Rough Draft

Innocent until proven guilty               

By: Libby Mercier

Almost every person faces very difficult challenges in their lifetime. Tom Robinson faces a challenge that no one wants to ever encounter. He has to face a trial, with a jury and a judge. The only thing is he is African American and he is put on trial in a racist town. For a crime he did not commit, he was accused of raping a white women. People should not judge a book by its cover because Tom did not do anything and no one believed him.

Tom Robinson was just a nice man trying to support his family and keep his job. That all changed when his life was turned upside down by a false accusation. Tom Robinson was falsely convicted, only because he had a different color skin in a racist town.Tom Robinson was a simple man with a job and a wife that loved him. Until he was accused of raping a white women and nothing for was ever the same again. He was put on trial in a racist town, his attorney was Atticus Finch, he was not racist and he tried his hardest to keep tom out of jail, but sadly all of that effort did not pay off tom was still convicted.

Atticus sacrificed everything to help Tom he also has two kids Scout and Jem, they are also sacrificing a lot just because their dad is defending a person with a different color skin. For example after the trial Tom is convicted and Atticus has accused Bob Ewell of abusing his daughter and he tries to get revenge on Atticus by hurting his kids on halloween. Jem gets a broken arm and scout was wearing a ham for her costume so the wire in it saved her from being stabbed.

Many people in the town are convinced that Tom had raped the woman but atticus knows of his innocence.He tries to get people to wake up and see that he didn’t do it and that maybe it was her father Bob Ewell. Bob  obviously knew that something happened because he tried to kill Atticus’ children. Jem and Scout had many troubles with this trial also because scout’s teacher starts talking one day after the conviction and says that it is well deserved for Tom even though he didn't do anything. No one believed him or atticus because tom had a different color skin then they did, that is the main reason that he got convicted.

During this trial many people get hurt and many people change for the better. For example Bob Ewell died, Tom got convicted for nothing, Toms wife had to get a job and support herself, Jem and scout got attacked, Boo Radley saved people, Atticus killed a rabid dog. Eight out of ten changed too for the better, Scout and Jem learned to take care of themselves, Atticus get a lot of  publicity and even gets a new nickname “one shot finch”, and many other people changed for the better too.