A Time to Kill

Four weeks before the trial, reporters fill every hotel in Clanton. The citizens have grown tired of them and their views—i.e., that the locals are “backward, redneck, and racist” (225).

At the change-of-venue hearing, Jake argues that the trial should be moved as far away as possible to prevent local bias from influencing the jurors. He calls the divorce attorney Harry Rex Vonner to testify as to how he learned about the rape. Harry Rex cites the television news and newspapers; he also overheard cops in a local restaurant describing how the rapists urinated on Tonya, a detail Jake had not heard. Harry Rex contends that the story is common knowledge throughout the country. “There are no fence straddlers on this one. It’s a hot topic, and everyone has an opinion” (231). Reverend Agee also testifies that a fair trial in Ford County would be impossible. Ozzie is the next witness, and he affirms that Carl Lee’s case is common knowledge and thus impossible to try locally without bias. During a brief recess, Noose notifies Jake and Buckley that he is imposing a gag order until the trial; neither of them is allowed to talk to the press, which he hopes will cut down on their use of publicity to sway public opinion.

Ethel accuses Jake of becoming obsessed with Carl Lee’s case, to the point of causing the firm financial harm. She reports there is not enough money to cover the month’s bills. Jake promises to find more money. He later meets with Stan Atcavage, a local banker, who agrees to loan Jake $5,000. Jake promises to pay the money back within 90 days.

Police officers are now taking turns sleeping on the Haileys’ couch at night to protect the family. Tonya wakes up almost every night, screaming from a nightmare, claiming she has seen someone looking in her window.

Carl Lee updates Gwen about his evaluation at Whitfield: The doctors at the facility were professional, but the psychiatrist Jake hired to testify, Bass, was drunk both times Carl Lee met with him. He thinks Jake is worried.

Reverend Agee introduces the Council of Ministers to Norman Reinfeld, “a thirty-year-old genius in criminal law who held the record for finishing Harvard’s law school at the age of twenty-one” (246). He turned down prestigious offers to work instead for the NAACP. But he has not always been successful: Four of his clients have been executed. Reinfeld tells the ministers that he’ll need at least $50,000 to mount a good defense for Carl Lee—and $100,000 would be ideal. Reinfeld will meet with Carl Lee the next day and suggests inviting Jake, too: “We’ll ask him to help on the case. It’ll ease the pain” (250).

At the meeting, Jake is angry and accuses Reinfeld of solicitation—since Carl Lee did not invite him. Jake gets Reinfeld to admit that he currently has only $20,000 to work with, and that $150,000 was not enough to rescue one of his clients from conviction last year. Agee insists that Jake can work with Reinfeld, but Jake won’t hear of it. He emphasizes that hiring an attorney is Carl Lee’s decision alone. Carl Lee asserts that the funding—the local community has raised $6,000—was supposed to go to his wife and children; that’s what Agee told his congregants when he solicited the money. Carl Lee declares he will stay with Jake. 

The Ford County Klavern is founded in a secret midnight ceremony, lit by a burning cross. Six new Klansmen are inducted, including Billy Ray’s brother Freddie.

An anonymous caller to the jail reports that Jake’s house will be blown up at 3:00am. Ozzie drives to Jake’s house to warn him. Then the sheriff and two deputies hide in wait. Soon, a figure approaches the house and places a small suitcase under Jake’s bedroom window. Ozzie attacks the man with his night stick, handcuffs him to the gas meter, and demands that he defuse the bomb. When that’s done, Ozzie beats the man until he confesses that his partner is waiting down the street in a red truck. Ozzie calls for backup. The man who placed the bomb has no ID, but the one driving the truck is Terrell Grist, who Ozzie says is a friend of the Cobbs. Ozzie assigns a deputy to watch Jake full-time.

Carla reminds Jake that he promised to withdraw if they were in danger, but Jake says he can’t. Instead, he drives his family to the airport—he has arranged for Carla and Hanna to stay in Wilmington, North Carolina with Carla’s parents until the trial ends.

Noose tells Jake over lunch that he detests Buckley and that he is concerned about the trial’s intensity. He divulges that he is not going to allow the change of venue.

On his way home, Jake stops to buy a six-pack of beer and realizes that he is doing it because he doesn’t want to go back to work and because Carla, who always frowns on his drinking, is away. Jake takes the beer to Lucien’s house for a chat. Lucien thinks Buckley, who aspires to be governor, pressured Noose not to move the trial. He tells Jake that Buckley has called on his political friends to promise Noose their support for his reelection if he keeps the trial in Clanton. “Buckley is talking to the local bigots and pumping them up and telling how this no-good nigger might be acquitted if the trial is moved” (274), Lucien says. He also reveals that Noose has been receiving threats of his own. 

The next day, Jake is hungover for the first time since law school. He talks to Carla, who can tell he has been drinking; she is concerned and disappointed in him.

A University of Mississippi law school student named Ellen Roark visits the office to offer Jake her services as a law clerk. Her father is a wealthy criminal law attorney in Boston, so she can work for free. “It’s a trial lawyer’s dream,” she says. “I just want to be there” (281). Jake hires her but warns her that the job could be dangerous. Jake and Ellen discuss the case and the death penalty, which Jake doesn’t believe is used often enough. Referring to the rapists, he says, “Their crimes were barbaric. Death is too good for them” (284). Ellen, however, has witnessed two executions. She tells Jake that seeing one would change his mind. Jake tells Ellen that one of her jobs will be to ensure Bass is sober at trial.

A week before the trial begins, Noose orders a circuit clerk to summon 150 prospective jurors. Harry Rex manages to get a list of the names and gives it to Jake, warning him not to ask how he got it. Next to each name, notes offer clues as to how people might be inclined to vote. One of the names—Frances Burdeen—is a client of Harry Rex’s; he assures Jake that she will vote to acquit. Jake then takes the list to a local honky-tonk club frequented by the black community and asks the owner, a friend, to find out as much as he can about any of the people on the list who are black.

Ethel, and her husband, Bud Twitty, are preparing for bed when several men dressed in black break into their house and beat Bud unconscious. Another group of men dressed in white robes watch the beating. Bud suffers broken bones and a heart attack. Jake visits Bud in the hospital that night. Ethel screams at Jake that he promised the trial would not invite any real danger.

Gwen Hailey is broke, but Jake has an idea. He invites Gwen and her children as well as Reverend Agee to assemble in his conference room. Jake then reveals that Agee has raised more than $6,000 in Carl Lee’s name. Gwen shouts at Agee, arguing that the money belongs to her family. Agee lies and claims that Carl Lee knows what is being done with the money. At that moment, Jake opens the door. Carl Lee enters, accompanied by Ozzie. Carl Lee threatens to reveal Agee’s deceit to the entire congregation if he doesn’t give Gwen the money. Ozzie promises to expose Agee’s past legal indiscretions to the churchgoers as well.

Later, Ozzie updates Ellen and Jake with news he’s learned from an informant, a member of the Klan who calls himself Mickey Mouse: The Klan has established a Klavern in Ford County, and a Klan march is scheduled for Thursday in Clanton.

Buckley has hired Will Tierce to investigate six names on the jury list in exchange for clearing Tierce’s nephew of the drug charges he’s facing. Tierce first approaches Joe Frank Perryman while he’s sitting on his own front porch. Tierce says he’s heard that Joe Frank has a jury summons for the Hailey trial. He continues, “Our system won’t survive if we allow people, especially niggers, to take the law into their own hands” (305). Then he affirms how much the community needs Joe Frank on the jury.

Jake, Ellen, and Lucien meet to discuss the jury list at Lucien’s house. On a phone call late that evening, Jake assures Carla that he will stay with Lucien and not go home. 

Thirty-one buses roll through Clanton on Wednesday, filled with black protestors who support Carl Lee. They gather around the courthouse and chant “Free Carl Lee!” (310). Agee takes a podium and introduces Reverend Roosevelt, who offers a prayer. A woman sings “We Shall Overcome,” and the crowd joins in.

Jake, Ellen, Lucien, Atcavage, and Harry Rex assemble at Jake’s office and watch the crowd at the courthouse. Most of the marchers are now holding lit candles, a vigil they vow to keep until Carl Lee is free. Jake asks the others to define their model juror. Lucien wants as many women on the jury as possible, believing they will be more sympathetic. Harry Rex thinks they need fathers who have daughters. Lucien discloses that he has bought a juror’s vote in the past, for $80,000. An hour later they are all drunk and still have forty names to discuss. 

Forty men gather to prepare for the Klan march. “It is the biggest meeting of its kind in years,” Stump notes (319). He explains that the march may be dangerous, but it will be worth it. The group heads toward the courthouse, congregating on the front steps. Jake watches from a courthouse window. The blacks across the street approach. Stump screams at them, “You niggers were not invited to this rally!” (320). The black protestors chant louder. A small firebomb flies from a third-floor window and lands at Stump’s feet, igniting his robe. Violence erupts as Klansmen and blacks attack each other. Ozzie is knocked unconscious, as is a female reporter from Memphis. Police reinforcements arrive and end the riot by firing guns into the air.

Jake, Ellen, and Harry Rex watch footage of the riot on the news that evening. Stump is badly burned and is in the hospital. Carla calls and says she wants to come home, but Jake tells her not to.

A group of Klansmen convenes at the cabin after a visit to Stump in the hospital. They will continue with their plans. They have a list of 20 prospective jurors. The group burns crosses on the lawns of 19 on that list. At the last home, an old man is waiting for the Klansmen and shoots at them with a shotgun; they escape. From a payphone, Mickey Mouse calls each of the homes and tells them to look in their front yards.