Redneck Country…Black Letter Law

A white woman and her 12-year-old cousin are raped and left for dead in a small east Texas town. The brutality of the crime alone is enough to make one cringe, but when a black man is accused of the crime, the town is divided, and it will only take a small spark for the place to blow. The Civil Rights movement is over and we are all created equal, but there are plenty in Crownover, Texas, who didn’t get the message. Racism is rampant and for the most part, unchecked.

The accused is Lincoln Johnson, the only son of Queeny Johnson, J.R. Cutler’s former maid of twenty years. Cutler, a prominent local attorney and former DA, has a well-known soft spot for Queeny. He finds it impossible to say no to defending Lincoln, even though everyone he respects tries to tell him it is a bad idea.

Cutler is drawn into the case with a strong belief of his client’s innocence and a belief that he is unlikely to get a fair trial or a vigorous defense in an area where bigotry, racism, and just plain stupidity are the rules of the day, not the exception.

Detailed and at times nail-biting, Smith has taken a tale based partially on fact, and written a new Atticus Finch for our times. J.R. Cutler is a character who stands up to be counted in Redneck Country … Black Letter Law.