Sacco And Vanzetti Trial

After Tom Robinson was charged with raping 19 year old Mayella Ewell, he was taken to court and Atticus had to defend his case. On page 212 of the novel Tom Robinson states that he ran away from Mayella when she had kissed him because he was scared, Atticus asked him why and he said “ Mr Finch, is you were a nigger like me, you’d be scared, too.“ Tom said this because of the society that they lived in where all “Black” people were not to be trusted. Atticus did his best to prove to the jury that Tom Robinson was not guilty for the crime that he was charged for

The whole town of Maycomb is racist, which makes Atticus’s job harder trying to defend Tom Robinson against the word of a white man.Tom Robinson’s case is unjust since he is black and the majority of Maycomb revert to the stereotype that all blacks are immoral and criminals. “Quote” shows that it is a situation where little is possible to do when defending a black man because the town of Maycomb is deeply affected by racism they tend to only make decisions based on the race and so immediately think Tom Robinson is guilty, that he did indeed raped Mayella when there was so much evidence to prove otherwise. This is challenging for Atticus, since he has to persuade everyone to pretend there is no stereotype about blacks and that they are human

However, Atticus knows since Tom is a black man he will not get a fair trail since the jury is all white and since people back then didn’t favor or teach color people this is why Atticus had to defend Tom which was a man who was wrongly accused for raping a white woman which her name was Mayella Ewell ; she was a very poor white woman the oldest of many children which was in her family .

Jem asked Atticus how the jury could convict Tom Robinson when he was obviously and undeniably innocent, Atticus retorts with,”I don’t know but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it again tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems only children weep”(213). Unfortunately due to the creed and outlook of the rural community, Tom was convicted due to the reason he was black even though he was proven guiltless. Most if not all the jurists knew Robinson was not guilty, yet convicted him of a crime he didn't commit because the mindset of blacks are bad and whites are good is much more meaningful than law and integrity. Atticus was apprehensive with the case and Harper Lee had him foreshadow the outcome of the trial when he said,” couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells”(88). He is saying that the cards have been stacked against anyone who is defending a black person against a white person in a court case; he realizes he is going to lose the case by default. “ Maycomb’s usual disease”(187) was expected to take Tom Robinson’s life by Atticus and the reader. Although, some people like Atticus and the rest of the Finch family never surrendered to the prejudiced way of thinking that everyone had seemed to adjust

Tom Robinson’s role in this book shows a lot of prejudice. He is a black man convicted of raping a white women. This book is set in the 1930s, during this time period the Jim Crow Laws were still in place and racism was big. ‘You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’ Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling” (Lee, pg 197). Tom Robinson is talking about how he felt sorry for Miss Mayella, who is white. Mr Gilmer gets very upset stating that a nigger should not feel sorry for a white woman. "There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads -- they couldn't be fair 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 fact of life.” (Lee, pg.220) Atticus is talking to the kids about how Tom Robinson will get the death sentence because of the color of his skin and how the jury looks at him. He talks about there is no court in Alabama that would’ve gave him something less. Basically it was Tom against a town full of white folks. Tom is a big symbol of prejudice in the book.

Maycomb's unjust beliefs on race determined the outcome of Tom Robinson's trail. Atticus´s defence was more than enough to set Tom free, but Maycomb's ignorance and narrow-minded view on African Americans set an innocent man to jail. Atticus told Jem "If you had been on that jury, son, and eleven other boys like you, Tom would be a free man" (Lee 295). The jury members had been affected by the ignorance of society. They convicted Tom because when they grow up they learned racists beliefs and they do not know any other way. In Maycomb, racism is a normal part of everyday life. When kids at Scouts school call Atticus a n***** lover. Atticus explains to Scout what it means, "Scout," said Atticus, "n*****-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything—like snot-nose. It's hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves.¨ (144). The racists views and attitudes determined the guilty verdict of Tom. In Atticus closing argument, he says "She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man¨(272). Society has a set of rules which are not written but known, these rules tend to be ignorant and impartial. When it comes to race and the misguided beliefs about race, there is a profusion of ignorance. The expectations on race set by society affect the actions and events of life.

In our book, the author sounds a bit biased as if they were convinced that Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty. Both men were found armed when arrested but the money was never allocated or seen. In contribution to the evidence, there was witnesses who could testify that they had seen those men by the factory. They were described as anarchists and brought America’s

It had nothing to do with Atticus’ speech because his speech would of won over any jury. Just think about it, if the jury had let Tom go they could have went through everything Atticus went through. Almost being killed every single day, angry mobs showing up to their homes, and being called “nigger-lovers” could’ve been just the start of it. Even though the jury was both racist and hated Tom, Atticus is highly respected by everybody and the jury does listen to him, to a certain extent. His words are highly considered but in the end the jury still has this in the back of their minds: Tom Robinson is a negro.

Tom Robinson’s case, in which we see in that time period how a white man’s word goes against a black’s, is perceived as unfair by Scout, Jem, Atticus, and many of their neighbors. As Atticus says to Jem, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it–whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.”(295) This quote explains that there is great injustice and extortion for personal gain. This is disturbing in its own right; The fact that Atticus needs to even make a comment like that is disturbing in its own right, let alone that any person would do that to another, also tells Jem this: “So far nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process. Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom’s jury, but you saw something come between them and reason. You saw the same thing that night in front of the jail. When that crew went away, they didn’t go as reasonable men, they went because we were there. There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads–they couldn’t be fair 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) Even a man like Atticus, a sort of rebel in that time period, accepts that the system is

In South Braintree, Massachusetts, two men were tried and convicted of a crime because of their ethnic background. A robbery at the Slater-Morrill Shoe Factory had taken place. As the payroll distributors were exiting, two men attacked them, snatching a box containing the money. The men leaving the factory were both shot and killed, while the two attackers escaped in a getaway car. The two suspected attackers, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, faced discrimination inside and out of the courts. In the end, both even faced the deadly electric chair. To this day, it is undetermined who the robbers are. However, many factors prevented Sacco and Vanzetti from getting a fair trial. Injustice within the courts, panic during the Red Scare, and

Firstly, Tom Robinson is just one character that is prejudged in the novel. He is accused of raping a white girl named Mayella and it is a problem to the jury that a black man is trying to defend himself in court. Atticus realizes how Tom is being treated unfairly and that it is uncommon for African Americans and white people to associate with each other. During Atticus’s speech, Mayella is accused of lying in her testimony when “she kissed a black man [which is] something that in our society is unspeakable” (Lee 272). The black man who Atticus refers to is Tom. He is ridiculed and judged by several people in the book and he gets all this

When Tom Robinson was convicted of a crime and sent to a trial that he had no chance at winning, he had lost any bit of innocence that he would ever get. In a time where the black community faced constant prejudice and discrimination, it was near impossible for any African American to be let off as innocent for any crime. And the sad part to it is that a lot of the blacks sent to trials and jail weren't even guilty of any crime at all, they were innocent. Tom Robinson was sent to a trial for the rape and beatings of Mayella Ewell. No one believed Tom on his innocence and when Atticus, his lawyer at the case, hands down proved his innocence, he was still going to be convicted as guilty. If it had come down to where they had to sit in front of another jury and do the same thing over and prove his innocence again, he still would probably be convicted as a guilty man. In the end Tom would be sentenced as guilty on not fact, or logic but by wrong prejudice ideas. With the broken judicial system and sideways beliefs of the time Tom Robinson lost any little hope he could ever wish for, he was completely stripped of his innocence.

This was surfaced because their trial was believed to be unjust; therefore, we created laws that eliminate discrimination towards immigrants. Sacco and Vanzetti were believed to be anarchists all because they did not favor the government. This led to the men becoming victims of a murder trial which resulted in their deaths. This trial caused protests and bombs to occur across America because the people believed that Sacco and Vanzetti were indeed, innocent. This case was brought up 50 years later and the trial ended up being named unjust and that Sacco and Vanzetti were wrongfully

On page 235, Atticus explains to Jem, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always win.” Atticus states that no matter what a black man says, the judge will always listen to the white man. This means that the court system is biased and prejudice whenever a black person is accused for committing a crime against a white person. During the trial, Atticus was defending Tom with legitimate evidence that he didn’t rape Mayella. Most of the people knew in the court room that Tom didn’t rape her, but due to Maycomb’s standards the verdict of Tom’s accusation came out to guilty. The judge also knew Tom was innocent, but if he sentenced him to not guilty, the white folks would go

In the story, To Kill a Mockingbird, racism lead to the judge’s adjudication, causing Tom Robinson to be convicted as guilty. Despite Atticus’s strong evidence and defense, he lost because Tom was a black man.