In the movie A Time to Kill, directed by Joel Schumacher, the viewer finds oneself immersed in the town of Canton, Mississippi, and immediately witnesses the beating and rape of 10 year old Tonya Hailey. Her father, understandably upset and outraged at the men who committed the crime, goes and kills them as revenge. From there, it is Jake Brigance’s job to convince an all white jury that his black client is innocent. Although it is not his plan, Jake invokes empathy in the jury that allows Carl Lee to walk out of the courthouse a free man.
Jake Brigance knew when he took Carl Lee’s case that he wanted it because he knew he would have done the same thing to those men if they had gone after his daughter. He felt terrible for Carl Lee and recognized the position he was in, thus feeling bad and taking action to help. Carl Lee was able to recognize that if Jake was helping him because he felt bad for what had happened to his daughter, the same feelings needed to be felt by the jury so that they would help him and decide he was innocent. Jake was not aware of this, but ultimately was able to do this with his closing speech as he described the brutal acts that Tonya endured.
He begins by telling the story of “a little girl, walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon” (TK 2:16:17- 2:16:26). He does not state that the girl is Tonya or that she is black, but due to the conditions at the time of the story- there had been much talk about her rape throughout the case- they know that he is telling them the story of her rape. He continues to describe in vivid detail what occurred, including how “[the men] tie her up, rip her clothes off her body… shattering everything innocent and pure” (TK 2:16:52- 2:17:13). As Jake describes more and more of the horrors that the girl went through, it becomes clear that members of the jury are truly feeling upset and sorry for the girl in the story, and even begin to cry because they feel so badly for the girl (TK 2:18:02). He finishes describing all that had happened and forces the jury to reflect on the state of the girl, which is what Tonya’s family saw when she was found after being beaten and raped.
From there, Jake forces the jury to recognize what Carl Lee went through. He had to see his daughter beaten, raped, covered in blood and broken to the point where she was barely alive, and he is able to get the jury to see Carl Lee’s perspective simply by saying “do you see her?” (TK 2:19:22). This was how Carl Lee saw his daughter, so by allowing the jury to stand in the same position, they could potentially understand the emotions that Carl Lee had felt.
At this point however, this empathy is not real, as it is just a hypothetical situation in their mind. Yes, they knew he is ultimately talking about Tonya, but they do not feel bad because it happened to her, a black girl, but rather because of the atrocity of what had happened. This empathy becomes real when Jake says “now imagine she’s white” (TK 2:20:21- 2:20:24). The jury knew he was talking about a black girl, but when they imagine the same thing happening to a white girl, they are able to connect to her much more and feel awful for her, not just disgusted at the actions that took place. By connecting Tonya’s story to the white jury, they were able to understand why Carl Lee felt and acted the way he did. They were able to truly empathize with him and Tonya, and felt moved to find him innocent.
Works Cited:
A Time to Kill. Dir. Joel Schumacher. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1996. Digital Campus. Web. 20 September 2017.