35 pages • 1 hour read
Chris CroweMississippi Trial, 1955
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
The time leading up to the trial drags slowly for Hiram and his anxiety heightens. The news comes out that the grand jury indicted Milam and Bryant for both murder and kidnapping. The trial is scheduled to start September 19th. Hiram thinks “Nine days. Only nine days to decide whether or not I’d tell the truth if I had to sit in the witness chair” (149). While at the courthouse with Grampa, Hiram goes down to see Mr. Paul, who obliquely gives him advice about how to handle the trial. He tells him that he needs to assess what is right and wrong and “make yourself do the right thing. Do that and no matter what happens, no matter what people say, you’ll have no regrets” (152). That night, at the bridge, Naomi does not show, so Hiram is left to deal with his thoughts and conscience on his own. He formulates the resolve to do what is right and he knows that is to testify and tell the truth if called upon during the trial.
Chapter 14 Summary
Up to the night before the trial, Hiram continues to argue with Grampa about testifying, but Hiram tells him that he has no choice. Monday morning, they make the drive up to the courthouse for day one of the trial. The room is hot, noisy and overcrowded. The first day was purely for jury selection, with attorney general Gerald Chatham arguing with the defense lawyer, J.J. Breland, over who to select. When Hiram tells Grampa he does not need to come back the next day with him, Grampa’s muttered reply that he has his own reasons for being there surprises him, and “now I wasn’t sure why he didn’t want me mixed up in the trial” (163).
Once the trial begins, Breland’s cross-examinations continue to overturn all the points Chatham is making for his prosecution. Emmett’s mother eventually takes the witness stand, asserting that it is definitely her son who was found dead in the river. The next witness, Willie Reed, recounts how he saw the pickup truck the men had used to pick up Emmett outside a bar and he heard someone getting beat up inside. The mentioning of the pickup truck makes Grampa fidgety and breathe heavily, which concerns Hiram.
Chapter 15 Summary
A thunderstorm greets the Friday morning of the trial, and “everybody was waiting for something big to happen”(186). Chatham gives his closing remarks, requesting that the jury see this case for what it truly is: the horrible murder of a child. Breland’s closing statement again states that they cannot let the North come in and “destroy the South” and that they “have got to use our legal system to protect our God-given freedoms” (190). The jury deliberates and declares the two men not guilty, which makes Hiram feel ill and want to leave Mississippi. He notices Milam, one of the defendants, give a thumbs-up to Grampa, who pretends not to have seen the gesture.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
Hiram must go through an intense examination of conscience in the time leading up to the trial, and the people in Greenwood that he loves and cares for the most (Grampa and Naomi) actively discourage him from testifying in court. They each are coming from a different set of reasons: Grampa’s are somewhat selfish, which is not immediately known to Hiram (though he is also concerned for his safety), whereas Naomi is completely concerned for Hiram, should he put himself in this vulnerable and dangerous position. Again, Hiram has a sobering conversation at the courthouse with Mr. Paul, who reminds him to weigh out right against wrong and then choose right, even if it is hard to do so. This is reinforced in a conversation with his mother, who entreats him to remember who he is and where he came from. In Hiram’s mind, as desperately as he wishes not to be in the courtroom, he feels there is no other choice available to him.
The display of evidence and the process of cross-examination is fairly stilted. All the evidence presented, which seems could only result in a guilty charge, is continually dismantled, and a lot of the defense testimony rests in opinion and shadowy details. However, as Hiram witnesses, there are no black men or women on the jury, so the biased courtroom allows for this manipulation of the legal system. He cannot during the trial fully understand Grampa’s anxious reactions, attributing much of it to the unbearable Mississippi heat.
