Cameron Poe, en högt dekorerad United States Army Ranger, kom hem till Alabama till sin fru Tricia, bara för att stöta på några berusade stamkunder där Tricia arbetar. Cameron dödar omedvetet en av fyllona och skickas till ett federalt fängelse för dråp i sju år. Cameron blir berättigad till villkorlig frigivning och kan nu åka hem till sin fru och dotter. Tyvärr måste Cameron dela ett fängelseflygplan med några av landets farligaste brottslingar, som tar kontroll över planet och nu planerar att fly landet. Cameron måste hitta ett sätt att stoppa dem samtidigt som han spelar med. Under tiden försöker den amerikanske marskalken Vincent Larkin hjälpa Cameron att bli fri och stoppa brottslingarna, inklusive Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom.

In Canton, Mississippi, 10-year-old Tonya Hailey is viciously brutalized by two white racist rednecks -- James Louis "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Almost immediately after Tonya is found and rushed to a hospital, Pete and Billy Ray are found at a roadside bar, where they had been bragging about what they did to Tonya. Tonya's understandably distraught and enraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, remembers a case from a year ago, when four white men raped an African-American girl in a nearby town, and got acquitted. Carl is determined to not let that happen in this case. While deputy Dwayne Powell Looney is escorting Pete and Billy Ray up a flight of stairs to a court room, Carl emerges from the building's basement with an assault rifle, and he kills Pete and Billy Ray for what they did to Tonya. Carl is later arrested at his house by African-American sheriff Ozzie Walls, and Carl is scheduled to be placed on trial. Despite the efforts of the NAACP and local African-American leaders to persuade Carl to choose some of their high-powered attorneys, Carl wants to be represented by his friend Jake Tyler Brigance, who has a wife named Carla and a daughter named Hannah. Presiding over the trial is white judge Omar Noose, and the prosecution attorney is Rufus Buckley, who would like nothing more than to win the case and swim in the publicity that a win would generate, because Rufus realizes that a murder conviction could help him gain higher office. Helping Jake on the case are his former law professor Lucien Wilbanks, fellow attorney Harry Rex Vonner, and law student Ellen Roark. Ellen has had experience with death penalty cases, and that's exactly what Rufus may be seeking. To start things off, Noose denies bail and denies Jake's petition for a change of venue. Carl has also been fired from his job. Billy Ray Cobb's brother Freddie Lee Cobb wants revenge on Carl, so Freddy gets the help of the Mississippi branch of the KKK, led by Mississippi grand dragon Stump Sisson. Carl's wife Gwen tells Carl that a doctor has said that because of Pete and Billy Ray, Tonya's reproductive organs are damaged enough to where she won't be able to have kids when she grows up. That night, a KKK member is found trying to plant a bomb under Jake's porch. Jake's secretary Ethel Twitty and her husband Bud are also attacked by the KKK. Still, Jake, Harry, Lucien, and Ellen continue to help Carl. On the day the trial begins, there is a riot outside the court building between the KKK and the area's African-American residents, and Stump Sisson is killed by a molotov cocktail that was dropped from a roof by one of Carl's sons, who was not seen dropping it. Freddy and the KKK start burning crosses throughout Canton, and one of the crosses burns Jake's house down while Jake and his family are not home. As a result, the National Guard is called to Canton to keep the peace during the trial. But Freddy is not about to let that stop him. While Freddy continues his efforts to get revenge on Carl for Billy Ray's death, Carl's attorneys put everything they've got into Carl's defense.

Minnesota-bilförsäljaren Jerry Lundegaards klantiga brott rasar samman på grund av hans och hans handlangers fumlande och det ihärdiga polisarbetet från den ganska gravida Marge Gunderson.

År 2139 har jorden förvandlats till en i stort sett obeboelig plats kallad Den Förbannade Jorden. Alla jordens invånare har trängts ihop i städerna över hela planeten, nu kända som Megastäder. Brotten i dessa Megastäder blev så våldsamma och så mäktiga att det vanliga rättssystemet var maktlöst att innehålla dem, sedan kollapsade det helt. Men ett nytt rättssystem uppstod från askan, det fanns tre rättssystem i ett (polis, jury och bödel), de kallades Domare. I Megastad Ett (tidigare New York) fanns en Domare vid namn Joseph Dredd, som var den tuffaste och strängaste Domaren i historien. En dag anklagades han för mord, och försattes på rättegång och dömdes till livstids fängelse för det.

När en gemensam vän dödas av en maffiaboss försöker två bedragare, en erfaren och en ung, att hämnas genom att lura maffiabossen i ett stort svindleri. Historien utvecklas med flera oväntade vändningar och sista minuten-förändringar.