Today brought up some very unfamiliar emotions for me. Stress was taking over my mind, which didn't help with the nervous feeling I had felt all morning and the previous night. After getting out the house this morning and seeing the whole entire town there gave me an overwhelming feeling that just made me want to back out and lie at the fact that Tom Robinson was guilty, which in fact he isn't and It was going to be my job to prove him innocent and free to go home and live a normal life with his wife and three kids.
When the trial started I was very unsure about any of the upcoming events. After not being involved with any cases lately, it was a big step for me to defend Tom Robinson, even though I knew I was going to be hated for it, I know it was and still is the right thing to do. With prejudice opinions surrounding me all through the room, I got a wave of anxiety.
Recapping on all techniques was all I could do to prepare myself, besides read over my questions. I knew that I was going to win, mostly because I had all the facts to prove that Tom Robinson never raped Mayella Ewell. When Mr. Heck Tate was up at the witness stand, it was confirmed that he saw nothing of the rape after rushing to Mayella’s house. My first questions were intended to just cover the basics, in which I would hopefully be able to rule out some of the obvious conclusions or possibilities.
When Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father came up to testify, I started by asking him questions that were apparently irrelevant, according to Mr. Gilmer, which was the reason for him objecting. After the objection was overruled, I continued with my correlation between the fact that Bob Ewell used his left hand to write, meaning that if he were to have given her the bruise, then it would have been on her right side of her face, in this case it was.
Being a lawyer is difficult because you have to have strategies in order to determine whether someone is telling the truth or making up stories or thing that indeed never took place. One of my strategies was to listen rather then watch because even the most subtle changes in voice or hesitations can lead to conclusions of true or false. When Mayella got to the witness stand, that’s when some of the real answers were uncovered. Her stealthy movements and hesitations definitely gave me a sign that she wasn’t telling the whole truth, something she swore on the bible to do.
At the end of my interrogation was when I really started to surprise her and uncover the truth, in which she reacted stiffly to, trying to hold in her emotions I could tell. The predicament that she was in and the facial expressions she was giving off told me that something wasn’t right about her story and that she knew that she was busted. After supposedly “mocking her” Tom was up at the stand, which gave all of us a different perspective on the situation, as Tom’s story was extremely different, and truer at that. Asking Tom the questions only helped me to prove he was innocent.
Today’s trial seemed to go very well as expected. I felt much more confident about the case and was pretty sure that I was set to win by this point. Mr. Gilmer was being very rude today, which made me angry, but I know the turnaround will be different once I win.
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