A Time to Kill

By: Ritu Raj (1st year B.A. LLB) UID : SM0120043

The film “A time to Kill” generally focuses on the theme of racism, rape, murder and revenge. It
mainly revolves around a murder committed by Carl Lee in response to rape of her little
daughter. The movie explains the deviance and crime committed by Carl Lee and the two
rapists.

According to me the movie covers both the forms of deviance i.e., Positive and Negative
Deviance. The brutal rape of a little girl by two white males clearly shows negative deviance
because this act is criminal which will lead to legal ramifications. But this was not the case, it
was clearly visible in the court that in the starting, the legal system was biased towards both
the accused and it was sure that both of them will get acquittal. This biasness forced the father
of that little girl to take justice in his own hand by shooting both the rapist in the court because
he was terrified that both the rapist will not be punished and would walk free.

This act of Char Lee was definitely a positive deviance because that’s what a father will do when
her girl will be raped and the legal system will try to protect the accused just because the victim
is black and the accused is a White. The biasness of the Judge was clearly evident by his attitude
towards the victim’s lawyer. The actions of Char Lee is justified in the eyes of society by
statement of the police officer, who was shot by Char Lee, that he believes that Char Lee should
not be punished and admitted that if those boys had raped his daughter, he would have done
the exact same thing. It is clear here that Carl wouldn’t have killed those men if her daughter
wouldn’t have been raped.

It also shows the awful reality of attack on those who supports the oppressed family highlighted
by the actions of Klux Klan. He committed acts of vandalism, physical violence against the Mr.
Brignace’s family, burning his house, etc. It can be related to present society where witnesses of
important criminal trials are targeted. The idea of racism were clearly evident several times like
when Char Lee said that he appointed Brigance as lawyer just because he believed that
Brigance, a white man, would find it easy to appeal to the jury in a white dominated society. It
was clearly evident when Char tells his lawyer “You see me the way the jury will see me. What
would it take, if you were on the jury ”

The second instance was that the little girl was raped because she was black was still inferior
and an easy target as compared to the white rapists. The fact of the case in the court was of the
murder of two men but for the society it was of murder of two whites by a black.
At last I believe that during that period situation of black people was really bad and whatever
Char Lee did was not just for her daughter but for the whole community. The whole jury was
white and the victim was not even allowed to change the venue from Mississippi. There was a
lot of partiality among them and in the end the last line by Mr Brigance “Now imagine if she is
white” clearly sums up the story.