Tom Robinson was her daily reminder of what she did. “What was the evidence of her offence? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must destroy the evidence of her offence. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim-of necessity she must put him away from her-he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She did something every child has done-she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honoured code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. “I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. “I have nothing to but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. “The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. This case is as simple as black and white. To begin with, this case should have never have come to trial. “Gentlemen ,” he was saying, “I shall be brief, but I would like to use my remaining time with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant.
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