Why the Trial was Constitutionally Unfair

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird there are many moments of injustice, the biggest one was the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. In the trial, Tom was wrongfully convicted of raping Mayela Ewell. It was made clear that she was beaten by her father and was ashamed of that fact. Because of this, she went against the constitution just to cover up her actions. 

In this trial, many unconstitutional acts have been committed against Tom. one of which was, perjury. During the case, she was actively lying about the actions of Tom Robinson. “All right, why didn’t you run? I tried to. Tried to? What kept you from it? I-he slung me down. That's what he did, he slung me down and got on top of me.” In this testimony, Mayela lied about Tom being there and giving her those injured in reality it was her dad who dad and made her testify.

During the trial, they broke the sixth amendment. It states that In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury. When the verdict was decided it was obvious that the jury was impartial because Atticus’s case was much stronger and the other guy was barely responding or countering his points. Without an impartial jury, the trail went their way and the girl was safe whereas Tom wasn’t.

Throughout the book, this trial was one of the main parts because it highlights prejudice against blacks in the ’30s some of these prejudices were unconstitutional and they were, perjury and breaking the sixth amendment. In the end, this is what got Tom convicted, bias from other people.