Summary
Chapter 10 introduces the District Attorney Rufus Buckley, who will be prosecuting Carl Lee's case. Jake mentions Buckley in his statements to the press, and though Jake's comments on Buckley are not favorable, Buckley is nonetheless pleased that his name is already in the news surrounding the case. Buckley is an extremely ambitious lawyer. At thirty-one, he became the youngest D.A. in Mississippi, and now, at forty-one, he is still young and poised to advance his career. He has his sights set on Congress, eventually. Buckley is pleased to see reporters swarming his office when he arrives to work. He pretends to be inconvenienced, but in reality, revels in the opportunity to respond to Brigance's slights. Buckley is confident that not only will a jury convict, but a jury will also support the death penalty for Carl Lee.
Meanwhile, in Ford County, Jake Brigance is overdue to pay his old benefactor Lucien Wilbanks a visit. Lucien has been whiling away his years since being disbarred in a large, white house on the hill overlooking the town of Clanton. Jake visits him once a month and they talk through all of Jake's cases. Lucien expresses jealousy that Jake has the Hailey case. He says it will be huge exposure, and if he wins, it could make him millions of dollars in the long run. Lucien also points out that it will be extremely hard to win the case, especially now that Deputy Looney's leg had to be amputated. This is news to Jake, whose confidence is severely shaken by the development. Jake tells Lucien that he will need his help on this, and Lucien happily obliges.
Jake meets with Atcavage, the banker who denied Carl Lee the loan to pay his legal fees. Atcavage and Jake are on good terms, but Jake needs someone to finance Carl Lee or else he will be working a capital murder case for nine hundred dollars. Atcavage explains that he simply cannot take a risk on Carl Lee; if Carl Lee loses his case, the money will be lost. Jake takes it as a slight that all of the bankers assume he cannot win the case. Atcavage assures Jake that he has great confidence in his ability—he simply cannot afford to gamble on it. They discuss the loan over barbecue ribs at Claude's restaurant. Claude and his Black patrons express support for Jake and gratitude that he's agreed to take up for Carl Lee. As Jake and Atcavage are finishing their meals, a New York Times reporter stops by their table and asks Jake for an interview. They set a time for later that afternoon.
During the interview, Jake defends Ford County and the South, in general, against stereotypes. Jake seems to be projecting insecurities about how Southern whites are perceived and portrayed in media, especially Northern papers like the New York Times. The Times reporter pushes back, telling Jake that he's from Texas, and he doesn't assume anything about Ford County. He simply wants to know whether Jake thinks that Carl Lee stands a fair chance in Ford County, especially if the jury ends up being an all-white jury. Jake admits that he believes if Carl Lee were a white man, he would not be prosecuted.
The conditions in the county jail for Carl Lee, all things considered, are not so bad. He and Ozzie have dinner together every night and watch the news. Carl Lee's cellmates are shoplifters. He's even allowed to sneak out under the supervision of Ozzie to visit Deputy Looney. Carl Lee tearfully apologizes to Looney, assuring him that he never meant to hurt anybody but the men who hurt his daughter. Looney quickly accepts his apology. Jake, however, is upset that Carl Lee spoke to Looney without his supervision. Carl Lee shrugs it off; he feels an apology was more than in order. Jake explains the arraignment process to Carl Lee. They plan to plead not guilty and request a change of venue.
A grand jury convenes in the courthouse of circuit court judge Omar Noose. Buckley explains to the grand jury what their role is in handing down indictments. The jury has five Black members and thirteen white members. They decide to indict several robbery and larceny cases before Sheriff Ozzie Walls arrives to present cases from Ford County. Buckley, appraising the mood of the jury, tells Walls to present the Hailey case first. Walls, flustered, does as he's told despite his distinct plans not to present the Hailey case first. As soon as he presents the case, one of the jurors, a white man who is a currently unemployed truck driver named Crowell, jumps up and starts questioning the sheriff. He asks the sheriff what he would do to men who admitted to raping his daughter. Buckley is shocked, and the sheriff doesn't know how to respond. When Buckley protests, Crowell tells him to sit down and shut up or the grand jury will ask him to leave the room, which they are within their rights to do. After a tense back and forth between Crowell and Ozzie, the jury narrowly votes to indict Carl Lee; he is one vote shy of not being indicted at all.
Harry Rex Vonner is a divorce lawyer in Ford County and a friend of Jake's. Vonner has a reputation for being corrupt and unscrupulous in his practices. He famously bugged a jury in one of his early cases, and now whenever he is associated with a case, judges know to have marshals inspect the jury room for wires. Vonner visits Jake the day after the indictment of Hailey is handed down. Vonner tells Jake that he has a source that says Carl Lee was merely one vote shy of not being indicted. Vonner feels that this is a good indication for the criminal trial, but Jake doesn't allow this news to fill him with optimism. He knows that it all comes down to the jury selection for the real trial, and an all-white jury could easily send Carl Lee to the gas chamber.
Jake meets with Carl Lee about his arraignment. He explains that he's set the trial for July 22, two months away. Carl Lee is upset by how far away the trial is; his family is hurting for money, and he needs to get back and start earning again. Jake says they'll need the time to establish an insanity defense. Jake anticipates that Carl Lee will ask him for some of the fee back so he can give his family money for food, but Carl Lee doesn't ask. He figures he will wait until Gwen is totally out of money, and then try to convince him. Meanwhile at the Haileys' house, Gwen takes Tonya to the doctor, where it becomes clear that her wounds are taking longer than expected to heal.
Jake avoids the coffee shop for a few days after Looney's amputation; Looney is also a regular there, and several of the folks in town are already grumbling about the ethics of representing a man who shot off a deputy's leg, so Jake attempts to avoid the public scrutiny. When he finally returns to the diner, he goes extra early and talks to Dell about what the regulars are saying. Dell tells him that there's a lot of sympathy for Carl Lee. She personally feels that he's guilty of murder, but had every reason to commit it. Jake asks her if she were on the jury, would she convict. Dell says she'd have a hard time doing that, and that she'd likely vote not guilty if there was a compelling case for insanity.
Jake and Carl Lee attend the arraignment. Judge Noose predictably denies bail, and Carl Lee's trial is set for July 22nd. Prosecutor Buckley makes a fool of himself by acting overzealous and grabbing Jake's arm on the way out of the courthouse. Jake holds a press conference at his office with the whole Hailey family present. There, for the press, he describes from start to finish how the actions of Cobb and Willard have destroyed the Hailey family, and how the only just conclusion is for Carl Lee to be returned to his family so they can attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives together.
After two weeks, Lester's wife grows impatient with his absence. She knows he has a history in Mississippi, and she doesn't trust him there with all of his old friends and old girlfriends. She calls every day, and he avoids talking to her. Gwen Hailey lies on his behalf, telling her that he's out earning some extra money for the family (when really he's out drinking). At the end of the second week, she calls and tells him that if he doesn't get back to Chicago, his boss is threatening to fire him. Lester visits Carl Lee at the jail and tells him he has to go back to Chicago, but he'll be back for the trial. After Lester's visit, Jake shows up and tells Carl Lee that he has to come up with more money. The psych evaluations will cost $1,000, and Jake assures him there will be no case without psych evals. Jake is clearly losing his patience with Carl Lee's financial obstacles.
After Jake leaves, Carl Lee has a third visitor, his old friend Cat. Cat shows up with his bodyguard, Tiny, and they discuss Carl Lee's representation. Cat offers to pay for all of his legal expenses and support his family if he switches to his defense attorney, Bo Marsharfsky, also known as "The Shark." Although Carl Lee feels bad about abandoning Jake, he really has no other choice but to accept Cat's proposal. His life is on the line, and his family is destitute. He spent his last dime paying Jake the partial fee, and he has no money left to fund the actual pursuit of an insanity defense. Jake hears the news about his own replacement in the paper the next morning. He rushes over to the jail to confront Carl Lee. Jake is furious, and Carl Lee feels bad, but he has nothing to say, because he had no other choice.
The Council of Ministers, a group of preachers from Black churches, meets to discuss community support for Carl Lee. They coordinate on efforts to fundraise in the community, both for his defense and to support his family while he is incapacitated. Meanwhile, Jake is at home, trying not to think about the case. He wants to call Lester and involve him in convincing Carl Lee to hire Jake back. Jake is convinced that Carl Lee is making a huge mistake by switching to Bo Marsharfsky. Jake's wife, on the other hand, is quite pleased that he's off the case. The death threats were making her quite anxious. That weekend, in the middle of the night, Jake is awakened by a deputy to alert him of a cross burning in his front yard. The Klan, likely having not heard that the counsel has changed, burned a cross in Jake's yard. The next day, Bo Marsharfsky calls Jake to ask if he would be his local associate counsel, since he doesn't have a license to practice in Mississippi. Jake tells him off over the phone. Later that afternoon, one of the lawyers from the Sullivan firm calls Jake to tell him that he has agreed to be Bo's associate counsel. This infuriates Jake even more.
Life slowly shifts back to normal for Jake, but he's not giving up on recovering the Hailey case from Marsharfsky. Failing to find Lester's number in the phonebook, he goes to Lester's favorite honky-tonk bar and asks the bartender if he can hunt get the number from Iris, a woman that Lester dates when he's in town. Jake then goes to the jail to visit his newest client, a young man who's been arrested for assault at a honky tonk. His new client shares a cell with Carl Lee, and Jake tells the client that Carl Lee's new lawyer doesn't have a license to practice in Mississippi, which is why he hasn't visited Carl Lee yet. Jake tells the client not to tell Carl Lee, hoping that he does tell him. Then, Jake calls Lester in Chicago and tells him that Carl Lee fired him and hired this out-of-towner to represent him. Jake essentially recruits Lester into the effort to have Carl Lee hire him back. Lester agrees to drive to Mississippi from Chicago over the weekend to try and convince Carl Lee to go back to Jake. Jake doesn't tell his wife, Carla, that he's trying to retrieve the case, because she warned him that it would be unethical to solicit Carl Lee.
Analysis
After the honeymoon phase of Jake taking Carl Lee's case out of a conviction about what is right and just, these chapters demonstrate the selfish reasons why Jake, like any criminal defense lawyer, would jump at the chance to represent Carl Lee Hailey. Grisham touches on the ethics of soliciting a case, or "retrieving" a case, as Jake likes to call it, and on the delicate subject of billing for legal work. At best, these chapters present Jake in a complicated moral light. At worst, these chapters demonstrate how Jake is no different than Bo Marsharfsky and the corrupt lawyers at the Sullivan firm, or at least, Jake is as susceptible to the greed and ambition pervasive in those firms.
The juxtaposition of Jake's and Carl Lee's families becomes more important in these chapters than in the beginning, when Grisham actually lays out their two home lives. Grisham emphasizes that Jake's Victorian home is one of two registered historic sites in the town and that repainting his special, historic home cost five thousand dollars. Five thousand dollars is almost the same amount of money that Jake charges Carl Lee to defend him against a captial murder charge. The charmed life that Jake is shown to lead in the first chapters become more important as he presses Carl Lee for more money in the following chapters. While it seems reasonable that Jake wants to be paid for his legal work, the fact that he is betting on this case to bring him publicity and future clients gives it a monetary value beyond anything Carl Lee could pay him. When Jake visits Lucien for the first time since taking the Hailey case, Lucien says, “Publicity. Exposure. That’s the name of the game for lawyers, Jake" (98).
While Jake revels in the T.V. spotlight, Carl Lee worries about the wellbeing of his family while he sits in a jail cell awaiting trial. At one point, Carl Lee considers asking Jake for part of the partial fee he paid back. Jake can tell, and Grisham writes, "He doubted he would ever see more than nine hundred dollars, and he was not about to return any. Besides, the blacks always took care of their own. The families would be there and the churches would get involved. No one would starve" (142-143). While it's true that a council of Black ministers meets to discuss fundraising for Carl Lee's legal fees, the fact is, Carl Lee's life is on the line. So when Cat offers him free legal counsel and financial support for his family, Carl Lee is in no position to turn him down.
Jake's reaction to being taken off the case thus reveals his self-serving goals. Jake tries to solicit Carl Lee's business back from Bo Marsharfsky, and he uses Bo's status as an out-of-towner as justification. Jake goes around telling people like Lester Hailey that under Marsharfsky's counsel, Carl Lee will surely see the inside of a gas chamber, because rural Mississippians won't trust Marsharfsky's Yankee accent and mannerism. This conclusion also exposes Jake as a hypocrite; when the New York Times reporter interviews him about his expectations for a Ford County jury, Jake accuses the reporter of making assumptions about Ford County whites for being prejudiced against people who aren't like them. But Jake uses this same excuse himself to try and solicit Carl Lee's case back, even when he knows all too well that Carl Lee cannot afford to finance his own defense. When Jake's wife, Carla, probes Jake's feelings after he's taken off the case, Jake says, "There will never be another case like this one. Win it, and I’m the greatest lawyer in these parts. We would never have to worry about money again" (169). These chapters set Jake up for a radical development in character. He considers himself a "liberal white," but as it stands, all the suffering of Tonya and Carl Lee represent, more than anything else, a financial and professional opportunity for him. Readers can hope, at this point, that Jake will come to see that case as an opportunity for social justice and just representation.
