A Time For Mercy

Drew Gamble is the 16-year-old boy accused of murdering Stuart Kofer, making him a secondary protagonist alongside Jake Brigance. Drew is small for his age, as puberty hits him late, as it did for his father. Drew doesn’t know his father because Josie got pregnant with him when she was 15. Drew also has a different father from Kiera, but the teens don’t know. Drew is only five feet tall and has weak musculature and no acne. By the end of the trial, however, he grows two inches, gains weight, and has other physical signs that puberty has finally arrived. Drew has lived in three fosters homes and one orphanage. Before moving in with Stuart, the Gambles lived in a camper on a family member’s property for a year. Drew has also been in jail before his arrest for Stuart’s murder. He was sentenced to four months at a juvenile facility for stealing bikes. Drew comes from a volatile background, which explains the extent of his mental and emotional trauma. Sadly, Drew’s most stable experience comes from being in jail while awaiting trial for capital murder.

Drew is in the 9th grade but is two years behind where he should be. Noose insisting Drew stay in the county jail in solitary confinement gets Drew further behind in school, but he shows some improvement after working with Carla Brigance over the summer. The teen says he hates school, but that likely stems from the fact that he is two years older than his classmates and struggles with academics because of his unstable family life. Drew has attended seven different schools and has already dropped out twice. Grisham uses Drew to challenge readers’ assumptions about students left behind by the educational system. Far from a ne’er-do-well, Drew shoulders very adult burdens on his young shoulders. With an unstable home life to contend with and a need to protect his family, Drew only begins to have the cognitive space for traditional education while in the penal system.

Drew’s primary reason for shooting Stuart stems from his role in his family. He feels he must protect his family, so when Stuart begins making noises after passing out, Drew is afraid he’s waking up. Drew kills Stuart to protect himself and his sister, believing his mother is dead. After the killing, Drew repeatedly says he doesn’t regret his choice, showing an amount of maturity that doesn’t match his physique. He fears what will happen to him and his family, but his lack of remorse for the crime shows how sincerely he believed he was doing what was best for his family. However, Drew suffers from severe trauma, exhibited in his inability to communicate with adults well and how he mentally withdraws under stress and pressure. Drew also hums and groans, a clear sign of mental instability, but with antidepressants, Drew’s mental state improves. While he struggles with communication sometimes, he no longer stays silent for long periods or hums to soothe himself. Though achieved through damning means, Drew has effectively extricated his family from the cycle of poverty and abuse in which they had been trapped, and he discovers his definition of manhood as a result.

Josie Gamble is Drew’s and Kiera’s 32-year-old mother. She has short blond hair, and most men consider her attractive. Josie was born in Oregon but moved a lot as a kid because her father was in the Air Force. Josie became pregnant with Drew when she was 15. She then dropped out of school and had Kiera two years later. She married a man when she was 26, but her husband went to prison for 30 years for drugs. Josie also served two years for drugs, but during her incarceration, she taught herself to read and read 730 books. Josie’s difficult path makes her more complicated to the reader; she is not presented as a totally sympathetic character, yet she attempts to better herself for the sake of her children.

Josie is a protective mother who loves her children, but she also recognizes that she is not a perfect mother and has many regrets regarding their upbringing. Josie even regrets keeping Drew instead of putting him up for adoption, saying keeping him is one of the biggest mistakes of her life. This experience explains why Josie is adamant that Kiera get an abortion. She’s learned how difficult raising children is as a teen, and she doesn’t want Kiera trapped in the same life Josie now finds herself, or for Kiera to put her children through what Josie put Drew and Kiera through. Josie also takes responsibility for her children’s unstable life and for not being strong enough to leave Stuart when she knew he was abusive. The choice for Josie was stable housing with an abusive partner or homelessness without the abuse.

Kiera Gamble is Josie’s 14-year-old daughter. She is taller and more physically mature than Drew and has long dark hair and brown eyes. Kiera also has perfect teeth and a pretty smile. She is in 8th grade, but, like Drew, she is a year behind because of her family’s instability. Despite being behind in school, Kiera is intelligent and makes good progress while working with a tutor during her pregnancy.

Kiera shows a high level of maturity during Drew’s trial, demonstrated especially in how she handles her pregnancy. Although her pregnancy results from Stuart raping her, she manages the situation like an adult, weighing her options and not going along with an abortion simply because her mother wants her to. Instead, Kiera discusses her dilemma with Reverend McGarry’s wife and decides to let the Brigances adopt her son when he is born. Kiera further shows her maturity when she performs perfectly during her testimony and Lowell’s cross-examination. Despite the stress of the courtroom, she follows Jake’s instructions precisely and does an outstanding job convincing the jury that her brother is not guilty of capital murder. So, while Kiera has a lot of pressure living in such an unstable and violent situation, she handles the conflict well and appears ready to move on with her life at the trial’s conclusion.