“What’s the matter?” Aunt Alexandra asked, alarmed by the look on my father’s face.
“Tom’s dead.”
Aunt Alexandra put her hands to her mouth.
“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 – “
– Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 24. A shocked Atticus announces Tom Robinson’s death. Ready to die rather than suffer as an innocent man in prison, Tom ran from the system that put him behind bars for a crime he did not commit.