Seventeen bullets

First Tom is found guilty, now this?!? Atticus made it sound like Tom had a chance on the appeal, so why did Tom try to run! I can't belive how many times they hit him, and he almost made it too, lame arm and all. This might sound weird, but I think I would like to read that portion of the book from Tom's point of view. I want to know what he was thinking, if he still had a chance at all, why did he do it! Why didnt he wait till he was sure that there was absolutely no chance whatsoever that he would be freed???
By the way... it annoyed me that Aunt Alexandria called Walter Cunningham trash!