A Time to Kill (Jake Brigance, #1)

by John Grisham

“I’m white, and this is a white county. With a little luck I could get an all-white jury, which will naturally be sympathetic.

whites enjoyed barbecue as much as blacks; they just didn’t know how to prepare it.

“The system reflects society. It’s not always fair, but it’s as fair as the system in New York, or Massachusetts, or California. It’s as fair as biased, emotional humans can make it.”

“Well, my instinct is to forgive anyone who kills a rapist. Especially a father. But, on the other hand, we can’t allow people to grab guns and hand out their own justice.

It’s a fragile system, this trusting of lives to twelve average, ordinary people who do not understand the law and are intimidated by the process.”

Blacks had an excuse for being worthless, but for whites in a white world, there were no excuses.

think children have a right not to be raped, and their parents have the right to protect them. I think little girls are special, and if mine was tied to a tree and gang raped by two dopeheads I’m sure it would make me crazy. I think good and decent fathers should have a constitutional right to execute any pervert who touches their children. And I think you’re a lying coward when you claim you would not want to kill the man who raped your daughter.”

“You shouldn’t criticize, Stan. It’s an easy habit to acquire and an impossible one to break. It robs your soul of character.”

Make friends with fear, Lucien always said, because it will not go away, and it will destroy you if left uncontrolled.

“I’m very much against it. It’s cruel and unusual. I’m ashamed I live in a society which permits the legal killing of a human being.”

always searching for the most radical elements, and then making those elements appear to be the norm.

She told them to pretend that the little girl had blond hair and blue eyes, that the two rapists were black, that they tied her right foot to a tree and her left foot to a fence post, that they raped her repeatedly and cussed her because she was white. She told them to picture the little girl layin’ there beggin’ for her daddy while they kicked her in the mouth and knocked out her teeth, broke both jaws, broke her nose. She said to imagine two drunk blacks pouring beer on her and pissing in her face, and laughing like idiots.

she told them to imagine that the little girl belonged to them—their daughter.

She told them to be honest with themselves and to write on a piece of paper whether or not they would kill those black bastards if they got the chance. And they voted, by secret ballot. All twelve said they would do the killing. The foreman counted the votes. Twelve to zero. Wanda said she’d sit in that jury room until Christmas before she’d vote to convict, and if they were honest with themselves, then they ought to feel the same way. Ten of them agreed with her, ...