Summary

Bobby Decker, a white police officer, arrests a young black burglary suspect one chilly spring night, but can’t explain how the suspect’s skull was fractured. The elected prosecutor with aspirations of a judicial appointment, claims Decker smashed his skull with a flashlight. Black activists, still critical of that prosecutor’s recent failure to convict a white police sergeant for the brutal beating of a mentally challenged young man in his own home, see this as yet another case of police brutality and want justice. A murder charge is brought by an anxious, politically motivated prosecutor before the brain autopsy is completed. In the wake of media efforts to rekindle hostilities between the police and the black community, the jury trial begins. How will the deadly injury be explained by the accused officer? How will the prosecutor prove her theory? Can a fair jury be selected in this racially charged environment? In the end, the jurors will decide the fate of Bobby Decker, or will they?