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Defense and Prosecuting Attorneys

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The movie that I decided to use is called A Time to Kill. This movie took place in a small town in Mississippi and is about an African American father whose ten year old daughter was beaten and raped by two raciest rednecks while she was walking home from the grocery store. The father, Carl Lee was enraged by this and he shot the two men to death while they were on their way into the court room. Carl Lee is later arrested at his home by the African American sheriff. A young lawyer named Jake who has a young daughter of his own takes Carl Lee’s case without charging him anything. The judge of the trial is white judge Omar Noose and the prosecution lawyer is Rufus Buckley. Rufus wants the case because he knows there will be a lot of publicity and that it will get him elected if won. Helping Jake with the case is his friend and lawyer, Harry Rex Vonner, his former law professor, Lucien Wilbanks and a law school student, Ellen Roark. Ellen has been on death penalty cases and that is what Rufus is looking to get for Carl Lee. Jake tries to get bail and change venue for Carl Lee but Noose denies it. One of the men that Carl Lee killed, brother, Freddie wants revenge on Carl Lee so he contacts the Ku Klux Klan. Later a Ku Klux Klan member is caught trying to plant a bomb under Jake’s porch. Also the Ku Klux Klan attacks Jake’s secretary Ethel Twitty and her husband Bud. Jake, Harry, Ellen, and Lucien still keep helping Carl Lee with his case. The day of the trial the Ku Klux Klan shows us and a huge riot starts outside of the court room. The head of the Ku Klux Klan is killed in the riot. Freddie and some others from the Ku Klux Klan start burning crosses throughout the town. One of the crosses that they threw burns down Jake’s house. Luckily he and his family were not at home. Because of the riot and the surge in criminal activity, the National Guard shows up to keep the peace during the rest of the trial. During the trial one of the Ku Klux Klan members is seen following Ellen around. Later that night she is attacked and kidnapped. The bound her to a pole and leave her for dead. She is later rescued and taken to the hospital. She survives. The final day of the trial Jake gives a huge final defense and convinces all of the jury that Carl Lee should be a free man. The crowd outside is completely quite and a little boy comes running out of the court room yelling “Innocent! He is innocent!” The crowd roars in cheers! An ethical dilemma that Carl Lee has is whether or not to kill the men that beat and raped his daughter. He decides to kill them at the beginning of the movie. He decided that if the men got away with their crime and walked the street it wouldn’t be right. He then decided to handle it himself. Carl Lee’s ethical framework was that he believed that the two men would not be held accountable for their actions, so he decided to take the matter in his own hands. The ethical framework did not work out for him because he ended up in jail and on trial for murder. The ethical dilemma that faced Jake was that he had to decide if he was going to represent Carl Lee and how he was going to convince an all white jury that Carl Lee was innocent. Jake decided that he was going to represent Carl Lee because he as a father would have done the same thing if it were to happen to his little girl. He believed that the two men got what they deserved. He convinced the jury to free Carl Lee by getting them to visualize all of the events of what happened and to imagine that the little girl that was hurt was white. That shook up the whole court room and the jury decided that Carl Lee was innocent. Jake had won the biggest case of his life and helped free Carl Lee. Jake’s ethical framework was that he didn’t say anything to warn the sheriff about what Carl Lee was going to do because he believed that the men deserved to die. He also wanted to show the court that this could happen to anyone of any race and not just someone that is African American. The ethical framework had worked for him and he was able to get Carl Lee free from any charges. The ethical dilemma of Ellen was to try to get Jake to let her help him get information for the case so that he could win. She was able to convince him to let her help by showing him that she was a very determined hard worker and she never gave up. She continued to help throughout the case and had gotten him very useful information he needed. With her help he was able to discredit the states physiatrist doctor which was a huge part of the prosecution team. Her ethical frame work was that she needed to prove to Jake that she would be able to help him and that he couldn’t afford not to have her on his team. She was able to do that and her ethical framework worked for her.
I think that if Carl Lee would have never killed those men that hurt his daughter that most everyone in the town would not have been able to realize that they were still struggling with a huge race issue. The reason that he would have never been put on trial and led up to everything else in the movie. If Jake would have never represented Carl Lee he would not have been able to show the country that race should not have been an issue in the case and he would have still been struggling with his law business. I think most if not all of the ethical framework of everyone worked out to end up to be a good thing. The country was shown that it shouldn’t matter what race you are when a crime is committed.
Legal dramas make for great entertainment because most of them really make you think about the outcomes on the case that is in play. Legal dramas are interesting because everyone likes to know about court cases and it’s always about something big. They don’t just make legal dramas about one kind of case they are about all different kinds of cases. Most are about murder and always have a twist of an ending with the person that committed the crime someone that you never expected it to be. The reason I mainly like legal dramas is because the whole story usually makes your brain tick and you are usually sitting on the edge of your seat waiting on the outcome of the movie or show. There is no way you could just sit there through this movie and not wonder what is going to happen next if you haven’t seen it before. Some legal dramas can be emotional too. This movie in particular was very emotional because of the way that the little girl was done and that her father wanted nothing more than to see that those men could never hurt another little girl again. In the beginning it was very sad but the outcome was really good. Most legal dramas have great endings and can be emotional at times. Not a lot are emotional but the ones that are and have great endings are the best kind. I would suggest anyone that doesn’t like legal drama movies or shows to watch this movie and I promise you that by the end of the movie you will be moved by the whole story! I can watch this movie many times and it never gets too old for me. It is always a very good movie no matter how many times I have watched it. I can honestly say it is one of my favorite legal drama movies of all time. I have yet to see one that is better than this one.

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