In A Time To Kill, the scene of Jake Brigance’s closing statements to the jury is the most significant evocation of empathy throughout the entire film. In this scene, Jake asks the jury to close their eyes and imagine his following words. He then goes on to vividly describe the brutal rape, attack, and attempted murder of Tonya Hailey, daughter of Carl Lee Hailey— the defendant.
Jake simply asks the jury to “picture this little girl [walking home from the grocery store one sunny afternoon]”(ATTK 2:16:20-2:16:29). He does not define the girl in any way, but that she is little and a girl. He does not give her name, her age, or her race to the jury. Most of the jurors know that there had been a rape, but they hardly know even half of the story. Jake’s deliberate method of leaving out details about the little girl creates a blank slate in the juror’s minds. This way, the little girl is more relatable to them, and the rest of the story will have more meaning.
The rest of the story is a description of Tonya’s rape— Jake does not hesitate to leave a single detail out. He graphically describes how the two assailants shattered everything innocent about the little girl, piece by piece. After sharing with the jury how the men had snatched Tonya off the road and tied her up, he continues with: “Now they climb on, first one then the other, raping her, shattering everything innocent and pure— vicious thrusts— in a fog of drunken breath and sweat” (ATTK 2:16:35-2:17:21). This sensory imagery is so unsettling that it helps evoke a sort of startling discomfort in the jury— they come to realize the true brutality of the attack. This realization brings with it a new sense of empathy, of feeling deeply for the Hailey family. Many of the women in the jury and in the courtroom are shown to be crying, visibly disturbed.
This new sense of empathy, however, does not become the true, deeply internalized emotion of empathy until Jake’s haunting last line: “Now imagine she’s white” (ATTK 2:20:21-2:20:23 ). This line truly works to transport the jury into a place of understanding— a place where each and every juror can feel Tonya’s pain and Carl Lee’s pain— because they are finally seeing Carl Lee’s case through their own eyes and hearts. Throughout Jake’s closing statement the empathy invoked in the jurors has been real, but it is during this line that the brutal reality of the situation truly strikes them.
Thus, the feeling of real empathy invoked in the jurors is also coupled with guilt. There is guilt for their close-mindedness— they themselves may realize that they are only able to care about a little girl’s life when she is white. The end of Jake’s summation serves as sort of an epiphany for the jury— they come to a startling conclusion not only about Carl Lee Hailey, but also about themselves. They come to terms with their own blind racism, and find it within themselves to overcome it by declaring Carl Lee Hailey innocent.
Works Cited
A Time to Kill. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Regency Enterprises, Warner Brothers, 1996. Digital Campus. Web. 20 Sept 2017.