Seattle University Law Library

The film version of John Grisham’s novel A Time to Kill is set in a small, racially divided Mississippi town. A ten-year-old black girl is brutally raped and left for dead by two white men. She survives and is able to identify them. The girl’s father, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), fearing an acquittal walks into the courthouse and kills both men. He is immediately taken into custody and hires a young white attorney, Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), who plans to plea not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. As the news of the rape and murders is publicized, racial tensions mount, and Brigance faces more than just a courtroom battle for justice.