A Comparison Of To Kill A Mockingbird And Mississippi Trial

A fact showing that Heck Tate was doing poor investigation was he never called a doctor when he showed up at the scene. Another fact about how Heck Tate investigated poorly is Tate confirmed it was Mayella's right eye that had a bruise on it so that means Tom Robinson would have to use his left arm, but he couldn't because he got it caught in a cotton

Title of Your Report Do you know the story of Emmett Till? Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe covers this story. The book is about a sixteen-year-old boy named Hiram Hillburn who was born in Greenwood, Mississippi with his grandparents. After the passing of his grandmother, Hiram and his parents move to Arizona, until Hiram has to go spend the summer with his grandfather because of some of his medical issues.

These novels both take place in small, racist towns. This leads to discriminatory actions occurring, including a court case in both novels. The court case in To kill a Mockingbird deals with a rape victim and her extremely racist father who blames a completely innocent man for his daughter's rape. This would likely not happen in a town against discrimination and segregation. In Mississippi Trial, 1955 the court case centers around a boy who was killed for whistling at a white woman.

Tom Robinson was also innocent but because he is back no one would believe his point of view about what had really happened. At the Emmett Till trial the two men who had killed Emmett did not get in trouble. At the Tom Robinson trial Tom got in trouble for something he did.

Heck Tate decides to give the Tom Robinson case to Atticus because he believes that although he might not win it, the jury will actually think about the case before deciding their verdict. Atticus accepts the case because he felt as though he “couldn 't hold up [his] head in town” and that he “couldn 't represent [the] country in the legislature” (Lee 100). He acceptes the case to prove he is reliability. Another example of Atticus showing how reliable he is is when he is interrogating Mayella. She feels as though he is making fun of her.

The case between Tom Robinson and his prosecutors portray one of the many examples Miss Lee wrote of “killing mockingbirds” throughout the plot. The mockingbird, during the case, represented an innocent being that has been wronged by another unjustly. Thus is the case for Tom Robinson, he had been wrongly indicted for an unforgivable felony and set through a futile attempt to redeem himself and the whole reason why his innocence was unattainable, was because his skin colour contrasted to his white neighbours (Lee, 248,

In the movie To Kill a Mockingbird, we see that trial by jury is not always unbiased and fair. Although, prejudice and racism are not as prevalent as they were in the depression era, it is still a reality. We saw this same situation in the movie Twelve Angry Men. A jury of one's peers should, in theory, objectively decide guilt or innocence based on the facts presented to them in court. However, in reality what we see in both of these movies is a group of middle class white men who have decided whether the defendant is innocent or guilty before they even hear any testimony.

They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life.” (To Kill a Mockingbird). Racism overpowered justice with these juries. Prejudice clouded reason. During the time period of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and Emmett Till, inequality and injustice were common things and, as Lee puts it, “the facts of life.”

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set in the 1900’s, Maycomb, Alabama. During this time there was racism in the south and segregation which separated the whites and blacks from everything. There was also the Great Depression, the whole country was poor and people living in the country had to trade and do other jobs for people to either pay them off or to buy something from them. The trial in this book is about Mayella and Bob Ewell, two white people, claiming and arguing that Tom Robinson, a black person, raped Mayella Ewell. This trial is really important because at that time in the south, white people took advantage of black people and their kindness and thought they would take that or shut up just because they were black.

After the jury comes back in from their vote about whether to convict Tom or not, Scout knows that “a jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson” (Lee 282). This quote shows that the jury is hinting about what the verdict will be: guilty. This also shows that the jury, made of all white men, are all biased based on their own beliefs. They believe that in a conflict between a black and a white person, then the black person is automatically guilty, no exceptions.

As Jem is constantly exposed to racism throughout Maycomb, he begins to lose his innocence. While Jem and Scout are waiting for the verdict of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout are so nervous they can hardly look. “I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: Guilty… guilty...guilty...guilty... I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each guilty was a separate stab between them” (282).

In this trial the jury is an all-white jury, with people not from the town of Maycomb but “all come from the woods” (Lee 252). Furthermore, no one represents a minority on the jury. As the recipient encounters, foremost women are not allowed to be on a jury and “Maycomb citizen are not interested (…) and they are afraid” (Lee 253). They make their living with sales and services which are dependent on the people of Maycomb. If they opinion and vote on a jury, would be disliked by others they could face a pecuniary injury, so Judge Taylor excuses them.

There was a lot of racial tension back in the time period the novel To Kill a Mockingbird took place. While Reverend Sykes and Jem talk, waiting for the judge to come back and say the verdict. Jem believes they've won the case, but Reverend Sykes doesn't want to get his hopes up. Reverend Sykes says, “I ain't ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man” (279). Reverend Sykes knows, no matter how much evidence a colored person has, they'll always end up being guilty.

As stated in the novel, a white man's words is always won against a black man’s. "The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box"(Chapter 23). In this case the power is in one person’s words based on the color of their skin. Through the eyes of the courtroom nobody was blinded nor equal. The color of one’s skin determined who was guilty and who was innocent.

The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr. Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge… I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury “Guilty… guilty...guilty...guilty...” (Lee 282). Although this could be argued that Tom was convicted dou to the fact that he is black, but ultimately people deep inside will do anything to avoid the risk of endangering their