A Time to Kill - Jacob Greifer

1. I'm not sure if Carl Lee Haley's action was justice, but I think it was definitely justified. Murdering the two men that raped and beat his daughter creates far more problems than it fixes, and if everyone took the law into their own hands the country would be chaotic. But the cruelty of the crime makes Haley's actions understandable.

2. Carl Lee Haley commits the crime because he didn't think the court would bring justice to the situation. He knew of people who had committed similar crimes that had gotten relatively small penalties, and he knew they deserved far worse than that.

3. I'm not entirely sure of what Haley's punishment should be. I think he deserves some form of punishment, but I don't know what's fair for this uncommon situation. The reasons for his action were reasonable, but you obviously can't shoot and kill 2 people.

4. Justice is not balanced at all where this takes place. This movie is in Mississippi, the deep south, which was and still is the heart of racism in America. Like I stated earlier, there were similar incidents of rape where the men were given unfairly light penalties, so the justice system clearly favors white people.

5. It definitely did matter that Tanya was black, but it shouldn't at all. Part of Jake Birgance's biggest challenge was getting the jury to empathize for Haley, which was very hard because he was black. In his final speech that ultimately won the case, he had them imagine if the girl was white. This shows the importance of race in this case, which is upsetting.

6. I think due process worked for Haley pretty well. His trial was relatively fair, even though they refused to have it in a different location. The judge was thoughtful and heard both sides of the case.