Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard abduct, rape, and throw ten-year-old Tonya Hailey off a bridge, leaving her for dead.

Sheriff Ozzie Walls arrests Cobb and Willard after an informant catches them bragging about the rape at a local bar.

Carl Lee Hailey tells Jake Brigance he plans to kill Tonya's rapists and asks Jake to represent him afterward.

Carl Lee visits Cat Bruster in Memphis and obtains an M-16 rifle to carry out the planned shootings.

Carl Lee bursts from a janitor's closet at the courthouse and shoots Cobb and Willard, accidentally wounding Deputy Looney.

Sheriff Ozzie Walls takes Carl Lee into custody without handcuffs after a convoy of deputies arrives at his home.

Jake agrees to represent Carl Lee for a thousand dollars upfront and receives his first threatening phone call that same night.

A grand jury barely votes to indict Carl Lee by a single vote after jurors debate whether they would act the same way.

Carl Lee pleads not guilty at his arraignment, and Jake publicly announces the insanity defense at a press conference with the family.

Klansmen place dynamite beneath Jake's bedroom window, but Ozzie receives an anonymous tip and defuses the bomb in time.

A Klan march outside the courthouse erupts into a riot when a firebomb ignites Grand Dragon Stump Sisson's robe.

Klan members burn Jake's house to the ground in retaliation for the riot that fatally burned Stump Sisson.

Buckley reveals in court that Dr. Bass was previously convicted of statutory rape, destroying the credibility of Jake's key psychiatric witness.

Jake delivers an emotional closing argument asking jurors to imagine their own daughters as Tonya lying beaten and bloody in the forest.

The jury returns a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict, setting Carl Lee free to return to his family.

This pool covers the most pivotal moments in the novel, beginning with the rape of Tonya Hailey and the arrest of her attackers. Carl Lee Hailey takes justice into his own hands by shooting the men at the courthouse, and Jake Brigance agrees to defend him despite the odds. The case escalates through a grand jury indictment, a public insanity plea, and mounting Klan violence that includes a thwarted bombing and the destruction of Jake's home. At trial, Jake's strategy is nearly undone when his key psychiatric witness is exposed as a convicted felon by prosecutor Buckley. Despite everything, Jake delivers a powerful closing argument, and the jury ultimately returns a not guilty verdict, freeing Carl Lee to return to his family.

The headline events driving Carl Lee's trial from crime to verdict.

Carl Lee arrives home to find police cars outside and Tonya, battered and bloody, lying on the couch under blankets.

Lester Hailey arrives in town and helps Carl Lee sketch the courthouse layout and scout the route prisoners will walk.

At the bond hearing, Judge Bullard sets bail for Cobb and Willard, who walk out of the courthouse moments before the shooting.

Jake visits disbarred mentor Lucien Wilbanks for case advice and learns for the first time that Deputy Looney's leg has been amputated.

Stump Sisson meets with Freddie Cobb and decides to use Carl Lee's trial to establish a new Klan chapter in Ford County.

Carl Lee secretly fires Jake and hires Memphis attorney Bo Marsharfsky, whose fees are secretly covered by Cat Bruster.

A burning cross appears on Jake's front lawn overnight, and Carla feels relieved that Carl Lee now has a different lawyer.

The Ford County Ku Klux Klan Klavern is formally founded in a secret midnight ceremony lit by a burning cross.

University of Mississippi law student Ellen Roark arrives at Jake's office and is hired as a legal clerk, willing to work for free.

Klansmen break into Ethel Twitty's home and beat her husband Bud unconscious, causing broken bones and a fatal heart attack.

Thirty-one buses of black supporters arrive in Clanton and surround the courthouse in a candlelit overnight vigil for Carl Lee.

Deputy Looney testifies at trial, describes hearing Carl Lee's wild laugh during the shooting, and declares Carl Lee a hero.

A Klan marksman fires at Jake from a grain silo, narrowly missing him but striking and paralyzing National Guardsman Woody Mackenvale.

Jake refuses Lucien's offer to pay juror Clyde Sisco fifty thousand dollars for an acquittal vote, choosing integrity over certainty.

Jake earns only nine hundred dollars for the trial and leaves the reporters behind to fly north and reunite with his family.

This pool captures the significant secondary moments that shape the world around the trial, beginning with Carl Lee's devastating discovery of Tonya's condition and Lester's early role in planning the attack. The bond hearing, Jake's revealing conversations with mentor Lucien, and Stump Sisson's recruitment drive set the stage for organized Klan violence. Carl Lee's decision to secretly fire Jake and hire Memphis attorney Marsharfsky creates a crisis that nearly collapses the defense entirely. Personal attacks on those surrounding the case — the beating of Bud Twitty, the shooting of a National Guardsman, and Ellen's abduction — raise the human cost of the trial to a devastating level. The pool closes with Jake's principled refusal to buy a juror's vote and his quiet decision to leave the reporters behind and reunite with his family.

The supporting players, escalating threats, and key moments behind the main story.

Jake hears about Tonya's rape at the Coffee Shop and begins quietly thinking about what he would do if it were his daughter.

Pete Willard separately confesses to the rape during police questioning, agreeing to sign anything as long as Cobb is not told.

Carl Lee sneaks into the locked courthouse overnight, walks the full prisoner route, and identifies the janitor's closet as his hiding spot.

Jake tells Carla that Carl Lee's case could make him famous and earn their family a million dollars in the long run.

Reverend Isaiah Street visits Carl Lee in jail and tells him an acquittal would be a landmark victory for black people everywhere.

After hours of persuasion from Lester, Carl Lee contacts Jake and asks to rehire him as his sole attorney.

The NAACP national director presents Reverend Agee with a five-thousand-dollar check for Carl Lee's legal defense fund before reporters.

Carl Lee is transferred to the Whitfield mental hospital three hours away to undergo a full psychiatric evaluation for the insanity defense.

Judge Noose imposes a gag order on both attorneys at the change of venue hearing, cutting off their access to the press.

Noose dismisses twenty prospective jurors whose lawns were burned with Klan crosses overnight but still refuses to move the trial.

Jury selection concludes with an entirely white panel of ten women and two men, visibly alarming the black spectators in the courtroom.

Stump Sisson dies in the hospital from his burns, and the Klan immediately gathers at the cabin to plan violent retaliation.

Ellen is seized by men posing as police, tied to a post at a burning cross site, and freed by the informant Mickey Mouse.

Klansmen discover that Mickey Mouse is their informant and burn him to death in a clearing to silence him permanently.

Carl Lee and Jake embrace at Carl Lee's home after the acquittal as Tonya plays nearby, free from the shadow of the trial.

This pool tracks the pivotal revelations and choices that determined the shape of Carl Lee's defense, beginning with Jake's emotional reaction to news of the rape and Willard's hidden confession to police. Carl Lee's meticulous overnight scouting of the courthouse and Jake's frank admission to Carla about his ambitions reveal the competing motivations driving both men. Reverend Isaiah Street reframes Carl Lee's potential acquittal as a defining moment for black Americans, while Lester's quiet intervention saves Jake's case from permanent collapse. The gag order, psychiatric evaluation, and all-white jury selection each mark legal turning points, while the Klan's murder of Mickey Mouse silences a crucial informant in the shadows. The pool ends with Carl Lee and Jake's personal embrace after the verdict, a moment of genuine connection that closes their unlikely alliance.