Judge Taylor
At the end of Chapter 16, Judge John Taylor, the judge of Maycomb County
is introduced. Scout calls Judge Taylor “a sleepy old shark”, and the description suits him well.
Judge Taylor is a white-haired old man with a reputation for running his court in an informal fashion, where he shows great respect for Atticus and great distaste for the Ewells. Although Judge Taylor is relatively relaxed and fair, his personal views on the Robinson case come out in subtle ways. Judge Taylor appoints Atticus as Tom’s defense council even when the job should have gone to Maxwell Green, a new, untried lawyer who usually received court appointed cases. Later, Atticus says that the judge looked at Ewell on the witness stand “as if he were a three-legged chicken or a square egg” and continues, “Don’t tell me judges don’t try to prejudice juries”. Despite these attempts to influence the outcome of the case, Judge Taylor is ultimately powerless to prevent the jury from finding Tom guilty on circumstantial evidence. Like Atticus, he works within the system, but it seems that ultimately he can’t overcome the ways in which the system itself is broken.
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is introduced. Scout calls Judge Taylor “a sleepy old shark”, and the description suits him well.
Judge Taylor is a white-haired old man with a reputation for running his court in an informal fashion, where he shows great respect for Atticus and great distaste for the Ewells. Although Judge Taylor is relatively relaxed and fair, his personal views on the Robinson case come out in subtle ways. Judge Taylor appoints Atticus as Tom’s defense council even when the job should have gone to Maxwell Green, a new, untried lawyer who usually received court appointed cases. Later, Atticus says that the judge looked at Ewell on the witness stand “as if he were a three-legged chicken or a square egg” and continues, “Don’t tell me judges don’t try to prejudice juries”. Despite these attempts to influence the outcome of the case, Judge Taylor is ultimately powerless to prevent the jury from finding Tom guilty on circumstantial evidence. Like Atticus, he works within the system, but it seems that ultimately he can’t overcome the ways in which the system itself is broken.
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