To Kill a Mockingbird: Hard News Story

Tom Robinson’s Shot at Freedom Ends with Him Getting Shot

In the morning just three days after the intensely-observed trial involving the Negro in question, convicted Negro Tom Robinson attempted to escape during his exercise period.

Having gone through a difficult trial, guilty Tom Robinson attempted to get himself out in another way.

It was during the inmates’ exercise period. According to eyewitness accounts, Robinson ran at the fence and tried to get over it. Said a prison guard who declined to be named: “He just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over.”

The prison guards tried to scare Robinson with warning shots. When that did not work, they started to shoot at Robinson.

However, Robinson was moving extremely fast. The prison guards only got him just as he went over the fence. Said another prison guard who declined to be named, “If he’d had two good arms he’d have made it, he was moving that fast.”

Tom Robinson was on trial for a rape case involving Mr. Bob Ewell daughter, Miss Mayella Ewell.

Having lost the case, Robinson was sent to Enfield Prison Farm, seventy miles away from Maycomb, in Chester County. It was in this prison where this incident took place.

This is just like the previous incident, where another black man also forced himself upon a white girl. This black man was also convicted and sent to the chair. This is in turn precedented by another similar case.

Although there have been similar cases, the Robinson case is and has been the most fiercely contested of the lot. Said Miss Alexandra, sister of Robinson’s lawyer Finch, “This is the last straw.”