In the trial of Tom Robinson, Mr Tate gave his evidence first. He said what had happened from his point of view. He told the court that Mayella had been ‘pretty bruised up’ and that ‘she had a black eye comin’.’ When Atticus heard this he asked which eye was bruised, and Mr Tate said it was the right side of her face. After Mr Tate had given his evidence, it was Mr Ewell’s turn. Mr Ewell said that he heard Mayella screaming and so he ran to her. When he got to the house he ran inside just as Tom ran outside. Rather than chasing Tom he ran to Mr Tate and then ran back to Mayella.
Atticus asked Mr Ewell if, in all his running he had gone to fetch a doctor. Mr Ewell said that although Mayella was bruised up she hadn’t needed a doctor. Atticus asked Mr Ewell if he could write his name. When he did so, everyone noticed that he was left handed. Most people including Mr Ewell didn’t understand what that had to do with the trial. Mr Ewell did panic a bit because he suddenly said that he could write with both hands. After Mr Ewell had given his evidence, it was clear to the jury that everything that he had just said was a lie.
When Mayella testified, she said that she had asked Tom Robinson to break up a chiffarobe for her. When she had gone into the house, Tom had followed her without her noticing. When she turned around he was standing behind her. Atticus said to Mayella ‘You said he “got you around the neck cussing and saying dirt!” is that right?’ Mayella said it was. Then Atticus asked if that was when Tom took advantage of her, and again Mayella said that it was. Mayella said that she was beaten around the right side of her face, but when Atticus asked Tom to stand up they all noticed that Tom’s left hand was crippled so he couldn’t have hit Mayella on the right side of her face unless he hit oddly.
When it was Tom’s turn to testify he said that Mayella had asked him to bust up a chiffarobe and lots of odd jobs on different occasions but on November 21st of last year she had asked him to help her get a box down from a chiffarobe, (not the same one that he had already broken up). He got up on a chair and went to get the box down but Mayella grabbed his legs. He was so surprised that he got off the chair knocking it over but that was all the furniture that he had disturbed.
Mayella had then kissed him on the side of the face and then asked him to kiss her back. ‘She says she never kissed a grown man before an’s she might as well kiss a nigger. She says what her papa do to her don’t count.’ I said to her ‘“Miss Mayella, lemme outa here” an’ I tried to run but she got her back to the door an’ I’da had to push her. I didn’t wanta harm her, Mr Finch, an’ I say “lemme pass,” but just when I say it Mr Ewell yonder hollered through th’ window.”
Atticus asked Tom what Mr Ewell had said but Tom said that it was something that wasn’t right to repeat with children around, but Atticus made it clear that he had to tell the court what Mr Ewell had said. So Tom said with his eyes shut tight. ‘He says: “You goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya.”’ When Atticus asked Tom who Mr Ewell had been speaking to, Tom said that he had been speaking and looking at Mayella. That was when he had escaped and he didn’t know what happened because he had ran so fast that he wasn’t there long enough to find out. Atticus asked Tom why he had run so fast, and Tom said it was because he was scared, Atticus asked him why he was scared, and Tom said “Mr Finch, if you were a nigger like me, you’d be scared too.”
Mr Gilmer moved in next. He asked Tom if Mr Ewell had run him off the place and Tom said that he didn’t think he had, because he didn’t stay long enough for him to of run him off. Mr Gilmer asked Tom why he ran so fast and Tom said that he was scared. Mr Gilmer asked Tom why he was so scared if he had a clear conscience. Tom said again that it wasn’t safe for a nigger to be in a fix like that but Mr Gilmer said that he wasn’t in a fix because he had testified that he was resisting Miss Ewell he asked Tom if her was scared that Mayella would hurt him, if that was why he ran. Tom said it wasn’t because he was scared Miss Mayella would hurt him, but because he was scared of being in court like he was now. Mr Gilmer asked if he was scared of arrest and facing up to what he had done and Tom said he wasn’t scared of facing up to what he had done because he hadn’t done anything but he was scared of facing up to what he hadn’t done.
We don’t know what else Mr Gilmer asked Tom because Jem made Scout take Dill outside because he was crying, and because Scout is the person telling the story we see what she sees and we miss what she misses. We do know that when Scout goes back in the trial Tom is found guilty and sentenced to death. Scout and Jem don’t understand this conviction because in their view Tom was innocent.
In the end Tom wasn’t killed by an electric chair but by bullets shot from a gun. He had tried to escape by climbing over the fence, the guards shouted at him to stop and then they shot a few in the air to put him off. When he didn’t stop they started shooting at him and when he fell to the bottom they found seventeen bullet holes in him...
The conclusion of this terrible end for Tom Robinson is that they didn’t just want to stop him from escaping but they used him as a sort of practise target. Everyone knows that one or two bullets is enough to kill someone but seventeen bullets is enough to mutilate someone.
Tom Robinson was in no way guilty. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he was used as a scape goat for Bob Ewell. Who as everyone now knows, was the one who abused and beat Mayella. The reason that Mayella went along with what her father said was because she was scared of what he might do.
No praise was given to Tom Robinson for being a good man, even though he was law abiding and honest. In contrast, Bob Ewell, who everyone knows is an awful father. Who abuses his daughter and drinks all the money that should be used for children. He even acts like a filthy, rude, drunk at the trial who lied about what happened to clear his own name. Yet all Tom ever said was the truth, but because of his colour everyone over looked the truth and the whole reason of ‘Justice’ and sentenced him to death. And for what? Justice? Well Tom Robinson finally got justice, because Bob Ewell was killed when he attacked Jem and Scout, unfortunately for Tom, it was too late.
The trail was a major point in both Jem and Scout’s lives. They learned that the world and people are selfish and cruel. Their innocence held true right till the end of the trial, and the whole way through they believed that Tom would be found innocent like he was. It’s only the innocence of a child that can be pure, non expectant and true. It’s because if the influence it had on Scout and her brother Jem, and infact the rest of Maycomb, that the trial is in many ways the central part of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’.
