A Time to Kill (1996) Argumentative Paragraph
A Time to Kill (1996) Violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms In the movie A Time To Kill, many rights & freedoms were violated according to the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms. In this paragraph, three very big & important rights and/or freedoms will be discussed. The first is section 2 (Fundamental Freedoms), part c. The freedom of peaceful assembly was violated seven times in the movie; the most prominent is when the KKK formed outside the courthouse & demanded that Carl Lee be pronounced guilty or else they’re going to get violent, that is in direct violation of that freedom.
Section 2, part d (freedom of association) was also violated as the KKK clearly violated that freedom by fundamentally being in existence because the purpose of their association is to hurt or kill anyone who lives in the United States of America and is not Caucasian and does not follow Christianity or Catholism. The second violation is Section 15 (Equality Rights) subsection 1. This right provides equality before and under the law and equal protection and benefit of the law.
Before & during the trial, Carl Lee was held in a segregated prison cell, which isn’t so bad but still racist, the next unfair treatment to Carl Lee was being put on trial in front of a bias and all white jury. When Carl Lee’s lawyer requested that the venue of the trial be changed due to the fact that the jury is all-white and bias, he hoped it be changed to a venue where the jury will be maybe fifty percent black.
The judge, who is white, denied that request quite blatantly and anyways started the trial in Canton with a bias jury, which later on in the movie proved to extremely racist in their reasoning for Carl Lee being guilty. The third and last of many other rights & freedoms that have been violated in this movie is, section 13 (treatment or punishment). Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. This right has been violated and abused in so many ways.
Chronologically, Carl Lee’s daughter was raped and brutalized by the two racist red necks, Carl Lee being in a fit of rage procures an automatic rifle with a high ammunition capacity and shot those two men in cold blood while unintentionally severely injuring an officer of the law. If those violations weren’t enough, the KKK clan tries to punish the white lawyer for representing a black man by almost burning down his house and intentionally abusing and intending to kill that same lawyer’s paralegal.
The clan capped it off by trying to assassinate Carl Lee’s lawyer with a high-powered sniper rifle, but the assassin missed and killed an officer (state trooper/soldier) of the United States of America. The Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms or any other similar constitution of rights and freedoms evidently was not implemented in the time present in the movie, but what is evident is that our society today has learned from those ethical & moral mistakes of the past and created policies, rights & freedoms to help prevent those mistakes from ever happening again.
