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readingforsanity · 2 years ago

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A Time to Kill | John Grisham | Published 1989 | *SPOILERS*

In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town.

Clanton, Mississippi. The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. Until her black father acquires an assault rifle - and takes justice into his own outraged hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper rifle fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jack Brigance struggles to save his client’s life...and then his own.

At the start of the story, we are given a detailed and brutal retelling of what happened to Tonya Hailey. She is a 10-year-old black girl who was brutally raped and beaten by two white men, Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard. Both men had a hand in doing what was doing to her. They eventually leave her to be found by a group of men fishing, and she is taken home to her parents.

Jake Brigance is a 30-year-old lawyer, a hot shot in his own right despite not being in practice for very long. He is well-known in Clanton, Mississippi, and generally well-liked. He knows the Hailey family, as he was the lawyer for Lester Hailey, Tonya’s uncle, when he was involved in a murder a few years prior, and he was acquitted with the help of Jake. He and his wife and daughter live in a nice Historical home in town, and Jake has taken over the practice from his previous boss who had been disbarred several years ago though the two of them remain close despite Lucien being a drunk.

Billy Ray and Pete are arrested forthwith after Tonya was discovered after they were found to be bragging in a bar, and Billy Ray owns a vehicle that Tonya described to the police as being the one she was kidnapped in. Pete confesses to what has happened, and names Billy Ray as the other person involved. During a hearing in which bail is set for them, Carl Lee Hailey, Tonya’s father, lies in wait in a janitor’s closet in the stairwell where the prisoners are going to be walked down to return to the jail. Instead, he uses an M16 rifle that he acquired from a friend in Memphis and guns them down in cold blood, as well as injuring a police officer who had also been escorting them.

Carl Lee, though he left the scene, is found and taken in custody. Carl Lee had told Jake that he planned to do exactly what he had done, and now Jake will be representing him in court. However, Carl Lee is treated differently than other prisoners. He is allowed inside the Sheriff’s office, as the two had been friends before this happened, and his family is allowed to visit him as well.

Jake begins preparing for a trial. No bail is set for Carl Lee as this is a capital murder case, and due to the county being a predominantly white county, Jake wants to have the trial moved to another county, a county that would be deemed predominantly black, in order to give a fair trial. The majority of the townspeople, though they would convict Carl Lee, say they don’t blame him for what he did, and that they think of him as a hero. The deputy who Carl Lee accidentally shot loses part of his leg due to what had happened.

Jake works diligently to make sure he is ready for trial, though this comes with a few setbacks. The Ku Klux Klan arrives swiftly in the town of Clanton, and begins terrorizing Jake. They burn in a cross in his yard, and eventually, they plant explosives outside of his bedroom window while he and his family slept, but due to an informant on the inside of the Klan, this is thwarted and the assailants are caught.

Carl Lee’s friend, Cat, who he had purchased the M16 from illegally, tells Carl Lee that he has a lawyer that will work his trial for free, and that he should fire Jake. Carl Lee heeds his advice, and the next morning, Jake finds out that he has lost his biggest client in and of his career in the papers. However, this does work in Jake’s favor. The new layer, a Memphis big shot, never comes to see Carl Lee or call him, and he rehires Jake a week later.

The trial begins on a Monday, and the jury is selected. Despite being able to control who joins the jury, it ends up being predominantly white females who are older and less tolerant of people of color. The prosecution and the defense work diligently in order to work both sides. During this, Jake’s home is burned to the ground with his dog inside and his law clerk, law student Ellen Roark, is kidnapped by the Klan.

The jury begins deliberately a week later, and it takes two days before they come to a conclusion. The jury states that they have found Carl Lee not guilty be reason of insanity. Jake is shocked, as he thought for sure they would find him guilty but all of them were unanimous in their decision.

Carl Lee is allowed to return to his wife and children at their home. Jake will hold a press conference, and then join his wife and daughter in North Carolina where he had sent them to stay with her parents when things began to get too dangerous in Clanton. Jake is on top of the world, and is ready to be there.

Discussion Questions

1. How would you describe Sheriff Ozzie Walls? He’s a hardworking man. He loves what he does, and he loves the people that he is meant to protect. It doesn’t matter the color of their skin to him - if you do wrong, you did wrong. If you do right, you do right. But, Ozzie, who is a father as well as a man of the law, respects Carl Lee for what he did and tries to be a little easier on him, especially given that he is not a violent man by nature.

2. Why did Tonya envision her father running desperately through the woods? One word - trauma. She was experiencing something absolutely traumatic for a child to go through, and she envisioned the one person who is meant to protect her from everything and anything.

3. Talk about the town’s reaction to Tonya’s rape. What role does race play in the way the townspeople respond? Both black and white people found what happened to Tonya to be an absolutely horrible thing. Some white people, particularly those who are racist and either kin to or friends with Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard found nothing wrong with what they had done, or didn’t believe either of them had anything to do with to begin with.

4. Why does Carl Lee Hailey shoot Cobb and Willard? What are the chances that the two men would have been convicted and sentenced? What were your feelings when Hailey shot them? Honestly, I think the chances of them being convicted were slim to none. Jake makes a point of bringing this up quite a bit that the county is predominantly white, and though people sympathize with Tonya and the Hailey family for what they went through, Cobb and Willard were white and white people don’t typically get convicted of such charges in Ford County. So, Carl Lee took it upon himself to do what he thought justice wouldn’t do.

5. Is Carl Lee Hailey sane or insane? Honestly, despite the insanity plea in his defense, Carl Lee was of complete and absolute sound mind when he shot those men. Maybe a little mad but not the insane type.

6. Why does Jake Brigance decide to take Carl Lee’s case? What, according to Brigance, would a similar case normally cost? A case of this magntitude would have cost quite a bit, easily in the couple of thousand dollar range...five digits at lease. But, Jake took the case because Carl Lee trusted Jake - he helped his brother get an acquittal and he knew Jake could do the same for him.

7. Why does Brigance hang a portrait of Wiliam Faulker in his office? What does Faulkner represent to him? And what is implied by the fact that, as Brigance notices, no streets or buildings are named after Grant or Lincoln? Honestly, I didn’t think much of the Faulkner painting inside of his office. I figured it could have been there since Lucien worked in the office, but it so rarely mentioned within the story, I didn’t put anything together to imply any sort of signifiance to Jake. But, also, it’s the south. Grant and Lincoln had efforts in the release of slaves from white owners...owners who were predominantly from the south. They would not be represented in the south whatsoever for their civil right efforts.

8. Talk about the three families: The Haileys, Cobbs and Willards. How different are they? Do they have anything in common? They’re all blue collar, some of them even criminals and bad people as well. However, their major difference is the color of their skin and that is how they’re treated. The Hailey’s like dirt under people’s shoes and the Cobbs and Willards glorified simply because they’re white.

9. What do lawyers fight for - according to chapter 10? Lawyers fight for justice.

10. Describe Rufus Buckley. How do he and Brigance compare with one another - in their beliefs, motivations and in the way they approach the law? Now compare Omar Noose. Why does Brigance liken him to Ichabod Crane? The only likeness between Noose and Ichabod Crane is their looks, which is explained in the story as to how he had gotten the nickname. He has a long nose, therefore he looks like Crane. But, Buckley is an asshole, through and through. He’s only worried about the press and publicity that comes with being a lawyer, not actually helping anyone or convicting them for crimes that they may have or haven’t committed. He’s out for the politics of it all, and he knows how to play the game.

11. How does Brigance’s response to Ethel’s concern about the phone calls? What does this reveal about his state of mind? Jake believes there is nothing to worry about, despite there being everything to worry about. These threats were likely coming from the Klan, and because they hadn’t been active in Ford County for many years, nobody could believe that it was actually coming from them. But, this was when they didn’t realize the magnitude this case would have on the country and how far it had gotten.

12. What does Brigance reveal about himself during the New York Times interview? Did he reveal something about himself? I honestly don’t recall the interview with the reporter, but this was a long book so its easy to get facts and things confused.

13. Talk about the various decisions that Jake Brigance makes throughout the book? Are they ethical? Is Jake ethical? Yes, I think Jake is ethical. However, he mentions several times about ethics which makes me question whether or not he truly was ethical about anything.

14. What doe Reverend Agee, who collects donations for the Hailey fund? Is he fair? Absolutely not. In the beginning, I thought the reverend was doing a nice thing by helping out the Hailey family - rallying the community and other churches within the county to help them with Carl Lee’s legal fund as well as bringing in money for food and bills for his family left behind. But, all he was trying to do was gain publicity for himself to make himself look good, to gain funds in order to hire the NAACP which didn’t work in his favor, and then left the money untouched in a bank account that he controlled while he continued to watch Gwen and the children suffer without Carl Lee bringing in any money.

15. What is later revealed about Tonya? Has she recovered from her ordeal? Absolutely not. Tonya will be unable to have children when she gets older, and she struggles with sleep at night, thinking that Cobb and Willard are coming after her despite her knowing that they’re both dead at the hands of her father. But, she will struggle emotionally, physically and mentally for the rest of her life.

16. Talk about the role of court testimony by psychiatrists? How credible or non-credible are they? It depends. Each person is going to be different. Their credentials certianly having a helping hand in his credible they are, but anyone could act as an expert witness - take Dr. Bass. He was well informed about what he was talking about, but because he was a covicted felon having had relations with a 17 year old girl, he was no longer held credible as an expert witness. Though we later find out that that woman became his wife, and father of his two children and then eventually he lost them all after a train crashed into her car, this did not help matters and would become inadmissable in court due to his prior actions and not revealing his conviction to the court or anyone else for that matter.

17. What have you learned in this book about the way the legal system works? What are preliminary hearings, grand juries, and arriagnments? Does the system work the way you believe it should? I didn’t learn anything new that I didn’t already know, as I am degreed as a paralegal and can work legally in all 50 states (licensing is not a requirement in my state), however, the law field wasn’t something I wanted to do full-time despite having the ability to, and I worked on a different field for my Bachelor’s degree

18. Talk about the volunteer/pro bono team that assists Brigance. What do you think of Ellen Roark, for instance? What assets and liabilities does each team member bring to the Hailey case? All of the members of the team work hard for Carl Lee Hailey. Ellen can use this as experience when she begins looking for a job after she graduates from law school, and it will look good - being a law clerk for a high profile murder case, likely the most well-known murder case in the country at the time. Lucien helps because he has nothing else better to do than sit around and get drunk all day, and Harry Rex just wants to be a part of the action.

19. What is the signifiance of Jake’s vomiting and weeping? How is this trial changing him? What is the meaning of the sentence, “Jake sipped his beer and searched for daylight through the window?” Jake is nervous, and it is messing with his system. He doesn’t know how to handle his emotions, and with the threats, his family having to take themselves out of the state, the loss of his home and dog, the lives lost, the people who is he putting in danger every day, it really begins to take a toll on him.

20. Talk about the KKK and its role in the trial. Fuck the KKK. Thank God this is really not a thing anymore, and if it is, it isn’t something we hear about much here in the North where I live. But seriously, fuck the KKK. While they are allowed to peacefully demonstrate like anyone else, they’re up there with the “church” that goes to various funerals and calls soldiers and gay men and women that they’re abominations. Fuck the KKK.

21. Examine Brigance’s closing argument: how does he endear the jury to Dr. Bass and reestablish the relevance of the doctor’s testimony? How does Brigance portray Buckley as a father figure? What part of Looney’s testimony does he call to mind? Does his recalling the rape scene from Tonya’s perspective help the insanity plea? Jake played his closing statements very well. He showed empathy for all parties, including Buckey whom he couldn’t stand. For all of them, as parents, if they had to make a decision liek this what would they do - the exact same thing that Carl Lee Hailey did. They would take justice into their own hands and do what they had to do.

22. Talk about the jury...and the way in which it reaches its decision. Why are members unwilling to deadlock? How does Wanda Womack’s proposal sway them? If deadlocking, they would have a mistrial, and all of this would continue on to the next group of people - more people kept from their families in undisclosed locations, the klan could and would likely return, the thousands of black men, women and children would return to sit vigil outside on the courthouse grounds, marching and interrupting proceedings. Wanda’s proposal helped them to see that each and every one of them would do what Carl Lee had done if it had been their daughters, daughters that each of them actually had.

23. After reading the book, has your attitude toward the legal system changed in any way? It hasn’t changed no. Justice was served in this case. Cobb and Willard got what was coming to them, Carl Lee was acquitted by means of insanity and was able to return to his family and loved ones, Jake won the biggest case of his career to that point and would be reunited with his own family. There were hardships for them all, and I sympathize with them all, even Cobb and Willards families because they lost loved one even though they were truly vile human beings.

Questions adapted by LitLovers from Scholastic, Inc.’s Teacher’s Guide.

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