A Time to Kill (1996 film)

In 1984, 19 years after the Jim Crow laws were abolished in the Southern U.S., in Canton, Mississippi, ten-year-old African American girl, Tonya Hailey is abducted, raped, and beaten by two local white men, Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard, while on her way home from getting groceries. The duo dumped her in a nearby river after a failed attempt to hang her. Tonya survives, and Sheriff Ozzie Walls arrests Cobb and Willard. Tonya's father, Carl Lee Hailey, contacts Jake Brigance, a white lawyer who previously defended his brother Lester. Jake admits the possibility that the rapists will walk free, so Carl Lee goes to the county courthouse and opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing both rapists and unintentionally wounding Deputy Dwayne Looney, whose leg has to be amputated. Carl Lee is arrested, and Jake agrees to defend him. As the rape and subsequent revenge killing gain national media attention, DA Rufus Buckley decides to take the case in hopes of furthering his political career. He seeks the death penalty, and presiding Judge Omar Noose denies Jake a change of venue to a more racially diverse county, resulting in Lee likely facing an all-white jury. Brigance seeks help from his defense team: law student Ellen Roark, close friend Harry Rex Vonner, and former mentor and longtime activist Lucien Wilbanks, a once-great civil rights lawyer. Meanwhile, Billy Ray's brother Freddie Lee Cobb plans to avenge Billy's death by joining and enlisting the help of the Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan and its Grand Dragon, Stump Sisson, to ensure Carl Lee's conviction and death sentence by any means necessary. On the first day of the trial, the Klan takes to the streets and rallies, only to be outnumbered by counter-protesters consisting of the area's minority residents as well as white locals who support Carl Lee's acquittal. The protest erupts into a violent brawl that results in dozens of injuries and Sisson's death. The Klan also begins to target Jake, assaulting his elderly secretary and her husband, the latter of whom dies of a heart attack brought on by the assault. They also burn a cross on his lawn and threaten his wife and daughter, which forces him to send them away during the trial. When Jake refuses to back down, the Klan then increases their attacks, including kidnapping and assaulting Ellen and burning Jake's house down. Jake is able to discredit the state's psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbert Rodeheaver. However, then Buckley discredits Jake's psychiatrist, Dr. Willard Tyrell Bass, by revealing his prior conviction of statutory rape. Dispirited, Jake tells Carl Lee that there is little hope for an acquittal and tries to persuade him to take a plea deal that will imprison him for life but spare him execution. Carl Lee refuses the deal, replying that he had chosen Jake as an attorney because as a white man he has insight into how the jury sees Carl Lee. During closing arguments, a deeply-shaken Jake tells the jury to close their eyes and listen as he describes the entire ordeal of Tonya, to which some of the jurors shed tears. In his final comment, Jake asks them to imagine how they would feel "if she were white". After deliberation, the jury finds Carl Lee not guilty of all charges. Jubilation ensues among the supporters while the Klan becomes enraged over their defeat. Meanwhile, Sheriff Walls arrests Freddie Lee for his crimes, as well as a corrupt deputy who is also revealed to be a Klansman. Sometime later, Jake brings his wife and daughter to a family cookout at Carl Lee's house to celebrate his freedom, challenging Carl Lee's previous statement that their children would never play together. ==Cast==