Judge Taylor Quotes

“Lemme tell you somethin’ now, Billy,” a third said, “you know the court appointed him to defend this n*****.”
“Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.”
This was news, news that put a different light on things: Atticus had to, whether he wanted to or not. I thought it odd that he hadn’t said anything to us about it – we could have used it many times in defending him and ourselves. He had to, that’s why he was doing it, equaled fewer fights and less fussing. But did that explain the town’s attitude? The court appointed Atticus to defend him. Atticus aimed to defend him. That’s what they didn’t like about it. It was confusing.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 16. Scout hears the chatter from court spectators that Atticus had to defend Tom Robinson because he was appointed by Judge Taylor. But he hadn’t told his children that. She is further confused when the chatterers say Atticus aims to put on a defense for Tom and they don’t like this. Atticus wanted to take on Tom’s case because he wants justice to be served and wants to protect people’s rights, and he needs his children to understand how deeply he cares about this. Always the morally principled and excellent father who teaches by example.

So serene was Judge Taylor’s court, that he had few occasions to use his gavel, but he hammered fully five minutes…As Judge Taylor banged his gavel, Mr. Ewell was sitting smugly in the witness chair, surveying his handiwork. With one phrase he had turned happy picknickers into a sulky, tense, murmuring crowd, being slowly hypnotized by gavel taps lessening in intensity until the only sound in the courtroom was a dim pink-pink-pink: the judge might have been rapping the bench with a pencil.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 17. After Bob Ewell testifies that he had “seen that black n***** yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella”, the courtroom erupts and Judge Taylor tries to restore order. The spectactors had gotten what they came for, a cocktail of sex, scandal and hate-mongering, thanks to Ewell’s lies.

Mr. Ewell wrote on the back of the envelope and looked up complacently to see Judge Taylor looking at him as if he were some fragrant gardenia in full bloom on the witness stand, to see Mr. Gilmer half-sitting, half standing at his table. The jury was watching him, one man leaning over with his hands over the railing.
“What’s so intrestin’?” he asked.
“You’re left handed Mr. Ewell,” said Judge Taylor.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 17. Atticus intelligently asks Bob Ewell, who has little control of his lies in the witness box, to write his name on an envelope. Judge Taylor observes Ewell uses his left hand. Atticus believes Ewell beat his daughter Mayella, not Tom Robinson. Ewell’s left-handedness and Tom’s disabled left arm lend weight to this because Mayella was hit on her right side by someone who led with their left hand.

Mr. Link Deas rose from the audience and announced: “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now. That boy’s worked for me eight years an’ I ain’t had a speck o’trouble outa him. Not a speck.”
“Shut your mouth, sir!” Judge Taylor was wide awake and roaring…”Link Deas,” he yelled, “if you have anything you want to say you can say it under oath and at the proper time, but until then you get out of this room, you hear me?…I’ll be damned if I’ll listen to this case again!”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 19. Link Deas courageously stands up in the public gallery during the trial of Tom Robinson and yells out in support of Tom. He earns a rebuke from the judge for his outburst and is sent out of the courtroom.

What happened after that had a dreamlike quality: in a dream I saw the jury return, moving like underwater swimmers, and Judge Taylor’s voice came from far away, and was tiny. I saw something only a lawyer’s child could be expected to see, could be expected to watch for, and it was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but watching all the time knowing that the gun was empty.
A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 21. Scout describes the return of the Tom Robinson trial jury from their deliberations and the voice of Judge Taylor like as if she was in a trance-type state. She knows it will be a guilty verdict, especially when none of the jurors look at Tom Robinson.

Jem and I laughed. Miss Maudie on a jury would be impressive. I thought of old Mrs. Dubose in her wheelchair – “Stop that rapping, John Taylor, I want to ask this man something.” Perhaps our forefathers were wise.

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23. Jem and Scout laugh as they picture Mrs. Dubose on a jury and barking orders at the judge, were women allowed to sit on them. Then Scout remembers how mean Mrs. Dubose was and thinks their forefathers might have been wise in excluding women.

“I proved him a liar but John made him look like a fool. All the time Ewell was on the stand I couldn’t dare look at John and keep a straight face. John looked at him as if he were a three-legged chicken or a square egg. Don’t tell me judges don’t try to prejudice juries.”

– Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 27. Atticus, recalling Judge Taylor’s confused, incredulous expression when he looked at Bob Ewell during Tom Robinson’s trial. The implication being that the Judge was looking at Ewell that way to convey the impression to the jury that his testimony against Robinson was nonsensical.
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