In To Kill a Mockingbird, how many times is Tom Robinson shot?

Tom is shot seventeen times, in all, when trying to escape from prison. It's clear that he didn't hold out much hope of a reprieve from being executed, and with good reason too. At that time, the death penalty was commonly used as a method of control to keep African-Americans in their place. Appeals against convictions were seldom successful. The rape of a white woman by a black man was seen as a direct attack on the very foundations of society and so needed to be punished with the utmost severity. What happens to Tom, not just during the trial, but also when he tries to escape from prison, is a reflection of this. There was absolutely no need for the prison guards to shoot him so many times; it was an act of overkill. But the excessive force they used gives you some idea just how much irrational hatred and fear that they felt towards him. Tom's death is a metaphor for a society founded on racial prejudice and bigotry.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, how many times is Tom Robinson shot?

After his conviction by a jury of staunch Maycomb citizens, Tom Robinson is sent to prison awaiting an appeal. However, one day in the exercise yard, Robinson simply breaks and runs; had he two good arms, he may have escaped over the fence.  But, he is slowed by his handicap, and guards shoot him seventeen times after their call to him to halt and two warning shots.

Scout narrates in Chapter 24 that Atticus comes home and asks for Calpurnia to accompany him to Helen Robinson's to inform her of the tragic news.  Dismayed, Atticus tells his sister Alexandra,

"We had such a good chance....I guess Tom was tired of white men's chances and preferred to take his own."

In truth his own chances were just as poor. Crippled, Tom had little chance of escaping; moreover, the unfairness shown to him in the courtroom was again displayed in the prison yard where there was no need to shoot Robinson so many times, as Atticus remarks.

This cruel act against Robinson does not escape the attention of Mr. Underwood, who writes an editorial under the obituary for Tom in the "Colored News" section. In this obituary most bitter, Mr. Underwood likens Tom's death to the "senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children," underscoring Lee's motif of the mockingbird. 

Why was Tom shot 17 times in To Kill a Mockingbird?

There are two ways to answer this question. First, from official story of the guards, Tom was trying to escape. They stated that he was fast, and if he had two good arms he would have escaped. They also stated that they first shot into the air a few times to warn him, but that these shots were not heeded. This storyline says that Tom did not listen and that he was possibly dangerous. The point is that the shots were warranted. 

The other way way to answer this question is to underline the racist nature of the guards. Tom was not a human being with rights, but another black man. In their eyes, the world with one less black man was a better world. Here is what Atticus says:

“Depends on how you look at it,” he said. “What was one Negro, more or less, among two hundred of ‘em? He wasn’t Tom to them, he was an escaping prisoner.”

As a reader it is hard not to view racism all over the place. 

Why was Tom shot 17 times in To Kill a Mockingbird?

It is also important to note that the guards probably felt no sympathy for Tom, since he was black.  In a sense, it was disrespecful for them to have treated him so brutally, even if he was trying to escape.  Had he been a white prisoner, they probably would not have shot him so many times, though he might still have been shot trying to escape.