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Tom Milton is Kya's defense attorney who has volunteered to do the case pro bono (that is, for free). Tom is considered to be the best defense lawyer in the area. He works tirelessly and efficiently at Kya’s case and is eventually able to acquit her of Chase's murder. Tom is characterized as a clever, resourceful man who is good at his job and knows it. One day during her trial, Kya distracts herself from her own anxieties by comparing each person in the courtroom to a type of animal. Kya thinks that Tom is a “powerful buck” because he “exuded confidence and rank with easy movements and stance,” and was treated with the utmost respect because of it. Kya’s assessment of her defense attorney is apt because Tom spends the entire case methodically and logically disproving all of the charges and theories against Kya. Some examples include arguing that footprints could have been removed naturally without being tampered with, explaining that Kya could not have possibly made it from Greenwood to Barkley Cove and back in a single night, and pointing out that there is no way to prove that the red fibers on Chase’s body were left by Kya the night that Chase fell.
Tom wins the case because he manages to form a connection with Kya and then uses that connection to emotionally manipulate the courtroom. Kya doesn’t speak to Tom when they first meet—she only does so once he gains her trust by bringing her a book of oil paintings of shells. He is successful because he is willing to approach Kya on her own terms, which has been the only way that anyone can connect with her. Once the connection is made, Tom is eventually able to help the rest of the court connect with Kya as well. In his closing statement, Tom celebrates Kya for becoming a successful scholar and author even though she only went to school for a single day as a child because she was bullied. He finishes his speech by saying, “I believe you can put all of the rumors and tall tales aside…It is time, at last, for us to be fair to the Marsh Girl.” The final line of Tom’s speech is essential to the novel’s thematic emphasis on unlearning personal biases because he essentially pleads with the room to judge Kya based on evidence and not their ignorant preconceived notions of her. Even though we learn at the end of the novel that Kya really did kill Chase, Tom’s rousing cry for tolerance and acceptance is one of the main messages of the text.
