This article needs an improved plot summary. (October 2015)
Peter Joseph "Peejoe" Bullis (Lucas Black) lives in a small town in Alabama in 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He becomes involved with a group of black students protesting the town's racially segregated municipal swimming pool, leading to a protest that explodes into deadly violence. A young black boy, Taylor Jackson, is killed by the town sheriff (Meat Loaf). Peejoe, the only witness, is pressured by the sheriff to keep it quiet. However, Peejoe has learned from the example of his free-spirited Aunt Lucille Vinson (Melanie Griffith), who has killed her abusive husband and is headed for Hollywood, where she is convinced that television stardom awaits her.
Lucille takes her husband's head everywhere she goes in a black hat box[1] and looks forward to Hollywood promises. When the head is discovered by the hostess of a party, Lucille tries to get rid of the head by throwing it off the Golden Gate Bridge. Two policemen, thinking she is about to jump over herself, open the hat box and discover the head inside. She is arrested and escorted back to Alabama for her trial, where she is given a warm welcome by her town.
After being convicted of first-degree murder, Lucille is sentenced to twenty years in prison. However, the sentence is suspended, and she is put on a five-year probation with the condition that she seek psychiatric help. Lucille, her children, and all her friends joyfully exit the courtroom while the sheriff (through Peejoe's testimony) is put under arrest for Taylor's murder.
Who is convicted of first-degree murder?
Lucille