From a reader’s point of view, we think that Jefferson is
innocent. The reason is that the book leans us towards his side. We mostly get
Jefferson's side of the story and we know that the all-white jury is likely stacked
against him. This makes us empathize with Jefferson due to the unfairness of it
all. However, we shouldn’t just so quickly write off the verdict as unfair. We should also look at the evidence from the jury’s point of view.
The evidence
of the incident at the store is pretty clear cut since no one tries to refute
it. You have two people, Brother and Bear who start causing trouble. They are
both trying to buy alcohol, except neither of them have enough money. Bear, who
is clearly drunk, starts to act against the warnings that the store owner, Mr.
Grope, has given him. Of course, a confrontation, and then a shootout begins
and by the end of it, only Jefferson is alive at the store. Then, Jefferson “snatched
a bottle off the shelf, wrung off the cap, and turned up the bottle, all in one
continuous motion” and took money from the cash register. These actions sort of
make him seem shady. Also, there were two witness who saw Jefferson. They saw
him with “the money stuffed inside his jacket pocket, the half bottle of
whiskey clutched in his hand…” This gives the prosecution and idea for what
happened inside.
If I was
the jury, I probably would think Jefferson robbed the store. You have three dead
men in the store and another man drinking whiskey and with money in his pocket.
You also have two men who claimed they saw the same man drinking with money in
their pocket from the register inside. For me, if the defense didn’t deny this
evidence, what happened inside the store would be pretty clear cut to me. I
would think that someone just robbed a store and was drinking in celebration. I
wouldn’t think that Jefferson’s story about how he acted dumb and was in the
wrong place at the wrong time was true. I would think that he committed murder
of the first degree. This shows us that when we are approaching A Lesson Before Dying, we should do it
with an open mind, so that we get both perspectives rather than just one.
Oh you have a very interesting perspective when reading this book. I automatically just assumed that Jefferson is innocent because usually in books the "main character" is usually the good one.
ReplyDeleteOoooh hmm yeah I think we talked about this in class. I see your point, if we didn't have Jefferson's story as a solid point of evidence, it might be hard to know who to believe. But something we pointed out was that Jefferson wasn't shot by Mr. Grope while the others were. This could've been a coincidence, but I think this shows at least something in that Jefferson wasn't guilty. Also I think Mr. Grope and Jefferson were somewhat friends/ knew each other before this? So that also may be a point, like Jefferson wouldn't do that to someone he knew. But yeah, with the evidence given and the uncertainty about Jefferson's story, I can see why this could go both ways.
ReplyDeleteIm liking the more legal analysis of the actual crime, but the way it was carried out in the courthouse was super one sided. The jury (supposedly) worked with the case evidence, but the defense just appealed to emotion, essentially by saying Jefferson is too stupid to have committed a crime. This is not a legal defense........ So saying that the jury had legal evidence and we can see where they came from feels pretty hollow to me
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely true that Jefferson is guilty of some crime. We know that he did in fact try to steal money, and so it is obvious that he is not completely innocent. However, I think that the book makes it clear that Jefferson is mostly innocent, and that he was unjustly sentenced to execution. Jefferson should not have been sentenced to execution, even if you take into account that he attempted to steal. Especially considering the time and the setting of this book, I think that the emphasis is more on the fact that this was another case of an innocent black man unjustly sentenced to death by a white racist jury. Also, if Jefferson truly was completely guilty as charged, then there is no meaning or purpose behind him dying as a man, because he got what he deserved and this is no longer a fight against the cycle of racism in the South.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly an interesting perspective, but much more light has been cast upon this subject in recent chapters. Most notably, Jefferson's journal and his last thoughts before his execution. If he were guilty, I feel like he would have put that in his journal, just for Grant to read. The fact that he didn't, that even just before his death, he didn't just maintain his innocence but rather hardly mentioned his conviction tells me that he really is innocent.
ReplyDeleteI agree that when we started with the first few chapters, I wasn't completely sure Jefferson was innocent. I know we assumed he was for class discussions, but it would be interesting to reread the book with the assumption he was guilty.
ReplyDelete