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What does Atticus explain about the jury system?

The answer to this question can be found in Chapter 23 of To Kill a Mockingbird. Everyone is still very upset about Tom's conviction, and Jem makes the comment that the system would be more fair without juries. Atticus does not go this far, but he says that "people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box." In other words, juries are reflections of the societies from which they draw their members. Even though a courtroom is supposed to be a place where justice is blind, the reality is that they are prejudiced and sometimes unfair. The conversation turns to a broader discussion about race, and Atticus gets highly animated discussing the racial prejudice that is rampant in Maycomb. The broader point, however, is that a black man cannot get a fair trial in Alabama or anywhere else in the Deep South, and this is the point that Atticus raises: Until people's mentalities change, true change is unattainable. He does suggest, in light of this reality, that perhaps judges should be responsible for fixing the death penalty in capital cases.

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