White People and Suspect Court Cases

            OK. So It's pretty fair to say that anyone who has read chapters 17 through 21 in To Kill a Mockingbird noticed many problems in the court trials. Some of those stories that don't add up have have been put into clear view with the prosecution worksheet we got in class yesterday. If we're being direct, Tom is innocent so lets keep this one short. First lets talk about the little alliance we've got going on between some of the four witnesses. Mr. Tate and Bob Ewell obviously talked before this trial. Bob has Mayella scared and hushed up the whole time. We see this on page 245 when Atticus asks Mayella if she loves her father up at the stand. She said he's "tollable, 'cept when-" yup you guys can guess what happens next. She looks at her dad and he give her the look. We've all gotten the look before, either from our parents or out friends or Mr. Hawks at school. The look that dares you to utter another word. So Mayella shuts up, that is until her father relaxes and she isn't afraid to nod in agreement to Atticus. Basically its Heck, Bob, and Mayella against Tom. Tom who is in a very unfair situation. We can't overlook the racial inequalities in this situation either. I mean, look at what we've got here. A couple of white people being tried against a black man...in the South...in the early 1930's. What was expected when there's a racist white jury? Moving on to the testimonies. (The testimonies that were sworn to be true.) It seems that Bob and Heck didn't have enough time to formulate a good story but the jury eat up their lies anyways. So Bob sees Tom having sex with Mayella and he gets mad. He gets so mad that he decides to go tell his friend about it. So he leaves his daughter who is fighting for her life and getting beat up by a crippled black man and goes to his friend Heck's place and tells him to come look. Heck goes back to the house alone and finds Mayella, who was either hollering or passed out (we've heard both) and takes her to the watering hole to clean her up. This makes sense cause its normal for your dad's friends to wash your face after unconsented sex. At this point Bob is either chasing Tom or calling a sheriff. Mayella has finger marks on her gullet and a black eye but this doesn't warrant any type of medical attention. Mayella is lying through her teeth up at the stand. Tom is telling the truth. They should've asked the seven other kids who live with Mayella if Tom had ever come over to help out before, or if this was his first time. Anyways, Ewell gets what he wanted. The obviously abusive father walks free. Before this post is over, lets talk about George Stinney. The 14 year old boy was accused of murdering two pre-teen white girls in South Carolina around 1944. The all white and southern jury had no evidence against this boy. The only reason they had to question him was because he and his sister had spoken to the girls before they were murdered and a couple police officers claimed he confessed it to them in secret. George Stinney was killed on the electric chair at age 14 making him the youngest person executed in the 20th century. Last year in December though, some new evidence popped up. He was declared innocent. Just a tad bit too late. Hmmm...

cases of white people wrongfully accusing black people