In the days of racism and segregation, before equality was preached, and when colored folk were not looked upon equally with whites, racism would grab hold of a courtroom before written law in trials where the defendant was not white. An excellent literary example of this would be in To Kill a Mockingbird, an extremely symbolic and well-written novel by Harper Lee. In the novel, Tom Robinson, an African-American, is put on trial for allegedly raping Mayella Ewell. Although Atticus reveals signifgant evidence proving Tom Robinson innocent, the jury’s deliberation was that Tom was guilty. Tom Robinson was sentenced to prison. Although To Kill a Mockingbird is only a novel, it draws many parallels to the real injustice of the court system during times of prejudice and racism in America
In the Tom Robinson case, the jury was composed of all white people, who were racist. In Maycomb, mostly everyone who was white was racist. Atticus said about the justice system, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins (Pg. 220).” According to the Constitution, the jury is there to provide a fair trial (ushistory.org). If the whole jury was white and prejudiced, then Tom Robinson was not getting a fair trial. Later in that chapter, Atticus goes on to say that the only reason that it took the jury so long to come to their verdict was they had to convince one of Walter Cunningham’s relatives to decide Tom Robinson was guilty. The only reason he stood up to the facts and tried to vote for Tom’s innocence was that he respected Atticus. A completely unbiased jury who were racially tolerant would have been beneficial for Tom, especially if they had no prior knowledge of the case
Another element that Tom Robinson had working against him in his quest to be proven innocent was the setting of his trial. The trial was held in Maycomb, with the whole town attending, so the aura of the trial was definitely against Tom. If Atticus had requested a change of venue to a neutral setting, even to another part of the state, it wouldn’t have mattered, even though moving the trial would have resulted in it being in a city that wasn’t all atwitter about the incident, and the jury would be unbiased about the case in the sense that they would have no prior information about it (www.criminal-law-lawyer-source.com). None of that matters, though, due to the prejudice and racism of the time. In today’s court, where racism isn’t an issue, the judge and jury would have easily been convinced by Atticus that Tom Robinson was innocent, due to a severe lack of evidence. In today’s court, where racism is not a factor, Bob Ewell would have been smacked silly with the hand of justice. He would have easily been exposed, and most definitely been sentenced to jail on both perjury and domestic violence charges. The sad part is, that is today, and the only reason Tom Robinson didn’t walk home from the courtroom that night an innocent man was the color of his skin, which afflicted everyone in Maycomb’s view of him, and that truly is not fair
The other thing that was unfair in this trial was the lack of evidence that would have proven Tom Robinson guilty. According to the United States Constitution, the defendant is innocent until proven guilty (ushistory.org). In today’s technologically advanced legal system, a simple polygraph test of Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson would give hints to who was lying, as well as a medical test done on Mayella would show whether he raped her or not. However, back before that type of technology, a man’s word was what was went, and, once again, like Atticus said, the white man would win every case against a black man, no matter what. In the courtroom, Bob Ewell did not come up with anything at all that would have proved Tom guilty, the farthest he went was to say he “saw” Tom beating up Mayella. There was much evidence that would suggest that Bob Ewell beat up Mayella, blamed Tom, and tried to make himself a hero. However, nobody bought his story. The only reason Tom was convicted was because he was black. Like the Declaration of Independence states in the first line of the second paragraph, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (Kindig).” What this essentially means is that Tom had been denied these rights, due to an unfair trial, making it unconstitutional, and since the judge saw no problem with the jury’s verdict, even with the lack of incriminating evidence against Tom, it goes to show that the trial was unfair
Despite the fact that it is only a fictional novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, can be compared to actual trials of the post-Depression Era. The racism that ensued in American courtrooms when a person whose skin color was something other than white was appalling. In this case, even though it was fictional, a black man was convicted to prison, even though his trial revealed that there was no evidence proving him guilty. In all, Tom Robinson received an unfair trial, and that is deeply saddening due to the fact that he was one hundred percent innocent
