Reggie Bartlett
Banned
A few friends have been trying to get me to reading John Grisham (he's good by what I've seen). And I've wondered what the broader effects of Carl Lee's release would bring.
Essentially, in late-1980's rural Clanton, Mississippi a pastoral little place in Ford County, an hour south of Memphis and a little ways away from Oxford (so I'd suppose it's location would be analogous to Senatobia, where Grisham did spend a lot of time, or Batesville). 2 white men brutalize, rape and lynch the daughter of local lumber mill worker, Carl Lee Hailey, a black man. The police quickly capture the two men, the investigation led by the black sheriff. Hailey, obviously distraught and enraged, takes a day to go to Memphis and meet an old war buddy from Vietnam that can get weapons for him. Later on Hailey hides out in a janitor's closet in the courthouse overnight waiting for the arraignment of the accused. When the two men are brought up for their arraignment, with dozens of people witnessing, Hailey guns down the two men with an illegally purchased M16 rifle in the courthouse rotunda out of revenge.
In the ensuing weeks, race riots, Klan attacks, sniper attacks, firebombings and the like become constant around Ford County. It all ends with a juror successfully getting a jury nullification to let Hailey go free. And so at the end of the day fatherly instinct wins the day, Brigance wins his first big case and the bad guys lay in the ground.
But, the big question is, what kind of greater implication on the law does this bring? What exactly lay in Clanton's future?
Essentially, in late-1980's rural Clanton, Mississippi a pastoral little place in Ford County, an hour south of Memphis and a little ways away from Oxford (so I'd suppose it's location would be analogous to Senatobia, where Grisham did spend a lot of time, or Batesville). 2 white men brutalize, rape and lynch the daughter of local lumber mill worker, Carl Lee Hailey, a black man. The police quickly capture the two men, the investigation led by the black sheriff. Hailey, obviously distraught and enraged, takes a day to go to Memphis and meet an old war buddy from Vietnam that can get weapons for him. Later on Hailey hides out in a janitor's closet in the courthouse overnight waiting for the arraignment of the accused. When the two men are brought up for their arraignment, with dozens of people witnessing, Hailey guns down the two men with an illegally purchased M16 rifle in the courthouse rotunda out of revenge.
In the ensuing weeks, race riots, Klan attacks, sniper attacks, firebombings and the like become constant around Ford County. It all ends with a juror successfully getting a jury nullification to let Hailey go free. And so at the end of the day fatherly instinct wins the day, Brigance wins his first big case and the bad guys lay in the ground.
But, the big question is, what kind of greater implication on the law does this bring? What exactly lay in Clanton's future?