Matthew McConaughey, a young, attractive and highly-skilled attorney is faced with the toughest case of his life, one that on many occassions may also threaten it. In the southern Mississippi town of Canton, the K.K.K. is active and the tension is high when the black majority is angered at the raping and slaying of a black man's 10-year-old daughter. Against Jake's advice, the distraught father takes revenge, gunning down the two criminals in the local courthouse. Racial hatred hightens with the suspense and conflict threatens to break out regardless of the verdict. Jake must decide, along with his new, eager assisstant whether he and his family can run the risk of defending the man. Summary written by Paul Chard {tox@msn.com} Adapted from the novel by John Grisham, A TIME TO KILL is the story of a black man's struggle for justice for himself and his family in America today. After Carl Lee's 10-year-old daughter, Tonya is brutally raped he recalls the case of "four white boys who raped a black girl over in Delta last year." He asks attorney Jake Brigance, "They got off, didn't they?" Jake nods his head. Determined to see that the two rapists get what's coming to them, Carl Lee takes the law into his own hands and guns them down in cold blood inside the courthouse on the day of their arraignments. Young Jake, struggling to keep his law practice afloat, suddenly finds himself defending Carl Lee against murder charges a not-so-popular position with some of the locals in Canton, Mississippi. Ellen Roark, a stellar law student from Ole Miss, offers her services to Jake just for the opportunity to help with the case and eventually convinces him to take her on. In the meantime, the K.K.K. (at the prompting of a brother of one of the rapists) plants burning crosses on Jake's lawn, attempts to bomb his house, and takes a shot at him. To ensure their safety, Jake sends his wife and little daughter to Gulfport to stay with his in-laws. As tension in Canton reaches fever pitch and the N.A.A.C.P. and K.K.K. riot on the courthouse lawn, a different kind of tension rises between Jake and Ellen. Summary written by Mark Fleetwood {mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu} When Tonya Hailey, an innocent little African-American girl is raped and beaten by 2 beer-guzzling rednecks, the town of Canton, Mississippi is shocked. Her father Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) is outraged, and figuring he could not see those boys set free, decides to take justice into his own hands and kills them in the court house, in front of numerous witnesses. Now it up to Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) to get Carl Lee off the hook. He has people that help him, (Oliver Platt, Sandra Bullock Donald Sutherland) but he is up against tough D.A. Rufus Buckley (Kevin Spacey). Will he be able to prove that a black man can get a fair trial in Mississippi?

release year: 1996

star(s): Ashley Judd    Kevin Spacey    Matthew Mcconaughey    Samuel L. Jackson    Sandra Bullock