A Time to Kill

Thomas Luster Criminal Justice John Grisham’s A Time to Kill, is a movie about the court case of a man who took the law into his own hands. Although the book does make an admirable effort to correctly portray the legal system, it does fall short in some aspects. Hollywood is notorious for romanticizing the legal system and this movie was no different. The movie takes place in rural Mississippi, where Carl Lee Hailey’…

…conduct, the death threats, the conduct of the jurors, the tampering of evidence, the illegal obtainment of evidence, and the final verdict are all factors which made this a Hollywood fantasy and not a factual court case. A Time To Kill was a best selling book by John Grisham and an award-winning movie, but when one takes the time to thoroughly compare A Time To Kill to the American legal system; its shortcomings are endless.