A time to analyze "A Time to Kill"
To my luck, the movie "A Time to Kill" was available on my cable's on-demand feature. I thought that I can guess how the movie would end by legally analying the story. Here's how it goes, without the ending.
Two white men were driving along the road when came upon a 10 year old black girl walking on the street. The two white men get out of the truck, assault the girl and almost kill her. The two men were soon arrested by the local sheriff. Some time later, the two men were being taken to court, possibly for their arraignment. While being taken to court, the little girl's father rushes into the building with a machine gun. He then shoots and kills both of the men and wounds a police officer in the process, which resulted in amputation of one of his legs. The night before the shooting, the father went to a lawyer's office asked if he would help him out "if he was in a jam. "The father was arrested, and was charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
So the issue here is, how would the court rule against the defendant on a bench trial? Will a jury trial make any difference?
I'll be back later with the legal analysis.
Two white men were driving along the road when came upon a 10 year old black girl walking on the street. The two white men get out of the truck, assault the girl and almost kill her. The two men were soon arrested by the local sheriff. Some time later, the two men were being taken to court, possibly for their arraignment. While being taken to court, the little girl's father rushes into the building with a machine gun. He then shoots and kills both of the men and wounds a police officer in the process, which resulted in amputation of one of his legs. The night before the shooting, the father went to a lawyer's office asked if he would help him out "if he was in a jam. "The father was arrested, and was charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
So the issue here is, how would the court rule against the defendant on a bench trial? Will a jury trial make any difference?
I'll be back later with the legal analysis.
