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to begin with this case should never have come to trial the state has not produced one iota of medical evidence at the crime Tom Robinson is charged with

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never took place it has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question

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on cross-examination but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by

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someone who led almost exclusively with his left and Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses his

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right nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state she is the

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victim of cruel poverty and ignorance now pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake what

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she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt now I say kill death gentlemen because it was guilt that motivated her she's committed no crime

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she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society a code so severe that whoever breaks it as hounded from our midst

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his unfit to live with she must destroy the evidence of her offence but what was the evidence of her offense Tom Robinson a human being she must put Tom Robinson

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away from her Tom Robinson was to her daily reminder of what she did now what did she do she attempted and he grow she was white and she tempted a

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negro she did something that in our society is unspeakable she kissed a black man not an old uncle but a strong young Negro

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man no code method to her before she broke it but it came crashing down on her afterwards

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the witnesses for the state with the exception of the sheriff of Macon County have presented themselves to your gentlemen to this court and the cynical

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confidence the bear testimony would not be doubted confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption the evil assumption that all

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Negroes lie all Negroes are basically a moral beings all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women an assumption that one associates with minds of their

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caliber and which is in itself gentlemen a lie which I do not need to point out to you

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and so a quiet humble respectable Negro who has had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's

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the defendant is not guilty but somebody in this courtroom is now gentlemen in this country our courts are the great levelers in our courts all created equal

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no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and our jury system that's no ideal to me that is a living working reality now I am

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confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard come to a decision and

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restore this man to his family in the name of God do your duty and the name of God believe Tom Robinson

To Kill a Mockingbird - Closing Argument

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