In the small town of Clanton, in fictional Ford County, Mississippi, a ten - year - old African - American girl named Tonya Hailey is viciously raped and beaten by two redneck white supremacists, James "Pete '' Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Tonya is later found and rushed to the hospital while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging at a roadside bar about their crime. Tonya 's distraught and outraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, consults his friend Jake Brigance, a white attorney who had previously represented Hailey 's brother, on whether he could get Carl Lee acquitted if he killed the two men. Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya and, while Pete and Billy Ray are being led into holding after their bond hearing, he kills both men with an M - 16.
when does the movie a time to kill take place
Ford County, Mississippi