Ever since human existence started there have been laws. From Adam and Eve to Moses and the Ten Commandments, there has always been a higher authority that people needed to deal with. In the movies To Kill A Mockingbird and A Time To Kill, people had to deal with a higher authority because of their actions. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson had to deal with a rape charge, and in A Time To Kill, Carl Lee had a murder charge against him. Many different factors affected the outcome of both cases, and ultimately both outcomes were wrong. One was found guilty, and one was not, but both had to deal with the prejudice of being black and the stereotypes of the era.
In both A Time To Kill and To Kill A Mockingbird both of the men accused were of the African American descent and found Caucasian man to defend them. In A Time To Kill, Carl Lee was accused of murdering two white men who raped and assaulted his daughter. His daughter was abducted and raped partially because of her race, but Mr. Lee’s lawyer, Mr. Jake Brigance, never played up the Lee’s race. In fact Brigance never even mentioned race, and if he did he never made it a major point. In the summation Brigance blamed himself for his inexperience, and the fact that one of his witnesses was not credible. Carl Lee’s lawyer ask for equality, and plays on the juries emotions and feelings, which Atticus Finch also does in To Kill A Mockingbird. Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white girl who came from a poorer family of the community, and his lawyer was a prominent man from the same community, Atticus Finch. In Tom Robinson’s trial, it is very apparent that he is an African American man. Mr. Finch does not need to mention that he is an African American man, yet he still do...
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... the defendants had to deal with a higher human authority, the judge and jury of their area. In To Kill A Mockingbird Tom Robinson had to deal with an alleged rape, and no matter what the evidence said, or how hard his lawyer worked, he was convicted and later died. Tom was falsely accused, and his death was untimely and could have been avoided. But he accepted his fate calmly, as if he knew no matter what he would be convicted. The defendant in A Time To Kill, Carl Lee was accused of murder of the two men who raped his daughter. Carl was found not guilty, even though he did kill those men, and later on in life will have to deal with his actions. Both men had to deal with what the court brought against them, and they both did. Carl and Tom dealt with multiple issues, but the prejudices of their race, and the time they were tried ultimately determined their fates.
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 of 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. Each lacked the evidence sufficient for conviction, most especially for the death penalty. Last, heroes emerged from each trial and made small but solid steps towards equal justice for all.
“[T]here is one way in this country in which all men are created equal- there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller; the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court” (Lee 233). These are the words uttered by Atticus Finch, an important character in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is a lawyer, and at this point in the novel, he is trying to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who was accused of raping a white woman. This reflects upon how society was in the 1930’s, when the color of your skin affected your chances of winning a trial. In fact, it is speculated that To Kill a Mockingbird is loosely based off of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys, a famous case from this time period. Most of the main characters associated with both trials share similar traits, experiences, and backgrounds.
The historical Scottsboro Trial and the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in the book To Kill a Mockingbird have striking similarities that may or may not be coincidence. Both trials took place in Alabama during the same era of relentless prejudice and bias, which is a major factor in each of these cases. In both cases, the accusers were white women and the persecutors were black men; therefore the black men were immediately considered liars and “wrongdoers”, unlike the word of the white women, which was essentially the truth above the word of someone who was black. Even when the persecutors in these cases had a possible chance of being declared innocent, mobs of citizens formed to threaten them, many of whom were simply racist against blacks. As is evident in these trials, most white people could easily accuse a black person of a crime whether they committed it or not and unjustly get away with it.
...ir if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life” (295). From the very beginning of the trial, the jury was going to find Tom Robinson guilty since it was a black man's word against a white man’s word. The all-white jury never wanted to see a black person win against a white person. After he is found guilty, Tom is sent to a prison where he tries to escape but is shot to death by the prison guards. Mr. Underwood writes an editorial in which he compares Tom being shot to death to hunters shooting mockingbirds. Like a mockingbird, Tom never caused any harm to anyone. Tom is “shot” by the jury when they assume that he is guilty because he is a black man and his alleged victim is white. In the end, an innocent man was found guilty because of the color of his skin.
A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird both have a number of similarities to be compared and contrasted. Both stories can be compared in their themes about justice and racial prejudice. However, this is where the similarities end. The themes and ideas in both novels are vastly different in shape and scope. In A Time to Kill justice is the main theme and most of the ideas are focused on justice and the gray in between the lines of black and white set by the law, racial prejudice is also touched upon very frequently in the comparisons between Jake Brigance and Carl Lee Hailey and how he wouldn't even have had to face trial if he was a white man. In To Kill a Mockingbird justice is a theme which is not expanded upon or explained in nearly as much detail as it is in A Time to Kill. To Kill a Mockingbird also has a much larger variety in it's themes, ranging from the themes of justice to the exploration of a child's way of perceiving right and wrong as well as the idea of coming of age. These stories are honestly and objectively far more different than they are alike.
In Harper Lee’s fictional novel To Kill A Mockingbird, an African American field hand is falsely accused of raping a white women. Set in the 1930’s in the small town of Monroeville Alabama, Addicus Finch an even handed white attorney tries to shed a light on the injustice of this innocent black man’s conviction. Atticus feels that the justice system should be color blind, and he defends Tom as an innocent man, not a man of color.
Justice is a translation of the law by an individual’s ideals. Although it can be defined by many, justice is confidently placed in the hands of individuals that understand and interpret the law to the fullest extent, in regards to their integrity and morality. While the law coincides with justice, tension arises when a conflict of ethics comes into play. The subversion of justice is portrayed in, “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee as a result of racism, stereotyping, and preconceived notions (bias).
The American legal system was put into place by the Judiciary Act of 1789. This act was established with the intent of creating structure and jurisdiction within the local and federal court systems (Bagwell). However, some of the lower courts were found to be vulnerable to prejudice. Such forms of prejudice were evident in Tom Robinson’s court case from To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson’s case exemplified injustice within the lower court, where an all-white jury decided the verdict. If there was an all-black jury present, there might have been a different verdict, but whites would still have established their own form of vigilante justice.
This is extremely evident when you look back into the entire case. The entire white community of the town was against Tom Robinson before the trial even started only based on his race. This creates moral injustice because people today see people judging someone based only on their race is “wrong”. In the time of the story many people saw a case like this as “run of the mill” and average. To almost all people today the case would have went the other way solely based on the lack of evidence and the poor testimonies. For example, Mayella said “No I don’t recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me”(185).
“We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe . . . some people have more opportunity because they’re born with it” (Lee 233). A real trial depicted in a fictional book is what is seen within To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee shows the reality that is racism and the advantages that one race has over another. The use of racism to hide one’s criminal actions is seen within both trials. The lengths people will go to, not caring what their actions will lead to is clearly seen within both trials. In To Kill a Mockingbird there are distinct similarities between the main characters of the trial and the figures in “The Scottsboro Boys”. Both trials have unjust outcomes and questionable physical evidence.
To start with, in “ To Kill A Mockingbird “, Scout Finch, an innocent child has no experience with the evils of the world. That is until her father, Atticus Finch, takes up the offer to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of the rape and beating of Mayella Ewell. The conflict is between white people, with Tom as
In fact, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson also suffers of racial prejudice and segregation existing in the 1930s. This is proven as Mr. Underwood explains: "Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts, Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed" (Lee 323). Tom Robinson is judged to be a cruel person and associated with violence, hatred and thuggery. Indeed, he is unfairly treated simply due to his skin colour. Furthermore, Mr. Gilmer is very disrespectful, using the term "niggers" to describe the black society throughout Robinson’s trial by saying, “I knowed who it was, all right, lived down yonder in that nigger-nest, passed the house every day” (Lee 234). Therefore, according to Maycomb’s folks, the black society is inferior to the white people, allowing them to denigrate the black society in a very insolent way. Likewise, as shown in Tom’s case, the words of a white man always win against those of a black man. During the trial, Tom is dishonestly treated due to the prejudice related to black people. Consequently, Tom is a victim of prejudice since he was accused of raping Mayella, despite the circumstantial evidence towards Bob Ewell. Overall, the fact that Tom was brought to trial was a major illustration of prejudice in the
In today’s America, the idea of equality is widespread, on the contrary, racism was very common in the 1930s. That is the America where Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, takes place. The story follows a young girl, Scout, and her brother, Jem, who struggle to understand the notions of their neighbors in Maycomb, Alabama. This specifically came to importance when their father, Atticus Finch, a Lawyer, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who was charged with the assault of a white female named Mayella Ewell. Many, including his children, wondered why he would defend Tom Robinson. However, Atticus is a firm believer of the golden rule and to him, it did not matter that there was a large chance of losing the case as long as he tried. He is also moral so considering all of these reasons, it made sense for him to defend Robinson.
In the court, the director leaves out the systemic racism that Harper Lee claims is the reason Tom Robinson is convicted of rape (Dave). The racist community, and mob of white men, make up the deciding factor of the court. However, for someone watching the movie it would not be understood that the hatred expressed expressed towards Atticus is for supporting a black man ("Overview: To Kill a Mockingbird"). The only reason Tom loses the case is because he is black and the movie underplays this as the reason. More than half of the movie is seen at the trial which left little time for the audience to build the idea that the novel builds up. This is the injustice do to racial matters, that is skimmed over and left to the viewers to determine their own opinions (Smykowski). The movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird ignores that racism is the reason Tom Robinson is
A common theme shown throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was racial prejudice directed towards African American people. During the trial of the Ewells versus Tom Robinson, the Ewells claiming that Tom Robinson, an African American man, raped Mayella Ewell—who was the daughter of the town drunk—though Atticus as Tom’s lawyer proved that he was innocent of the serious accusation made against him, the biased, all white, male jury turned a blind eye to Tom’s discernible innocence. Even though the jury was supposed to be unbiased and open-minded, the jurors still in their own unintentional way brought their bitterness, such as racism or a vehement hatred towards something, into their verdict. As his closing statement continued, Atticus