One of the issues that is in young scouts life. she doesn 't understand the Capital Punishment towards African Americans.
Back in Colonial America the death penalty was used for many reasons. It was influenced by Europe because that 's where the pilgrims came from. You could be sentenced to death for stealing chickens, being a spy for Spain, and trading with Indians. Every colony was different from using it. Though capital punishment was never completely outlawed. It is at all time low of 42%.
In America 31 states still to this day have the death penalty in use. Most of the states that condone the punishment use it on 1st degree murder. Others use the death penalty for rapists and child kidnappers in which the victim ends up dead. 19 states abolished death sentence in recent years, like New
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Now a days 98% of the death penalty is associated with white people. While only 2% percent is involve with black people. Back in scouts time those numbers were flipped. This disproportion shows that black people are not as crazy as white people. On top of that the crimes that whites commit are not similar in any way to those of African Americans.
In To Kill A Mockingbird the death penalty is sentenced to Tom Robinson. He is accused of raping the plantations daughter. There is clear evidence that he did not do it, the case is held in a courthouse where the jury and judge are racist. With that being said only Atticus is Tom 's only chance of winning. Atticus is not racist and wants to win. But the jury concludes that Tom is guilty. In scouts eyes even if there 's a clear reason not to do something people still did it cause of their
Even though Atticus was pointing out obvious ways that Tom could not have raped or hurt Mayella, the jury would not pick in favor of a black man, no matter how innocent he may
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama, where racism is a very big problem. In to Kill a Mockingbird they talk about a case where Tom Robinson (A black man) supposedly “raped” a white woman. In the case, Atticus was defending Tom Robinson and made very strong points and proved the Ewells wrong but still ended up losing because the courtroom favorited the Ewells because they were white. Tom Robinson on his side of the story said that he did not rape her and that she actually tried to kiss him. All that the Ewells could say was Tom Robinson tried to rape her, but they had no evidence and were trying to avoid Atticus’s questions that proved Tom innocently.
As said by Atticus,” I don’t know but they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep.” (213). Because Tom is judged guilty Atticus believes that the justice system is sometimes unfair and unethical, to colored people and it may continue that way for a long time.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee depicts the tragic case of Tom Robinson, an innocent African American man, who was wrongly accused of a crime that never existed, a dream of a white woman who broke a moral code in the 1930s. For this crime of fantasy he was subject to the truth of an electric chair, although he never saw this chair, the result was the same, death. This brings us to our next question, how do we have the power to take a life? Will we ever have enough facts or an unbiased jury to carry out this ultimate punishment? The answer is no.
Tom is prejudged when people assume he is guilty just because of his race which destroys his innocence. After Atticus shares his closing statement he says, “In the name of God, believe him” (Lee 206) Atticus knows the jury will have a hard time believing his statement because of Tom’s skin color. The whole courtroom heard the evidence and understands that Mr. Robinson is innocent in their head, but their eyes deceive them because of the society they were brought up in where they believe other races are not equal. Tom Robinson is clearly innocent, but the evidence is avoided by the jury proving he is similar to the mocking bird and it being
The jury is all white people and is biased against Tom Robinson. As it is evident in the following quote, Atticus says to Scout why he still decides to defend Tom Robinson even though the chance of their victory is quite slight: “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started us no reason for us nor to try to win,” (Lee 101). Atticus agrees to persevere and do his best to give Tom Robinson the equality he deserves. Even though it is very likely that he will not win for Tom Robinson, he exhibits empathy towards Tom by not doubting victory. As it is illustrated in the following passage, Atticus does not take racism lightly: “the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber… this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men” (Lee 273).
In my opinion that is truly unfair. It makes sense as to why Atticus decided to defend Tom Robinson. He continuously tries to find the good in everyone and believes that the black community contains good people. Atticus had mentioned to his brother, Jack, that Tom was innocent but “doomed”. It was impossible
Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is a legal process in which a person is put to death as a punishment for a crime by the government of a nation. The United States is in the minority group of nations that uses the death penalty. There are thirty-three states that allow capital punishment and seventeen states that abolished it (Death Penalty Information Center). The morality of the death penalty has been debated for many years. Some people want capital punishment to be abolished due to how it can cost a lot more than life imprisonment without parole, how they think it is immoral to kill, and how innocent people can be put to death.
Tom’s case was extremely unfair because the jury was all prejudice people. Atticus shares his morals in the courtroom, You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men” (217). It was clear that the people in the court do know that what Atticus says is true. Atticus was given instruction to be Tom’s lawyer, he truly tried his best to convince the jury that Tom was
In order to understand the Eighth Amendment and how it pertains to To Kill A Mockingbird, one needs to understand the unjust ways the death penalty was implemented in the 1930’s with minority groups, especially African Americans. To this day, some still argue over whether the death penalty is discriminating towards African Americans and other minority groups or if it is even constitutional. In the novel, Atticus Finch, a white man, accepts the challenge of defending a black man, Tom Robinson for the accusation of raping and beating a white woman. Atticus is aware of the challenges he will face to persuade the judge and jury that Tom Robinson is innocent, as well as the backlash he and his family will be subjected to as a result of defending a black man. For example Atticus’ kids, Jem and Scout, were getting treated differently because “...Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers.”
After Atticus loses his trial, Jem notices that the Maycomb County justice system is broken and it needs help, “Then it all goes back to the jury, then. We oughta do away with juries. ”(294) This shows that Jem now understands that people are racist in everything and racism needs to be fought. On top of realizing that the justice system is in shambles, Jem realized that Tom Robinson’s case was very good at showing that.
Ultimately, the jury, not Atticus, declare Tom Robinson innocent or guilty. Atticus is trying to encourage the jury to do what is right, rather than do what society dictates, which is that they must convict a black man. By refusing to do so, they jury threaten the justice system and the equality Jefferson spoke passionately about. Despite Atticus’s logical argument, the jury of Maycomb could not be swayed from their prejudiced, racist views and declared Tom Robinson guilty.
Throughout the whole trial there are multiple times when anyone who reads the novel knows that he is not getting a fair shake. The first time is when Atticus delivers his closing remarks and he says something that is very powerful and also very true about the case and Tom receiving an unfair trial, “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 203). What Atticus explains is that no matter how plain it is to everyone that Tom is innocent and could not have commited the crime, it does not matter because one thing is certain, Tom is black. And the jury being white means he has no chance at winning, it’s truly sad, but during the time of the trial that 's just how society works.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem, Scout, and Dill’s innocence is destroyed. They lose their carefree and happy existence through the ignorance and racism in their hometown of Maycomb. Initially, the children believe everyone in Maycomb is friendly. They do not understand the racism occurring in their town until Tom Robinson’s trial. After observing the Tom Robinson trial, the children’s view of some of the citizens in their town change because of the hatred against blacks and the obvious injustice in the courtroom.
In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is shown that when people view justice through the eyes of society, true justice no longer exists. Despite all of Atticus’ effort to prove Tom’s innocence, he is declared guilty and sent to prison. During his trial, it eventually becomes apparent that Tom is innocent, but the entire trial was never actually about who the real convict was because, to society, it all came down to White v. Black. Atticus recognized this, and sadly found that even hoping for the innocent Tom Robinson to go free was a lost cause. He had known, from the beginning, what side society had chosen: race over true justice.