My reaction was agreement to the verdict chosen by the Jury. I believe that they took the information that we gave them and analyzed it correctly and came to an agreement. As the a defense lawyer, I know we focused mainly on the relationship between Huck and Jim and satirical references as the basis for our argument. I think that these situations prove that Mark Twain is not racist. We apparently gave our statements clearly and our witnesses testified appropriately to the situation, therefore helping the Jury reach their ultimate decision. I agree wholeheartedly with the Jury's decision and believe that some of the prosecution's arguments were not credible. Therefore, I think that we proved our point and argued theirs to the point that the Jury agreed with our side of the argument. The efforts of our defense team proved adequate in proving that Mark Twain was not racist, and the Jury agreed.
I agreed with all of the statements made by the defense team. This includes all arguments made by the lawyers, as well as contradictions and statements from the witnesses. However, some of the arguments made by the prosecution I found to not be credible arguments. I did not agree with the statement by the prosecution that Mark Twain gave his characters his personal views. I think that the purpose that Mark Twain had in writing his book was to ridicule the views of the traditional white slave owner in the South. Therefore, his views would be ridiculing those who were racist. Had Mark Twain given the characters his views, then they would not have represented that selective group. I also did not agree with the argument made by the prosecution that it made Twain racist because many people felt uncomfortable and sometimes even offended by reading his book. I believe that it is possible that any book could be interpreted in the way that the author did not intend, sometimes making the reader uncomfortable. It could have even been Twain's intent to purposely make the readers feel uncomfortable and offended to realize the blatant racism that occurred. Therefore, if a person misinterpreted Twain's use of satire, that does not prove that Mark Twain is racist, rather that the book was misunderstood. In my eyes, the verdict was correct, and we proved our point sufficiently as the defense.
I feel that the most influential portion of the trial was Mark Twain's testimony. He presented his ideas as facts and stood his ground. The prosecution drilled him with questions, and they were answered to the best of his ability. I think this was probably very influential to the Jury because everyone had read the book, so therefore they had been introduced to a lot of the information that was being shared about the other characters. But with Mark Twain, there was new information and research that was being introduced, something that the Jury could add to their case. The defense provided questions that led the Jury to side with what they were hearing. I think that overall, I was impressed with the trial. From my point of view coming from the defense team, I was very impressed by some of the prosecution's arguments and I could tell they worked very hard to reach them. I believe that the verdict was chosen correctly, but I felt at the time that it could have gone either way. All the witnesses did very well, and portrayed their characters to the best of their abilities. They answered most of the questions as that character would answer them. Overall, I was impressed by the result of the trial that it was very successful and seemed very professional.
