This is a long-awaited film telling the story of the trials of Medgar Evers' killer. Medger Evers ( James Pickens, Jr. ) was a black civil-rights activist in Mississippi who was shot to death in 1963. Despite very persuasive evidence that Byron De La Beckwith ( James Woods ) was indeed his killer, the all-white juries hearing his case at that time acquitted him (he was tried twice). In this film, with the aid of Ever's widow Myrlie ( Whoopie Goldberg ), Bobby DeLaughter ( Alec Baldwin ), a young lawyer, gathers enough new evidence to bring Beckwith in for a third trial. Woods ' performance as a wise-cracking bigot is one of the film's highlights. — Clarke Fountain