![]() No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. Now, what did she do? She tempted a Negro. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. She's committed no crime - she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. 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. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. ![]() And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewel was beaten - savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. 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 that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place.
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