Mayella Ewell Opening Statement

687 Words2 Pages

Opening Statement for Mayella Ewell Good afternoon, my name is Miranda Otremba, and today I will be representing Maycomb County to prove a woman is guilty of perjury. In this case, we see a woman caught up in her lies. Ladies and gentlemen, this case is about a woman embarrassed by her actions, leading her to lie to tell the truth. This woman stated that she had been raped, but based on the evidence, we can see that another crime, perjury, was committed. After hearing the evidence presented, we are confident that you will know that the defendant is guilty. Members of the jury, we will now review the evidence against Mayella Ewell, where we can see that the more you lie, the harder it gets to cover it up. During the trial, Mayella claimed that …show more content…

The second piece of evidence contradicts this when she states, “No, I don’t remember if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me” (Lee 248). Mayella stated, “My paw’s never touched a hair o’my head in my life” (Lee 246). Then we hear Tom declare “She says what her papa does to her doesn't count” (Lee 260). The last piece of evidence is, “She says she asked you to bust up a chiffarobe, is that right? No, suh, it ain’t” (Lee 264). As you can see, Mayella couldn’t decide if Tom hit her or didn’t. If someone hits you, this seems like something you could clearly remember. She said yes, and then she said no. One way or the other, she has to be lying. Tom’s story contradicts what Mayella said, so one of them has to have lied in court. Mayella said that her dad had never hit her, yet she hesitated when asked. She also had bruises and was choked around her neck. Tom can't do so because his left arm does not …show more content…

However, the evidence is little. The only evidence we have is what people have said, and now that we can see that Mayella committed perjury, we can not fully know the truth. Based on the evidence, we know that the person Mayella claimed raped and choked her did not have a working left arm. This would make it nearly impossible to choke someone fully around the neck. Therefore, Mayella lied about who hurt her. The defense may claim that Bob Ewell did not hit Mayella. Based on the evidence, we can see that Mayella said that kissing Tom Robinson wasn’t like what her father did to her. Based on her words, we know Bob has tried to bring harm to Mayella before. After Tom had been proven guilty, Bob Ewell was still mad about the case. He threatened to kill the kids of the lawyer who was fighting for Tom. This shows that he was angry about something that was revealed during the case. Based on his actions of threatening these kids, we can see that Bob Ewell has something to hide, which is the fact that he has harmed his children before. Therefore, even when the defense tries to prove that Mayella did not lie under oath, the evidence is

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