In Chapter 24 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, improperly convicted of raping a white woman by a racist jury in this southern Alabama town, has been sent to the Enfield Prison Farm where he awaits the final disposition of his sentence. As Atticus points out to Jem, “You know rape’s a capital offense in Alabama,” clearly implying that Tom will be executed for a crime he didn't commit. Once at the prison farm, Tom apparently has had enough of the racism that has ruined what life he had and understandably has no confidence in a criminal justice system that has railroaded him on the basis of flimsy, contrived circumstantial evidence. Even though Atticus is confident that he can win an appeal of Tom's conviction, the framed inmate cannot conceptualize such an outcome and -- according to the prison guards -- decided to make a run for it. As Atticus describes the chain of events,
“They shot him,” said Atticus. “He was running. It was during their exercise
period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them—”
Tom was shot seventeen times by the guards and died.
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