Johnny Cade Trial

Many people are charged for acts they believe were innocent , but others can plead guilty for all the wrong reasons. Johnny Cade was walking through the park on the East side of town with 14 year old, Ponyboy Curtis. As they were walking, Robert Sheldon of the Social gang, had threatened the two young men due to too much alcohol. The two boys were looking for a way to get out of this situation, but the Socials had already surrounded them along with threatening the two. Curtis was beginning to drown when Randy (another member of the Socials) was ordered to by Sheldon. Cade reacted to this by taking a switchblade and suddenly killing Robert leaving a pool of blood near him. As one can state, Johnny Cade should not be charged with manslaughter

That is just what had happened in this situation. Cade had to kill Sheldon because his friend, Ponyboy Curtis and Cade had a special brotherly like connection, and Cae knew it was either Curtis's life over Sheldons. The switchblade had prevented the death of Curtis who was not the aggressor, but the victim. Cade did this for fear for his own life and that he has been in such circumstances where he has been beaten up very badly. It states in page 57 “I had to. They were drowning you Pony. they might have killed you!” this shows that Johnny stated that his actions towards Bob Sheldon were an act of self-defense. Johnny said, “’I had to. They were drowning you, Pony. They might have killed you. And they had a blade... they were gonna beat me up....’" (page 57). So, what he’s saying was that he killed Bob Sheldon because Bob Sheldon was “drowning” Ponyboy, but actually it was not Bob who was drowning Ponyboy. David, another Soc, was the person who was drowning Ponyboy. As Bob clearly commanded, “’you could use a bath, greaser. And a good working over. And we've got all night to do it. Give the kid a bath, David.’” (page 55). Sheldon ordered another person to harm Curtis, causing Cade to react