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A Time to Kill by John Grisham is a novel about a street lawyer named Jake Brigance, and Carl Lee Hailey, a father whose daughter was raped by two white men. The story starts out with a Tonya Hailey, a little ten-year-old black girl who was being raped and beaten by Billy Ray Cobb and Willard. After she was raped, she was thrown into the woods. The rapists thought that she was dead. Later in the day, she was found in critical condition by some fisherman. They took her to her house, and her family took her to the hospital.
The only thing that the girl remembered about the rape was the shiny yellow truck and Confederate flag in the truck window. From this information, the police knew that Billy Ray Cobb did it. After Willard and Cobb were arrested, they were questioned. Cobb denied it, but Willard confessed. After the court hearing, Carl Lee Hailey shot Cobb and Willard to death. Carl Lee was arrested without a struggle.
Jake Brigance is a street lawyer in this story who had proven Carl Lees brother innocent when he was guilty of a murder. So naturally, Carl Lee went to Jake Brigance for legal assistance. Jake agreed to it because he was a friend of the Hailey's, and because it would bring him a lot of publicity. It ended up that he was only able to get $ 900 from the Hailey family for a capital murder case. Most people thought that he was crazy to do it. Throughout the rest of the story, the KKK harasses Jake, Jakes family, and his friends with bombs, burning crosses and other horrible things.
Several times Jake thought of quitting the case, but he cared to much for Carl Lee, and the publicity. At the time of the trial, the KKK and black demonstration groups rally outside of the courthouse. The trial takes 4 long hard days. Finally, Jake was able to convince the jury that Carl Lee was innocent.
Carl Lee got a unanimous not guilty vote from the all white jury. This was quite amazing for this time period. After the trial, Jake left the city to go spend some long forgotten quality time with his family. This book was excellent in my point of view. I couldnt put it down because of the way John Girshham constantly left you hanging.
He achieved this by constantly switching from scene to scene, and character to character. He was also able portrait the court room and the trial very well because he used to be a lawyer.
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