The burglar is an intruder and might threaten the lives of the homeowner and the homeowner's family, so it is right and proper that someone try to defend their home, and the burglar must suffer the consequences. The irony is, if Sweet awoke and found a single burglar in his home and defended himself, he would not be on trial today. But a White angry racial mob's implied threat seems harder for the state to understand. Sweet only used the guns he had bought to defend his property and family after the mob began to actually try to break into the Sweet residence, hurling stones through the upstairs windows. Can Sweet be blamed for panicking, trying to save his family and the home he tried to hard to build, and firing out into the assembled, angry mob?
The prosecution will try to play upon your own fears, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. They will suggest that Sweet could have called the police instead of shooting -- the police that had allowed a mob to congregate on the lawn of the Sweet property. Six policemen were already standing there, staring at the stone-throwing crowd, but these officers did nothing to stop the intruders, not even the people who were throwing stones at Sweet's windows. The prosecution will try to play upon your fears of Sweet as an angry...
He is an ordinary homeowner and father. He did not come to Detroit looking for trouble, merely a better life. He had grown up in a state of the union where it was common to see White men kill Black men and go unpunished and hoped to find better life in this city.
We live in a divided world, in a divided city where many people fear losing their jobs and thus perhaps are more apt to fear people who are different. But I ask you to honor your duties to the law and to simple humanity, ladies and gentlemen of the jury and put yourself in Dr. Sweet's shoes. What would you do if you awoke to a crowd of angry people, demanding you leave your hard-earned property? What if you remembered all of the friends you saw die as a young man, simply because of the color of their skin? What if you remembered your friend who had his home torn apart by a White mob and was forced physically to turn over the deed to his own home? I ask you to see past color, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, and see your own face and fears mirrored in the face of the defendant, Thomas Sweet, and his family.
Works Cited
Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2004.
