Faith and the legal system collide in the courtroom drama taking place in the gripping movie, Stand Your Ground: A Cry For Justice, that portrays the gut-wrenching ordeal Jackie Carpenter and her family endured when her son was arrested for accidentally killing a man who was stealing from his worksite. While the family’s tragedy became a textbook case that made legal history, all Jackie could think of was saving her son’s life.
In a perverse twist of fate actress Lucy McBath, who plays the grieving mother of a deceased young man in this award-winning movie, lost her only son when he was gunned down at a gas station in Jacksonville, FL, just seven months after the movie was made. “While the movie represents the rightful use of the Stand Your Ground Law, Lucy’s son represents when it’s wrongfully used,” says Jackie Carpenter, mother of the young man who was on trial for his life in the movie.
In Jackie’s real life story there was no grieving mother, but the screenwriter for the movie just happened to write in the role and cast actress Lucy McBath as the mother. Jackie and Lucy understand that it’s not irony – it is all God!
During the trial Jackie struggled with the defense team’s advice not to carry her Bible into the courtroom lest it offend a member of the Jury. But Jackie knew she would rather offend the Jury than offend God so she proudly walked into the courtroom, clutching her Bible, and put her faith into action. When the Jury announced ‘Not Guilty!’ she knew God had heard her prayers. From Triple Horse Studios, Stand Your Ground tells the gripping story of the ten-month trial when Jackie’s faith was tested on a daily basis.
Taking first place in the Alaska International Film Festival, the trailer for this gripping movie has won an Award of Excellence in the Best Short Competition and the Award of Merit in The Accolade Competition. Please see: http://acryforjusticemovie.com. The film, taken from Jackie’s two books, The Bridge: Between Cell Block A and a Miracle is Psalm 91 (Xulon Publishing) and Georgia Justice, is playing in select theaters around the country and has been nominated as Best Picture in the ICVM Crown Awards and entered in the Gideon Film Festival.
Jackie Carpenter knows firsthand that even the deepest faith can be tested when a normal, happy life turns into a nightmare in an instant, but it takes the grace of God to get us through it. While the movie has all the terror and tragedy of a blockbuster hit, Jackie knows only too well that for her – it was all terrifyingly real!
Jackie Carpenter has been a featured guest on television, radio, and in newspaper articles. For information on Jackie, her books, or this extraordinary movie, please visit: www.bridgetoamiracle.com.