awful lot longer than ten minutes.

Tom Robinson is called to the stand. He's a strongly-built man, but one defining feature about him is that his left arm is a foot shorter than his right. His testimony is something along the lines of this. Mayella has been calling him to do odd jobs for her for over half a year, without pay, before any of this happened. One day, he goes inside to fix her perfectly good door, turns around, and she's grabbing onto his legs. He doesn't know what to do, and is even more confused when she hugs him around the waist. Then she kisses him, Mr. Ewell sees, and he runs out of the house for the life of him.

Now it's time for Mr. Gilmer's cross-examination. Without an ounce of respect in his voice, he makes assumptions about Robinson's strength, his willingness to do odd jobs for Mayella without pay, and why he ran away so fast if he was innocent. 

Tom Robinson, at the verdict, was guilty.

Now, there's a whole lot of things wrong with this. There are way too many racist remarks to even keep count of, so as a whole, the thing that was wrong with this was the bias in the room. I don't even know who I believe in this case, in 2015, so the jury shouldn't have been able to decide that quickly and unanimously. The unquestionable bias in the room was such a big factor in this case that it was hard for the jury to hear anyone else. This obviously shouldn't have happened. There should've been no bias.

(I know this is really, REALLY long. I'm wrapping it up.)

This is still evident in today's world.