The opening scenes of this movie are the sort that stay with you for ever: the brutal assault and murder of a young girl by two rednecks in Mississippi. Before their trial, they are gunned down in the courthouse by the girl's bereft father "Carl Lee Hailey" (Samuel L. Jackson) and it falls to "Brigance" (Matthew McConaughey) to defend the man in a state riddled with institutional and communal bigotry. Kevin Spacey is effective as the DA ("Buckley") who assumes the all white jury will never countenance the murder of these two odious creatures by a black man, but he doesn't count on the resoluti...