A Time to Kill pt 2

One ethical dilemma in the movie is when Carl Lee is pondering what actions to take to deal with men that raped his little girl. He is trying to decide if he should trust our legal system to provide justice or take the law into his own hands. This issue was portrayed as an easy decision for Carl Lee after he sought counsel from his lawyer regarding a similar case in which two white men raped a young black girl in a neighboring county and were cleared of the charges by an all white jury the year earlier. Carl Lee resolved the issue by taking the law into his own hands instead of trusting the legal system and he murdered the men that were accused of raping his daughter in cold blood while they were en route to their arraignment. This issue could have been resolved when Carl Lee first visited Jake at his office. At that point, it was clear Carl Lee was thinking of doing something drastic and Jake had the opportunity to persuade Carl to trust the legal system and ensure him the prosecution would seek the maximum sentence and death penalty for the men that committed these horrific acts. However, the lawyer did not do this. Given the circumstances, if I were in Carl Lee’s position I would have more than likely made the same decision knowing that the probable punishment would not fit the crime if the men were allowed to face a trial. The previous trail’s results indicated justice would not have been served in this particular setting. Although murdering these men is completely wrong in the eyes of many, including the legal system, I do not think I would have been strong enough to refrain from completing these illegal acts. In my opinion Carl Lee served a “greater good” by taking ruthless criminals off the streets.