A Time to Kill essays

A Time to Kill essays We watched a the movie A Time to Kill by John Grisham in class. The movie takes place in a small southern Mississippi town. The town is divided up by their racial differences. The story of racial injustice all begins when two white men, drunk and high are joy riding in their old beat up pick up truck and spot a little black girl on her way back from the store. They attacked this ten-year old black girl beat her up, raped her, urinated all over her bloody body and then threw her over a bridge and left her for dead. The girl was Tanya Hailey, the daughter of Carl Lee Hailey. The two white men were later arrested at the town bar when one of Tanyas sneakers was found in the back of his pick up. While at the courthouse, on their way to being arraigned for their vicious crime, Carl Lee decided to take the law into his own hands. This main reason that I think that he did this was because after consulting with a lawyer he realized that those two men would receive light sentences for their crimes. This was a predominantly white community, which meant that most of the jury would also be white. Carl Lee hid in a closet until the time was right and then he killed the two men in a fit of rage in front of dozens of witnesses. Car Lee felt that the men deserved to die for torturing his little girl. While in jail, Carl Lee hires a white attorney named Jake Brigance. Jake is a young, bright lawyer that understands why Carl Lee committed the murders. Thorough out the trial Jake tries to get the jury t o see it thorough Carl Lees eyes. He made them think what they would have done if they were in his shoes. Jake is looking to find equal justice for Carl Lee in this racist community. Racism still flourished in the small Mississippi town because of the KKK was still active. Jake helped the jury make their decision by describing the crime in detail and then adding a twist at the end that made them thin ...