Law Commons^™

Defending The Guilty: Lawyer Ethics In The Movies, J. Thomas Sullivan

Missouri Law Review

For many, Attorney Atticus Finch’s (Gregory Peck) representation of an innocent African-American accused of rape by a Southern white woman in Depression-era Alabama by the town’s most imposing citizen, in To Kill a Mockingbird, represents the consummate portrayal of the lawyer’s discharge of his ethical duty to his client. Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) is falsely accused of rape by Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox), the daughter of a lower-class, white bigot, Bob Ewell (James Anderson), who caught her at tempting to physically seduce Robinson, an African-American. The Ewells, clearly influenced by the father’s racial hatred, address Mayella’s unacceptable sexual appetite …