In the summer of 1971, Jesse Hill Ford went on trial in Humboldt, Tennessee, for shooting George Henry Doaks Jr. the previous November. Ford faced the possibility of conviction of murder or the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Ford’s lawyers argued that the highly regarded author should be acquitted because, they said, he was acting only to protect his property and family from an intruder.

The defense team also employed the age-old tactic of casting doubt on the character of the victim. Doaks, a 21-year-old African American from Humboldt, was a soldier.

But at the time of his death,...