A Time to Kill

Grisham writes that “Ozzie Walls was the only black sheriff in Mississippi” (8). He was a professional football player before a knee injury ended his career. Now he is “a tough cop who did not discriminate between black punks and white punks” (8). He suspects Cobb for Tonya’s rape. He visits the hospital where Tonya is in surgery and speaks with the Haileys. Hastings reports the extent of Tonya’s injuries.

Three miles outside of town, Ozzie and Deputy Hasting visit the trailer of Bobby Bumpous, a known drug customer of Cobb’s. Bumpous owes the policemen a favor for letting him off for marijuana possession two years back. They ask him to visit a local bar, Huey’s, where Cobb has been spotted, to see if Bumpous can get Cobb to talk.

When Bumpous comes out of Huey’s, he reports that Cobb has indeed been bragging about the rape: “Said he finally found a nigger who was a virgin” (14). Willard is with him and is also talking. Hastings and Ozzie go inside and arrest both men. Cobb resists, but they subdue him.

Jake Brigance wakes early and kisses his four-year old daughter Hanna while she sleeps before leaving for the office. Outside, he turns to admire his house, which is one of two homes in the area’s National Register of Historic Places, and is “gloriously unique” (19). By 6:00 a.m., Jake is at the Coffee Shop, three blocks from his office, where he stands out as one of the only white-collar professionals in the crowd. He is welcome because he has helped so many of the regulars with legal issues.

A police deputy approaches and asks Jake, “Didn’t you defend Billy Ray Cobb a few years ago?” (21). Jake remembers Cobb, but he didn’t defend him. The deputy tells Jake about the rape. When Jake asks who was raped, the deputy says, “You remember that Hailey nigger you got off in that murder trial a few years ago?” (22). He is referring to Lester Hailey, Carl Lee’s brother. Jake joins a group of deputies in a booth to listen to the story about Tonya. Jake loses his appetite. He thinks about his own daughter. The policemen ask how much time the rapists will have to serve, and Jake replies that they could be out of prison within thirteen years.

Carl Lee tries to sleep on the couch in the hospital waiting room. Ozzie visits him and divulges everything he knows about Cobb and Willard.

Jake has practiced law alone since 1979. Most of the other lawyers in town work with the Sullivan firm, which Jake detests. The eight Sullivan lawyers are “the most pompous and arrogant jerks Jake had ever met” (25). Jake’s own offices are enormous, but he pays only $400 a month. His landlord is his former boss, Lucien Wilbanks, who inherited the family law firm when his father was killed in a plane crash. “Lucien wanted to be a radical, a flaming radical of a lawyer with unpopular causes and cases, and lots of attention” (27). All his largest clients left for Sullivan. By the time he hired Jake in 1978, he was a severe alcoholic, working 15-hour days. Lucien was disbarred a year later for his violent role in a union picket strike and for “outrageous conduct unbecoming a member of the bar” (29). That’s when Lucien gave Jake the offices, for a price he could afford.

Jake’s secretary, Ethel Twitty, reports that Earnestine Willard, Fred Willard’s mother, wants to speak with him. He replies that he’s not interested in representing Willard.

Ozzie and two deputies question Willard, and he admits to the rape; he says he will sign whatever they want, as long as they don’t tell Cobb.

Judge Percy Bullard “was a small, nervous type who worried about preliminary hearings and every other routine hearing” (36). He is listening to a group of lawyers gossip about the rape when his deputy enters his chambers to report that more than 100 blacks have assembled in the courtroom.

When the hearing begins, Carl Lee is in the front row. Cobb and Willard enter the courtroom in handcuffs. Ozzie testifies about how he came to arrest the suspects. He says that the police have searched Cobb’s truck and found a small bloody T-shirt, which Carl Lee identified as Tonya’s. Willard’s signed confession is read for the courtroom. No other witnesses are called, and Bullard denies bail but agrees to set a bail hearing for several days later.

After the hearing, Carl Lee asks to speak with Jake. He confesses: “All I can think about is getting’ my hands on those bastards” (42). And he asks what Jake would do if it had been his daughter. Jake admits he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee responds, “Then you’d hire some big-shot lawyer to say you’re crazy, just like you did in Lester’s trial” (43). He asks Jake if he’s ready to handle another shooting case. Jake says this case is different from Lester’s case because the defendants are white. He warns Carl Lee not to do anything crazy. But Carl Lee replies, “Will you meet me at the jail when they arrest me?” (45). Jake assents. 

Carl Lee’s brother Lester has arrived in town to visit Tonya. At the hospital, he sketches on several napkins—the courthouse and the jail, whatever he can remember from his trail and incarceration four years prior. He and Carl Lee begin “plotting well past midnight” (47).

Late on a Friday afternoon, Carl Lee is hiding in a restroom while the courthouse is locked for the night. When the building is empty, he patrols and studies the courtroom, as well as various hallways. He walks the route that the prisoners will take when being led to the courtroom. He notices a janitor’s closet near the end of their route.

At home, Jake’s wife Carla urges him to report the crime Carl Lee is planning, but Jake can’t. He admits he will represent Carl Lee if something happens. 

Carl Lee and Lester meet with Cat Bruster, a black millionaire from Memphis who owns several topless clubs. “He was a benefactor for numerous black causes, a friend of the politicians, and a hero to his people” (52); he lost one eye in Vietnam, on the same day “that his buddy Carl Lee was hit in the leg” (52). Carl Lee asks for a favor: He wants an M-16 machine gun. Cat supplies the weapon.

Jake does confess to Ozzie that he’s worried Carl Lee might try to kill Cobb and Willard. Ozzie assures Jake that the two men are safe and that he will keep an eye on them.

On Sunday, Tonya leaves the hospital to find a crowd waiting in the parking lot. A procession of cars follows her home, where Carl Lee carries her into the house. 

Since the initial hearing, Rocky Childers, the Ford County prosecutor, has been inundated with calls from black citizens who do not want Cobb and Willard to be released on bond. Childers is in the courtroom when Bullard enters and calls the court to attention for the bond hearing. Carl Lee is not present. Childers asks the judge—who is drinking vodka from a paper cup during the hearing—for the maximum bonds.

Cobb has hired Peter K. Bernard, a Memphis lawyer, to represent him. Bernard calls several character witnesses: Cobb’s brother Fred, Cobb’s mother, as well as several other relatives. Bond is set at $100,000 for Willard and at $200,000 for Cobb. As the suspects leave the courtroom, Lester bows his head and prays.

As Cobb and Willard approach the bottom of the steps leading to the first floor, Carl Lee bursts from the janitor’s closet and fires the M-16. He shoots them many times and then throws the gun at them and dashes out the front door. Jake runs inside the courthouse and sees the bodies. He cautions Ozzie not to let the police interrogate Carl Lee without Jake present.

Deputy Hastings leads a convoy to Carl Lee’s house. Ozzie takes Carl Lee into custody but does not handcuff him. 

Sheriff Walls answers reporters’ questions outside the jail, reporting that a deputy named DeWayne Looney, whom Carl Lee accidentally shot along with Cobb and Willard, will live. Inside, Jake meets Carl Lee in an interrogation room. Carl Lee admits that he was the shooter. Carl Lee is confident that Jake will be able to get him off if he presents the case right: “You big stupid idiot, thought Jake. How could he be confident at a time like this?” (74). He knows that Carl Lee might be sent to the gas chamber. Jake agrees to represent Carl Lee for $1,000 up front and a note on $7,500 to be paid later.

Outside, Jake is evasive with the reporters but reveals that Carl Lee will plead not guilty. That evening at home, Jake feels good. He tells Carla, “This case could make me famous and us a million bucks, in the long run” (79). At 11:15 p.m., he receives a threating phone call: “He was called a nigger-loving son of a bitch, one who would not live if the nigger walked” (79).

At the Coffee Shop, rumors spread that Carl Lee was not the only shooter. Most of the regulars ignore Jake. He assumes tensions will settle once Looney is out of the hospital. Instead, as Carl Lee’s preliminary hearing approaches, they escalate: “There was a Clanton before the killings, and there was a Clanton after the killings, and it would be months before the two resembled each other” (85).

Judge Bullard refuses to leave his office or take calls. Ozzie is constantly giving interviews. When reporters visit Jake at his office, he surprisingly declares there’s a chance Carl Lee may not be indicted. He says, “It’s up to the grand jury, or will be after the preliminary hearing” (82).

After Willard’s and Cobb’s funerals, family members reminisce about the days of the Ku Klux Klan and wonder if any current Klan members would be interested in helping them. Several drive to Clanton to attend Carl Lee’s preliminary hearing.

On the day of the hearing, bearded strangers fill the Coffee Shop. Many glare at Jake. Bullard sits in his chambers, drinking vodka, worrying about how many black people have arrived for the hearing. The courtroom is segregated: black and whites on each side of the aisle, “[j]ust like in the old days before the sixties” (89). On the stand, Sheriff Walls gives testimony about the shooting. Bullard decides to hold Carl Lee without bail.

Outside, Jake answers reporter’s questions about his rivalry with Rufus Buckley, the district attorney on the case: “He’s a good prosecutor and a worthy adversary. He just talks when he shouldn’t” (93).

Late on Wednesday night, Looney learns that the bottom third of his leg—which was hit by Carl Lee’s bullet—has to be amputated. Ozzie relates the news to Carl Lee at the jail.

Buckley is pleased to see in the newspaper the next day that Jake mentioned his name: “He relished the thought of a long, nasty trial with his first real opportunity at real, meaningful exposure” (94). Buckley intends to run for Congress, and the publicity will serve him well. He meets with reporters to declare that he will get a conviction, even though, as a father, he sympathizes with Carl Lee’s anguish over Tonya’s rape.

Ethel informs Jake she’s received a second threatening phone call in 24 hours: “Said I’d be sorry because I worked for a nigger lover” (96). She says he shouldn’t have taken the case, but he doesn’t care what she thinks. He makes his monthly visit to Lucien, bearing files from various cases Lucien is interested in. Lucien tells Jake that his chances for an acquittal for Carl Lee are slim. He advises Jake to request a change of venue even though it’s a long shot, so that Jake can later use the issue as a means of appeal. Lucien also discloses that Looney’s leg was amputated, information Jake had not yet learned.

Lester brings Jake $900 as payment; he’s $100 short because his wife needed the money for groceries. Jake learns that no bank will loan the Haileys money using their house as collateral because of the stigma of the courthouse murders and the community’s certainty that Carl Lee will be convicted.