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  • To begin with,

  • this case should never have come to trial.

  • The State has not produced one iota...

  • of medical evidence...

  • that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with...

  • ever took place.

  • lt has relied, instead,

  • upon the testimony of two witnesses...

  • whose evidence has not only been called into serious question...

  • on cross-examination,

  • but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant.

  • There is circumstantial evidence to indicate that...

  • Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely...

  • by someone who led, almost exclusively, with his left.

  • Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath...

  • with the only good hand he possesses,

  • his right.

  • l have nothing but pity in my heart...

  • for the chief witness for the State.

  • She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance.

  • But my pity...

  • does not extend so far...

  • as to her putting a man's life at stake,

  • which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt.

  • Now l say ''guilt,'' gentlemen,

  • because it was guilt that motivated her.

  • She's committed no crime.

  • She has merely broken a rigid and time-honored...

  • code of our society--

  • a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst...

  • as unfit to live with.

  • She must destroy the evidence...

  • of her offense.

  • But what was the evidence of her offense ?

  • Tom Robinson, a human being.

  • She must put Tom Robinson away from her.

  • Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder...

  • of what she did.

  • Now, what did she do ?

  • She tempted a Negro.

To begin with,

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