i totally disagree with Robert J. Maxwell granted that is his opinion of this movie but i believe that it is an amazing show of how courageous the man was to finally try and fight for his freedom and not just sit back as the white man tried to keep him down like they did to his grand-father just because he was a black man who owned land in their town.
I also believe that he was a very strong man for not allowing his mother to be put on the stand during the appeal because he knew what they would do to her and he didn't want to put his family through anymore pain. Clarence was put down lied about wrongfully accused, arrested, tried, and almost sent to death, even though he wanted to give up he kept trying and finally succeeded in getting another trial.
I'm not trying to say that Robert is wrong in what he is saying, yes it starts off different but in my opinion i don't thing it is "bad" as he put it