Tom Robinson Trial

Was the trial fair? Could the trial have been changed if the person being prosecuted was different? Is Maycomb biased? With Tom Robinson’s trial it outlined the power of racism and how easily it can change the minds of people. It showed how racist the American South was back in the day. The reasoning to even say that Maycomb is racist because of the fact that the outcome of the trial was already determined before it even ended, Atticus and everyone even knew that Tom was going to lose. Another thing that can outline the racism in Maycomb and the racism in the courtroom is that the jury in the case would be very biased towards the case and maybe even fear for their safety because of people finding out that they voted not guilty towards Tom

Robinson. With all of these things happening in Maycomb it sugarcoats that the town is racist because it did not serve fair justice and it showed that racism determines the way that that the county gets things done. All of these statements prove that court cases must be rational and focus on the facts, but people are easily manipulated by other’s emotions.
The court case was already decided prior to the verdict.

This shows that the court was racist. There is a quote by Atticus that basically explains the hardship of being black in the court. The quote is “Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levellers, and in our courts all men are created equal." (205) This quote explains that even though the laws say that all the courts in the USA say that everyman is equal but there is still racism that contradicts this statement and makes it that all men aren’t equal and the color of your skin defines your fate in life. This is the base of the problem in Tom Robinsons trial and highlights the fact that the trial was not fair and

equal.
Another factor that can contribute to the highlighting of the problems in the trial is that the jury can be totally biased. Even through intimidation and self fear they could be biased. They could be forced to vote a certain way because the majority of the town is white and they have the power. Maybe if Tom Robinson won, someone might lose their job because of the suspicion of voting not guilty. You could also think about it in another way of base biased thinking. The people of Maycomb live in the south, they are most likely to be racist just because that’s how they were raised, some examples about Maycomb citizens being racist are that there is a whole separate side of town where blacks live and even all of the discrimination from certain people in the courtroom such as Bob Ewell. That means that Tom Robinson might already have an disadvantage towards his case because of the fixed mindset that people have and that they already have an opinion on him even though they never met him and only judged him by the color of his skin.
If this case was presented in the year of 2016 the trial would be fair because there is less racism and Atticus had everything needed to get the trial to go Tom Robinson’s way.

The things that they had were Evidence, a good testimony, and some commonsense throughout the whole trial. Even though Atticus was smart and had good facts, the evidence was still undermined and not taken into consideration. Atticus has also talked to Bob and Mayella Ewell and he tried to get the truth out of them. He showed the court that their were some parts of their stories that aren’t fully the truth and could be lying to the jury and the judge. The real question is why would Mayella and Bob Ewell even think about lying about such a manner and causing someone's life to change and make everyone think badly about him. Atticus takes the case knowing that he is going to lose. He explains why in this quote. "They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience." (105). This quote states that even though he thinks Tom should win that other people don’t and they should reconsider their

thought’s.
All of these topics can outline the racism and fixed mindset of the people in Maycomb. It shows that this thing can happen more than once and that intimidation and racism can determine the outcome of some people's lives in Maycomb county. It also highlighted that Atticus is a smart man and can make people trip up and he asks the right questions.