For Kofer’s funeral Jake knows it’s going to be a show, with the whole town showing up, after all, it had, “been decades since we buried an officer.” Jake must not only face ostracism and hatred from the police force for defending the killer of one of their own but the good people of Clanton itself. Grisham does a great job of portraying the folk of Ford County and Clanton. While the entire county sees a cold-blooded killer, Jake sees the Gamble family as little people single-handedly facing the wrath of an entire system and town a mother and daughter suffering without having done any wrong. Especially when everyone including the judge and sheriff is up for re-election next year and this case would be the perfect opportunity to “get tough on crime.” Grisham does a wonderful job of showing just how quickly gossip travels in small towns, and the day after Jake has been appointed, threats begin pouring in to his secretary, his friends, and even to the school where his wife works. After all who’d want a dead-cop case in uniform-worshipping rural Clanton.
Jake Brigance, a small-time attorney, is about to be handed his second capital murder case and his best and only friend has just told him to leave town before that happens. Kofer’s comrades-in-law have been keeping them quiet from him and now those incident reports have gone missing. His biggest problem is the 911 calls Kofer’s girlfriend Josie Gamble made to report his drunken rampages. The “state boys” have been called in to investigate and Ozzy knows trouble is coming.
Ozzy Walls has been the sheriff of Ford County for over seven years, the only African-American one in all of Mississippi, elected by a landslide, and Kofer is the first man he’s ever lost. On-duty deputy Stuart Kofer had a heart of gold, an army vet who had served his country, volunteered in schools and civic clubs, and walked through “the colored section on foot, without a gun and with candy for the kids.” Off-duty Stuart had quite the reputation for drinking too much, starting brawls in bars, gambling, and beating his girlfriend and her kids. A deputy sheriff is shot and killed by the teenage son of his girlfriend. The action is set in 1990, in the armpit of a town that is Clanton. In A Time For Mercy, he brings back Jake Brigance, the legal eagle star of A Time To Kill and Sycamore Row. John Grisham is an institution in the field of legal fiction.
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