How Does the Jury Process Reflected in the Novel Compare/Contrast to That of Today:
An Annotated Bibliography The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is based in the 1930s in Alabama where an African American man is accused of raping and abusing a white woman. Tom Robinson is wrongly convicted and ends up dying for a crime he did not commit. Robinson dying for something he did not commit is common today because of all the racial prejudice, hatred, and the unfair trials that are given to people of minority. The events that happened, especially the jury process and trial, in the novel are similar to some of the events happening in the world today. The jury processes that occurred in the south during the Great Depression and the jury process
While defending Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch states all of the thoughts that the members in the courtroom already have about the African American population: “’…that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber’” (Lee 273). The emphasis and repetition all the word “all”, shows that the majority of the population has these beliefs about the Negroes and the Negro men living amongst them. What Mr. Finch is saying is bringing all the thoughts and feelings that the Maycomb’s white community has about the black community. By saying “minds of their caliber”, Mr. Finch is referring to the confidence that the witnesses on the trial had in what they said would not be questioned because they were better than Robinson since they are white and he was black. Everything that Mr. Finch says may ring true since he comes from a racist family. While at a Christmas dinner, this racism is seen through the cousin of Scout and their Grandmother: “’… but now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’’” (Lee 110). Even at the young age of six or seven, Scout’s cousin has already formulated this hatred for African American people that was influenced by the family members that surrounded
However, that is not always the case since it is shown that some people have hatred towards certain people: “For decades, scholars who have analyzed death-penalty case have consistently found racial disparities, with death sentences disproportionately handed down to black men, more often in cases with white victims” (Chammah). These disparities have clearly shown that a black male will more likely be given the death sentence especially if there is a white victim. This analysis shows that a black man is already convicted before he is found guilty or non-guilty before a jury. Where there are more white people with prejudice toward the African American population on a jury, there is a higher chance of the black person being convicted since the prejudice is present. Similarly to Robinson’s case, if a black male were to be seen with a white woman and accused of doing something that was looked down upon, he was automatically assumed guilty and hanged for the supposed crime. Today, if a black male is accused of committing a crime against a white person, there is an extremely high possibility of him being in jail for the rest of his life. If the roles were reversed, however, there would be a different approach on the matter that would ensure that the white person would not be convicted at all or only convicted for a short time
The Scottsboro Trials, Brown v. Mississippi, and trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The purpose of this essay is to compare three very similar cases, the Scottsboro Trials, Brown v. Mississippi, and the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird; and to prove why the defendant in the third trial never had a chance. Each took place in the rural South in the 1920’s and 30’s and involved the unfair conviction of young black males by all-white juries pressured by the threat of mob violence.
Just Mercy’s Bryan Stevenson exposes some of these disparities woven around his presentation of the Walter McMillian case, and the overrepresentation of African-American men in our criminal justice system. His accounts of actors in the criminal justice system such as Judge Robert E. Lee and the D.A. Tom Chapman who refused to open up the case or provide support regardless of the overwhelmingly amount of inconsistencies found in the case. The fact that there were instances where policemen paid people off to testify falsely against McMillian others on death row significantly supports this perpetuation of racism. For many of the people of color featured in Stevenson’s book, the justice system was unfair to them wrongfully or excessively punishing them for crimes both violent and nonviolent compared to their white counterparts. Racism towards those of color has caused a “lack of concern and responsiveness by police, prosecutors, and victims’ services providers” and ultimately leads to the mass incarceration of this population (Stevenson, 2014, p. 141). Moreover the lack of diversity within the jury system and those in power plays into the already existing racism. African-American men are quickly becoming disenfranchised in our country through such racist biases leading to over 1/3 of this population “missing” from the overall American population because they are within the criminal justice
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior, to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and the struggle between blacks and whites. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and single parent in a small southern town in the 1930's, is appointed by the local judge to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping a white woman. Friends and neighbors object when Atticus puts up a strong and spirited defense on behalf of the accused black man. Atticus renounces violence but stands up for what he believes in. He decides to defend Tom Robinson because if he did not, he would not only lose the respect of his children and the townspeople, but himself as well.
To Kill The Mockingbird was about a black guy named Tom Robinson who was accused of raping a young women by the name of Mayella Ewell. In the court, significant evidence was presented to the juror's that would prove that Tom Robinson was innocent. The evidence showed that a left handed male must have beat Mayella because the bruises were on the right side of her and Tom Robinsons left arm was disabled. Robinson could not have beat Ms. Ewell. Tom Robinson was still convicted and later on was shot at a prison fence while he was trying to run away. The juror's discriminated Mr. Robinson and was prejudice towards him because all though evidence was presented to them that would prove Tom innocent they ignored it because the guy was black and in the 30's discriminating blacks were heavily favored.
The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is a simplistic view of life in the Deep South of America in the 1930s. An innocent but humorous stance in the story is through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch. Scout is a young adolescent who is growing up with the controversy that surrounds her fathers lawsuit. Her father, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, with the charge of raping a white girl. The lives of the characters are changed by racism and this is the force that develops during the course of the narrative.
What is justice to you. Justice is known to dictionary.com as, “the quality of being just; righteoussness, equitableness, or moral rightness”. So how do you define justice. Is it fairness or correctness, maybe it’s throwing all the bad guys in jail. In To Kill a Mockingbird and The Merchant of Venice justice is defined several times in several different ways that open to our eyes if we look through one of the character’s. When looking through a character’s eyes we must take a look at someone’s background hence absorbing their perspective and understanding their
Harper Lee’s unforgettable novel To Kill A Mockingbird, illustrates the character of Atticus Finch to establish the themes of sympathy, empathy, and a symbol of the dying past. The setting of the novel takes place during the 1930’s in the small town of Maycomb County, Alabama. During the 1930’s, discrimination towards black people was heavily segregated in the south. All throughout Lee’s novel, Atticus is characterized as being empathetic towards all of the Maycomb County citizens, and encourages his children “to consider things from [other people’s] point of view.” He is appointed to defend an innocent black man on trial for accused rape of a white woman. Lee establishes the idea of injustice through Atticus’ integrity and beliefs that “all
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and oppressive events that actually took place in the south during the time period in which the novel is based. In addition to actual historical events, events and examples from the book that clearly illustrate the overpoweringly high levels of prejudice that were intertwined in the everyday thinking of the majority of the characters in the book supports the fact that Tom Robinson never stood a chance of getting a fair trial.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, illustrates the early twentieth century’s historical realities through the case between Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell. This certain case comes off as a no brainer for most of the townspeople, discerning a black man’s testimony against a white man’s. This is because of the majority of the town still in withholding of Jim Crow ideals. Nonetheless, hope was still had by Atticus Finch, who was the defenders attorney, and his family for victory seeming the plaintiff is a half crazy middle aged man, whom most of the town would rather not associate with. As Mr. Ewell had his testimony, on the other side of the hall Tom Robinson had his counterclaim ready to go against the odds. Jim Crow laws and the depression only
In To Kill A Mockingbird Lee tells the story of a Mr. Tom Robinson who is an African American who is being charged with rape against a white women. Atticus is the lawyer who must defend Robinson in court. In the Scottsboro case a central figure was a heroic judge who overturned a guilty verdict against the young men. The judge went against the public in trying to protect the rights of the African American men. In reading the novel you learn that Atticus arouses anger in the small community when he tries to defend Robinson.
In several cases and studies, there is a substantial amount of racial bias in the criminal justice system. In fact, the 1978 McClesky conviction has proven to support Baldus’s study in 1998. Warren McClesky, an African American male, was found guilty of killing a Georgia police officer. The legal team who represented McClesky exposed a study that showed how biased racial inequality is in the death penalty, but the court contended the argument because “disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system” (Touré). Furthermore, race has always been a serious matter in the Supreme Court and other government administrations, but they fail to recognize the
As in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee there was a great deal of injustice in the south in the early 1900s and before. Things only seemed to get worse when the depression. “We were always poor, but the Depression was definitely worse”(Johnson). The fiction in the book could very well be based on real facts of the way the blacks were treated in the past. Blacks of the time could not get a fair chance in real life or in the book. For that reason Tom Robinson could never have gotten a fair trial in Alabama in the 1930’s.
Race plays a large factor in showing how you are viewed in society. Although there is no longer slavery and separate water fountains, we can still see areas of our daily life clearly affected by race. One of these areas is the criminal justice system and that is because the color of your skin can easily yet unfairly determine if you receive the death penalty. The controversial evidence showing that race is a large contributing factor in death penalty cases shows that there needs to be a change in the system and action taken against these biases. The issue is wide spread throughout the United States and can be proven with statistics. There is a higher probability that a black on white crime will result in a death penalty verdict than black on black or white on black. Race will ultimately define the final ruling of the sentence which is evident in the racial disparities of the death penalty. The amount of blacks on death row can easily be seen considering the majority of the prison population is black or blacks that committed the same crime as a white person but got a harsher sentence. The biases and prejudices that are in our society relating to race come to light when a jury is selected to determine a death sentence. So what is the relationship between race and the death penalty? This paper is set out to prove findings of different race related sentences and why blacks are sentenced to death more for a black on white crime. Looking at the racial divide we once had in early American history and statistics from sources and data regarding the number of blacks on death row/executed, we can expose the issues with this racial dilemma.
During the court case, when Mr. Gilmer was asking Tom Robinson questions, Dill breaks down crying and has to leave. This is because he hasn’t experienced obvious racism. He didn’t grow up with obvious racism and hasn’t has’t experienced it because he’s from Meridian, Mississippi and he’s only around ten. This has affected his beliefs and readers will know this from this line after he and Scout left the court case “ ‘It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that一it just makes me sick’ ” (Lee, page 266).
The rigid class structure and social stratification of Maycomb County had a profound effect on the events in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The impact of this class structure and the underlying prejudice was especially evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, a Maycomb black man. Because of the strict class system of Maycomb County and the extreme prejudice of the town, Tom Robinson was unjustly convicted of, and sentenced to death for, a crime he did not commit.