In the film A Time to Kill, the crime committed by Carl Lee Hailey has controversy surrounding it regarding whether or not his actions were considered “justice”. Killing the two men that raped and almost killed his youngest daughter, Tanya, was without a doubt an understandable action, and the form of justice that time period and area needed. In the 1980s Mississippi, there was enough tension and racism for an African American man to take the law into his own hands without the raping of his daughter. The threat on Tanya’s life is what set CLH over the edge and led him to commit that crime. Although I do believe that killing those two men was a form of justice, CLH still deserves a punishment for not letting the law play its role in the matter. The consequence of death penalty is nowhere near justified but he did need to spend time in prison for the sadness he brought upon the two men’s families.
In 1980s Mississippi, the scales of justice are as far from balanced as anywhere in America. The justice system is built to support whites and give African Americans the harshest of punishments for their actions. The presents of the KKK also sways the dynamic of the area towards whites.
If Tanya Haley was a white girl, the rapists would have been tracked down immediately and given harsh punishments especially if they were black.
Due process did work for CLH, but there was a definite bias against his freedom throughout the trial. The white population wanted to see him locked up or sentenced with the death penalty while the black population obviously wanted freedom to be the outcome. If CLH was a white man, there wouldn’t have been such conflict inside or outside the courthouse, and the death penalty would not have been a sought after punishment
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