Bias In To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

Words: 433
Pages: 2

Biases in Court
In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, many people of Maycomb County discriminate against black people. Since most people discriminate against black people, some judges are bias and will choose the white man over the black man. In the Tom Robinson case, the judges either had a bias or did not want people thinking of them poorly if they chose a black man over a white man. In Harper Lee’s novel ,To Kill A Mockingbird ,it’s about justice and reveals that, even in court where things are supposed to be unbiased, men’s hearts bring in their own hatred. After the jury made the decision to convict Tom Robinson of being guilty, Atticus tells Jem about his view of what happened. Atticus says to Jem,"There's something in our world that makes men lose their
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If the jury consisted of multiple races, the outcome could have been different. A jury consisting of multiple races could make the decision more fair because each person might have a different bias. In addition to the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, there have been issues with the influence of race on justice today, which is further explained in the article "Black defendants, white jurors: Does race make a difference in the court?”. The article by Randy Furst further explains that, “A 2001 study by William Bowers, Benjamin Steiner and Marla Sandys found that the more whites there were on the jury, the harsher the jury was to nonwhite defendants” (Furst 3), Furst’s reference to, “the harsher the jury was to nonwhite defendants”, has a very similar meaning to what Atticus said to Jem. Both quotations portray that an all white jury have certain biases that aren’t fair. These biases affect the results in court. Randy Furst shows that an all white jury can be very bias when the case involves other races. Some of the society today still has biases towards other races. These biases can be seen in court just like in To Kill A Mockingbird. People’s biases can have an impact on justice