How Does Tom Robinson Have A Fair Trial In To Kill A Mockingbird

Jenna Besnecker

Mr. Ciarrocca

English I

11 April 2016

“Unsettling research into the psychology of courtroom decisions has shown that our personal backgrounds, unconscious biases about race, gender and appearance, and even the time of day play a more important role in outcomes than the actual law” (Swanson 1). In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the impact of one’s race in court becomes evident when an innocent black man, Tom Robinson, is convicted for rape of a white girl. In “When the Public Defender Says, ‘I Can’t Help,’” Derwyn Bunton emphasizes how innocent poor people are often sentenced jail time due to a lack of funding and representation. Judges quickly convict the impoverished, as these unfortunate people cannot afford a lawyer

Tom Robinson, an innocent, black man, is convicted for rape of Mayella Ewell by a jury made up of white men. Tom is setup to fail from the very beginning since it is his word against the word of of a white girl. In any court case, “when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee 295). The jury is able to make their decision about the case just by looking at the color of Tom’s skin. Even his exceptional lawyer, Atticus Finch, is unable to convince the jury that he is not the guilty one. Atticus mentions, “A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up” (Lee 274). The jury in Maycomb is the reason for the inequality that exists in the trials since it is made up of bias white men. The lack of representation of all races in the jury is creating an imbalance and allowing for the whites to be favored. By forming this jury, Maycomb is failing to provide every citizen with their rights. A black man was never granted his right to a fair trial in the 1930s as a result of the unjust American legal system that