In To Kill a Mockingbird, how is Tom Robinson's appeal discussed?

After the trial, Tom Robinson was sent to Enfield Prison Farm, where he was to be held until a higher court reviewed his case. Atticus believed that Robinson had a good chance of going free, or at least of having a new trial (250). 

Of course, even if he got a new trial, winning would still be a challenge. As it turns out, though, he never made it that far. In Chapter 24, during Aunt Alexandra's Missionary Tea meeting, Atticus comes home, apparently disturbed, long before his workday is over (and knowing that it's a Missionary Tea day, he'd normally stay until much later), and asks for Alexandra and for Calpurnia. He explains that Tom is dead. He'd broken and run for the fence and had been shot dead before he'd managed to get over it.