A Time to Kill pt 1

In the movie “A Time to Kill,” the American legal system was portrayed in a negative light in most instances. The film is set in the southern state of Mississippi and it revolves around a symbolic legal case in which the main character, Jake Brigance, is a white lawyer arguing for his client, Carl Lee Hailey, a black man facing murder charges. As one would imagine, racial prejudice contributed many factors to the overall quality of work environment for the lawyer and the defendant in this particular setting. In addition, Jake’s law firm was in financial trouble and was having a hard time attracting new clients prior the events occurring that led to Carl Lee asking Jake to defend him. The defendant was charged with the murder of two white men in cold blood that had brutally raped his 10-year-old daughter. This legal process exemplified the vast amount of racial prejudice that was obvious in the south at the time. The film illustrated how many different groups had a stake in the outcome of the case, as it case was symbolic for whites, blacks and the American legal system.

These circumstances vastly affected the world in which Jake was trying to do business. As quoted from Jake’s mentor in the movie, Lucian Wilbanks, while discussing whether he should take on the case, “The case is very interesting  because you could win and justice would prevail or you could lose and justice would also prevail.” After deciding to take the case, the backlash and racial prejudice from the community infiltrated Jake’s business throughout the movie. Jake was merely trying to perform his job and he was constantly being harassed for accepting the job of defending Carl Lee. The hatred eventually led one of the victim’s brothers to begin to organize a branch of the Klu Klux Klan in the town where the movie takes place. These Klan members terrorized Jake for representing Carl by burning crosses on his lawn, kidnapping and assaulting his co-workers, planting a bomb in front of his house and eventually burning his home to the ground.

They continually made efforts to disrupt his work in an attempt to get him to drop the case. Another element that exemplified the insecurities of the business world portrayed in the film was a scene involving Jake, Carl Lee and the NAACP. At one point, the civil rights organization had their leaders try to convince the defendant to take the case away from Jake because he was white man and they did not think he could do a good enough job representing a black man in such a symbolic case for the black people. However, the scene later illustrated how much faith the defendant had in Jake as Carl Lee slyly pressured the group to give the money they raised to pay for his defense with their lawyers, to Jake. In addition to racism, corruption affected they way the business world was portrayed in movie. During the course of the trial, the white prosecuting attorney, Rufus Buckley, utilized “connections” at many levels of the government including influencing the judge presiding over the case. Most importantly, when Jake attempted to get the trial moved to a different venue to ensure his client had an “impartial” trial, Buckley made calls to his “friends” at the legislature to help influence the judge’s decision on the matter. It was obvious the prosecuting attorney was corrupt and had no regard for business ethics. The combination of all these factors did not create a good environment for Jake to practice law.