A Time to Kill Plot

A Time to Kill is the name of a 1996 feature film adaptation of the 1989 legal thriller A Time to Kill by John Grisham. The movie made $108,766,007 in box office receipts, including $19,628,271 for the first five days of its theatrical release.

The movie was filmed in Canton, Mississippi; "Clanton", where the book is set, is a fictional location.

Two white racist Mississippi men (actors Nicky Katt and Doug Hutchison) are driving around drunk through the woods near Clanton, Mississippi during the summertime when they come across a 10-year-old black girl named Tonya (Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly). The two drunk men proceed to violently rape Tonya then dump her in a nearby river for dead. Tonya survives to report the crime, and the county's black sheriff, Ozzie Walls (Charles S. Dutton), quickly pieces together who raped Tonya and finds the two perpetrators drinking lazily in a bar and bragging about their deed. He arrests them, and word spreads in the small, relatively quiet county about the brutal rape.

Word eventually gets to Tonya's father, Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson). He goes to see Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey), an easygoing white lawyer in town whose bleeding heart often leaves him with clients who can't pay. Carl Lee asks Jake about the chances of the two rapists being acquitted, although their crime is obvious; Jake tells him similar things have happened in nearby counties—and hints at the area's deep-seated racism that still infests the land. In particular there was a case from the year before in the Delta where four white teenagers were acquitted of raping a black girl. Carl Lee calmly thanks Jake, then quietly leaves and acquires an M-16, goes to the county courthouse and waits patiently. When the two rapists are brought in for an arraignment, Carl Lee comes out of a closet suddenly and opens fire on the two men at close range—killing both—while also accidentally injuring Deputy Looney (Chris Cooper), who was hit when a bullet ricocheted off the stairs. Carl Lee drops his weapon and walks home before Sheriff Walls shows up and arrests him without incident.

Despite Carl Lee having very little money, his criminal defense is taken up by Jake. He intends to defend Carl Lee Hailey with a plea of not guilty by insanity, trying to convince the jurors that Carl Lee had a momentary lapse in sanity after the rape.

Jake and his wife, Carla (Ashley Judd), are at first excited about seeing Jake on the news so much during pre-trial happenings. This excitement quickly ends as the Ku Klux Klan begins to organize in the area and a brother of one of the dead rapists, Freddie Lee (Kiefer Sutherland), calls Brigance and his family with death threats. Making matters worse for Jake is that the district attorney, Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey), is out for blood (and the death penalty, more literally) and has plenty of resources at his disposal. The presiding judge, Judge Omar Noose (Patrick McGoohan), seems to be an old-timer white judge, as he's friends with Buckley and denies Jake a change of venue to a different county as to seek a more impartial jury.

Jake seeks help for his defense team, unsuccessfully trying to draw in his friend and sleazy divorce lawyer Harry Rex Vonner (Oliver Platt), though Harry Rex will come aboard later. He seeks guidance from long-time liberal activist Lucien Wilbanks (Donald Sutherland), a great civil rights lawyer who was disbarred for hitting cops on a picket line; he now lives nearby and spends all his time drinking and tutoring Jake. The only full time help Jake has is his secretary, Ethel (Brenda Fricker), who's wary that Jake has taken on such a racially explosive case that mirrors no case he's ever handled before.

Jake is then caught off guard after being approached by Ellen Roark (Sandra Bullock), a fiery Massachusetts ACLU liberal whose father is a famous attorney to Hollywood stars and starlets. Jake agrees to let Ellen help with the case.

The trial begins amid much attention from the media and residents of the county. Blows are traded back and forth between the defense and prosecution as witnesses hit the stand. Freddie Lee uses a rifle and shoots at Jake outside the courtroom - but misses and hits a national guardsman, who is there to quelch any violence between the volatile groups keeping a close eye on the trial. The KKK, who has a member inside the sheriff's police force, burns a cross on Jake's lawn, forcing Jake to send his wife and young daughter away while the trial continues.

A group of black teenagers in the neighborhood, angry at the KKK's presence and dealings, take their revenge by throwing a Molotov cocktail at a KKK grand dragon, who appeared in a street parade to rile up racist supporters. As the grand dragon burns to death in the street, chaos ensues outside the courthouse as the police lose control of the crowd.

Jake's attraction to Roark grows, and then almost have an affair before Jake gains his wits and goes home - only to see that the KKK finally succeeded in burning down his house. Roark is pulled over on a rural road by the racist deputy with KKK members close behind. They beat Roark and leave her to die out in the wilderness. She is saved, though, by the informant Mickey Mouse, who's identity is revealed as one of the clanmen working with Cobb. The next morning, Jake sits on the still-smoking steps of his house and meets with Harry Rex, who says it's time to listen to everyone else around him and quit the case. Jake refuses, saying his resolve is as strong as ever, and to quit now would to be mean all he's lost is for nothing.

When the jury secretly discusses the case in a restaurant (against the rules), all but one are leaning toward a guilty verdict, and Carl Lee's fate looks sealed. Jake goes to see Roark in a hospital and feels terrible for her. He is then comforted by his wife, who has returned. Out of options, Jake goes to see Carl Lee in his prison cell and Carl Lee tells him how to turn the jury in their favor.

The courthouse is packed to see the attorneys' closing speeches. Jake tells the jury to close their eyes and listen to a story. He describes, in slow and painful detail, the rape of a young 10-year-old girl—mirroring Tonya's rape. At the end of the story, as courtroom listeners and jury members alike are moved, he tells the jury members to think about the story some more—but imagine the victim was white. That's where the speech ends. Hours later after deliberation, a young black boy flies out of the courthouse and screams "He's innocent!" Jubiliation ensues amongst hundreds of black supporters outside. Sheriff Ozzie Walls arrests Freddie Lee as well as his racist deputy.

The movie ends with Jake taking his wife and daughter to a family cookout at Carl Lee's house. Carl Lee is surprised by their uninvited appearance, but understands it's to show that the two really are friends, not just distant acquaintances, as Carl Lee had once said.