Chapter 31 Summary

Jake visits Judge Noose and requests a change of venue, based on the activities of the past twenty-four hours. Noose sarcastically suggests that Jake would like a blacker county from which to pick jurors, and Jake says that anywhere other than Ford County would be fine. Noose considers various options and finally asserts that he will simply do nothing. He will excuse the twenty jurors who have been intimidated and then move forward as planned. Jake is sure now that Lucien was right. Someone got to the judge. Noose proclaims that the trial will remain in Clanton because it would do no good to move it.

Ellen has done a masterful job of the M'Naghten brief, summarizing a century and a half of legal history in seventy-five pages, with a direct application at the end to the Hailey trial. In a shorter brief...