Scout tells the readers of To Kill a Mockingbird that an attentive person can discern if the jury has found the defendant guilty: The jurors never look at the defendant as they return to their seats in the courtroom.
Crediting her knowledge to "something only a lawyer's child could be expected to watch for," Scout notes that not one man on the jury looks at Tom Robinson on the return from Jury Room. As the verdict is read, Scout closes her eyes and Jem grasps the railing so tightly that his knuckles turn white. With each "guilty," Jem jerks his body as though he is hit by something.
There is a sense of unreality for the children as they see Judge Taylor speaking, but do not know what he says. "Dimly," they see their father gathering his papers into his briefcase, and they numbly watch as he moves to the court reporter, and then to Tom Robinson, to whom he whispers something while touching him on the shoulder. Then, Atticus throws his coat over his shoulder and departs the courtroom by the shortest way. But, as he walks down the middle aisle, all the African-Americans in the balcony stand in respect, for they recognize that he has done his best to defend Tom, despite the outcome, which probably does not surprise them. For, the Reverend Sykes has told the children earlier that he has not witnessed a white jury decide "not guilty" before.
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