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| Grisham, John: A Time To Kill
Grisham, John: A Time To Kill
A TIME TO KILL
by John GRISHAM
Author:
John Grisham was born in 1955 and became a
lawyer after he graduated from college. He was also involved in politic and now
lives in Virginia with his wife and 2 children. He has sold over 55 million
books and is one of the world´s most popular writers.
Persons:
Carl Lee Hailey: black worker, who kills the
white rapers of his daughter
Tonya Hailey : Carl Lee´s
daughter
Jake Brigance : a young white lawer, who
takes the defense of Carl Lee
Ozzi Walls : black sheriff of
Clanton
Rufus Buckley: the
prosecutor
Ellen Roark : a young law student
Sgt. Looney : the deputy, who gets
injured by a confused bullet
Mister Noose : the judge
Billy Ray Cobb
and Pete Willard: white men, rapers of
Tonya Hailey
KU KLUX KLAN: a secret organization that
began in 1865 in the southern
states of the
US and has a long history of violent attacs
against black
people and their supporters.
Story:
At the beginning of the story, Tonya Hailey, a
ten year old black girl, is raped by Billy Ray Cobb and his friend Pete Willard
on the way home. They injure her badly and they also want to hang her but the
bough brakes and so they throw her over a bridge into a dried up
river-bed.
The girl is found by a member of her family who
tells her mother what had happened. Carl Lee Hailey and his wife lay an
information against the two white men and later they are arrested by sheriff
Walls.
In the meantime, Carl Lee Hailey makes
inquiries of Jake Brigance about consequences of murdering a person. Jake tells
him, that if the same had have happened to his daughter, he would kill the
raper. Carl Lee also askes Jake if he would defend him in case of emergency. As
he affirms, Carl Lee decides to buy himself a gun and to kill the rapers of his
daughter.
When Sgt Looney takes Billy Ray Cobb and Pete
Willard to the court for their hearing, Carl Lee jumps out and shoots them down.
A confused bullet hits Looney in his right knee. The two rapers are dead at the
moment and Carl Lee is arrested by sheriff Walls.
In prison Carl Lee begs Jake Brigance to take
his defense and he promises. But it is a very difficult intention because the
inhabitants of Clanton are mostly white and also the members of the jury will be
white. Jake aspires to conduct the trial in another federal state, where more
black inhabitants will be in the jury and maybe judge fairer. But this petition
is turned down by judge Noose.
So Jake Brigance and his assistants Ellen
Roark, a brilliant law student, and Harry Rex Vonner, a friend of Jake, search
for irksome material to expose the prosecutors´ witnesses. Rufus Buckley
and his helpers do the same on the other side. For example both psychatrists,
one of each side get blamed by Rufus an Jake. During the investigations Jake and
his colleges are attacked several times by members of the KU KLUX KLAN. They
burn down Jake´s house, attack the husband of his secretary and at last
Ellen.
In the opinion of the reverend of Clanton and
other members of the church a black lawyer should defend Carl Lee. They think
that there is not the least chance to get him free if he is defended by a white
lawyer.
At the final trail the prosecutor demands death
penalty for Carl Lee and tries to convince the jury of his guilt. In his
pleading Jake Brigance begs the witnesses to close their eyes and tells again
the whole story of what had happened to little Tonya. He doesn´t leave out
anything, he describes the whole act of
violence.
At the end, he demands the
witnesses to imagine that all this had happened to a WHITE girl.
The jury is very affected of this pleading and
they find Carl Lee for not guilty.
Vocabulary:
rape, raper: Vergewaltigung,
Vergewaltiger
lawyer: Anwalt
prosecutor: Staatsanwalt
dried up river bed: ausgetocknetes
Flussbett
bough: Ast
lay an information: anzeigen
to make inquiries: sich erkundigen guilt:
Schuld
in case of emergency: im Ernstfall
guilty: schuldig
to affirm: bejahen
to beg: bitten
hearing: Anhörung
investigation: Recherchen
intention: Vorhaben to
demand: fordern
to aspire: anstreben
to conduct: durchführen
federal state: Bundesstaat
turn down: ablehnen
pleading: Schlussrede,
Plädoyer
petition: Antrag
irksome: belastend
expose: bloßstellen
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