Overview
Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired. Quickly arrested for murder and jailed, Beauchamp insists he's innocent and asks the town's most prominent lawyer, Gavin Stevens, to defend him, but Stevens refuses. When a local boy whom Beauchamp has helped in the past and who believes him to be innocent hears talk of a mob taking Beauchamp out of jail and lynching him, he pleads with Stevens to defend Beauchamp at trial and prove his innocence.
Cast
John Gavin Stevens
Chick Mallison
Lucas Beauchamp
Nub Gowrie
Miss Eunice Habersham
Crawford Gowrie
Sheriff Hampton
Vinson Gowrie
Aleck
Mrs. Mallison
Mr. Mallison
Mr. Tubbs