Jake Brigance's A Time To Kill

“What is it in us that seeks the truth? Is it our minds or our hearts?” This is a quote from the “courtroom scene” of A Time to Kill. A Time to Killis about a heartbroken African American father, Carl Hailey, who avenges the death of his daughter’s rape, by shooting the men responsible while they are on the way to their trial. Now the father is awaiting trial for the murder of his daughter’s rapists and killers. The most persuasive closing argument is found in the “courtroom scene” and made by Jake Brigance, his lawyer. Jake asks everyone in the courtroom to close their eyes and imagine what he beings to explain. He paints a picture with his words, explaining the horrible situation that occurred to Hailey’s daughter being kidnapped, raped,

He goes on to explain that what is missing is the truth. He does not want the truth to just be talked about, he wants the truth to be searched, found, and lived. Jake set out to give a fair trial to a black man in the south, despite what could happen to him and his job. This is represented in his explanation of the law. That the “eyes of the law (Regency Enterprises,1996)” are human eyes that justice will never be served due to the prejudices, bigotry, and hate that people all share. Because most human eyes do not see equal there was slim chance that justice could be served. To change the mind of the courtroom he had to get into the minds of the people within it.Knowing a few key things about the movie will better explain the situation in the courtroom. The time period of the story is based off of the early 1980’s in the South. The father and daughter are African American and the killers are white men. Being in the south, and being black, the odds are against Hailey. This situation allows for an ethical appeal to be used; this is called Ethos (Weida and Stolley, 2013). Jake wants the court room to look above the law when determining Hailey’s fate and to remember, despite physical differences we are all the same. That Hailey should deserve a fair trial for his wrong doing, but also that this father did what almost any parent would do if something like this happened to their child. Hailey being black the white court room did not personally care. But if the