Please consider this correspondence an appeal for my client Thomas Robinson. This is a serious request for a review of the charges and ruling brought against Thomas Robinson. There is a substantial amount of evidence that the charges Mr. Robinson has recently been charged with are unjust and flawed. As you know Thomas Robinson was charged with rape, which is a capital offence in Alabama. However, the testimonies of four witnesses, three of which did not in fact witness the alleged rape, should not be enough to condemn a man to death unless actual proof can be provided.
About a year passed form the first time Mayella Ewell asked Tom Robinson to help her with a household chore to the day he was accused of sexual assault. As Tom Robinson stated,
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However, it was established in the court hearing by Mr. Robinson’s previous lawyer Atticus Finch that Mayella's father is left handed. The county sheriff stated that no one called a doctor to inspect Mayella's injuries because, "It wasn't necessary, Mr. Finch. She was mighty banged up. Something sho' happened, it was obvious." Is it not essential to consider the very real possibility that her left hand dominant father was instead the inflictor of the injuries? Why then is there not a medical report of the injured previously referred to.
This point is furthered flawed as Tom Robinson is crippled on the left side of his body making it notably more difficult to overcome Ms. Ewell by sheer force. It is implausible to assume a man who could only use his right arm would be capable of beating up a woman whose injuries were reported to have been mostly on the left side of her body.
To conclude I strongly urge you to reconsider the outcome of this case. There is serious evidence that a man could be condemned to death for a crime that he is not proven to have
Oh yes that would make it her right. It was her right eye, Mr. Finch (Lee 192). This evidence shows that Mayella had all the bruises on the right side of her body which means Tom Robinson would have to use his left arm, but his left arm was useless because he got it caught in a cotton gin. BASIS OF GUILT On November 21, 1935, Tom Robinson was accused of beating and raping Mayella Ewell because Sheriff Heck Tate had a poor investigation of the case.
In the novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Harper Lee categorizes power using class, race and gender. Mayella Ewell, living in Maycomb, Alabama, starts allegations that Tom, a poor-Negro man of rape. Living in the South during the 1930s could have been difficult but Mayella, a white women can make it. (“DBQ is Mayella Ewell powerful?” 19) states “-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around are women….”, meaning she will most likely win the trial because of her race.
After the supposed crime, Mr. Ewell and Sheriff Tate, the sheriff, said that Mayella had many bruises on the right side of her body, indicating the person hurting her must have been left-handed. Atticus, Tom's lawyer, later revealed that Tom's “left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side” (Lee 211). Due to his left arm's impairment, he could not have possibly hit Mayella and left her with all those bruises and wounds, which indicated that another person had abused her. If Tom was not the one who had maltreated her, who would be able to, Mr. Ewell, who had been embarrassed and ashamed of his daughter's behavior, had assaulted her and assigned blame to Tom. If Mayella had told the truth about what happened, she would have received a much more severe beating at home and possibly even death or exile at the hands of her father.
The inquiry focused on the case being an issue of racism within the Justice System due to an unconventional fact of systemic racism, which is a society structured a certain way that then causes the system to treat minorities different than they treat the majority. There were many different points through Donald Marshall Jr.’s journey with the Supreme Court that led the inquiry to view the conviction was the cause of racism and simply not just a wrongful conviction, main reason being that there was no substantial evidence that could have placed Seale’s death in Marshall’s hands. Also that Donald Marshall Jr. was a Mi’kmaq Native man who was “worth” less in the community than the majority race (white). The main reason that the Inquiry was
The Ewell’s making up a false rape charge towards Tom Robinson is one of the people who caused the death of Tom. Bob Ewell, father of the family, was a drunk. Lonely, 19 year old Mayella Ewell is the oldest of the Ewell children. Mayella was being beaten by Bob and to cover up for her father she went on with
The saddening thing is, that the whole scenario started because Mayella attempted to seduce Tom, and her father found out. Filled with rage, Mr. Ewell beat his daughter, he found it unacceptable that his daughter fancied a black man. Then, he claimed that Tom raped his daughter to cover everything up. There are even cases such as Tom’s happening to this day, such as the case of Miguel Angel Peña Rodriguez Vs. Colorado. The jury was corrupted by bias thoughts which resulted in an unfair trial.
In the part two of the book, Tom Robinson, a black man is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The social norm of this time was to respect whites, and treat blacks differing. Therefore, it was a sin for Tom to disrespect Mayella. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and respected white man fought for Tom and bravely tried as his lawyer. On trial, there was evidence that Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father beat, and raped her.
I agree that someone was guilty of beating or raping Miss Mayella Ewell, but based upon all evidence brought upon us by the witnesses, Tom Robinson could not, and should not, be convicted for a crime that he likely did not
Bob Ewell, Mayella 's father, gets drunk and abuses Mayella. He possibly even sexually abused Mayella. Not to mention, Mayella had enough of the abuse and got an idea. In addition to this, Mayella thought since she was a white woman she could blame an African American man, Tom Robinson, of rape and if her father sees, he will
Atticus asks Mr. Ewell, “Mr. Ewell, can you read and write?” This is a strong point in proving that Tom Robinson is innocent on hurting Mayella because if Tom were to have hit her, her left eye would be black, not her right. “Will you write your name and show us?” He asks again, in which Mr. Ewell stands and writes on the back of envelope; he writes left-handed. This is a strong point that Atticus’s used to persuade the jurors to show Bob Ewell’s left hand would have had to connect with her right eye, not Mr. Robinsons right hand.
Perceptions are often incorrect when one is unwilling to believe or does not have all of the facts. These inaccurate perceptions can lead to false accusations, which in turn can cause an immense amount of suffering. In the case of Tom Robinson, other’s perception of him and people of his race led to a false accusation against him. More specifically, the people of the Southern town of Maycomb perceived African Americans to be uneducated and untrustworthy, thereby declaring the Negroes as inferior to themselves. When Tom Robinson ran from the Ewell home upon the arrival of Bob Ewell, the unkempt and unreliable father of the alleged rape victim, it was assumed that Robinson had done something of suspicion.
Although it is clear to a lot of people who live in Maycomb that Tom Robinson did not actually rape Mayella Ewell the judge still goes on and decides he is guilty. This is truly not fair. Atticus explains to Jem, “No jury in this part of the world’s going to say, We think you’re guilty, but not very, on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing.”
Have you ever wondered, do I have blind spots? Do others have blind spots? What is a blind spot? A blind spot is when a person doesn't realize that they are missing something on a topic and sometimes end up hurting others. Everyone has blind spots.
Mayella Ewell is a victim. Mayella is a victim of her father, Bob Ewell, because he is an alcoholic that abuses her. During the Tom Robinson trial, Atticus proved Bob Ewell to be left-handed. Based on Bob and Heck Tate’s testimonies, Mayella’s right eye was blackened
Tom Robinson is a young African-American who's been accused of raping and abusing Mayella Ewell, a young and closeted white woman. Racial discrimination is hinted throughout Tom’s trial as Atticus Finch explains to Jem that a white man’s word will always win over that of a black man’s - "... In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (220). Atticus explains to Jem that in the courts of Maycomb, a black man’s state of innocence or guilt is truly determined by a white man’s testimony.