In a small town in Mississippi, a 10-year-old black girl is viciously raped and beaten by two white supremacists. While the largely white town is shocked and horrified, it is evident that the two men would get away with not much more than a slap on the wrist.
The girl’s father takes matters into his own hands and guns down the two men in the courtroom, and is charged with capital murder, a crime which carries a death sentence. He retains a young white lawyer, Jake Brigance, who has to convince an all white jury that the black man who just killed two white men was not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
Up against a prosecutor who wants to use this case for policital progress and the resurgent Ku Klux Klan, Jake is up against society’s deep rooted racial divide a much as the court.
The book chronicles the lawyer’s journey from convincing folks that he is right for the job, to getting paid, selecting a jury and presenting a convincing psychiatrist to the jury, all while dealing with death threats, burning crosses, bombs and eventually a burned down house.
Although unrelated, the book made me think of the case of Cmdr. Nanavati, who shot his wife’s lover point blank and turned himself in. In a shock move, the jury acquitted him, which led to the elimination of jury trials entirely in India. A jury needs to identify with the perpetrator, and ask themselves how they would act. The jury did that for Nanavati. But in racially charged America, the colour of the skin prevents them from this very basic act. A white person cannot identify with a black one under any circumstances. As an epilogue, it was revealed that the jury’s decision came about when they were asked to flip the skin colours.
Grisham drives the narrative effortlessly and keeps the reader hooked and engaged. His story-telling is excellent. Worth reading.