Sergeant Rutledge

In 1881, Sergeant Braxton Rutledge, a respected black cavalryman of the 9th U.S. Cavalry, stands trial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer. The events that led to these heinous crimes are recounted through several flashbacks as Lieutenant Tom Cantrell's defense efforts unfold in a tense court-martial. With the help of Mary Beecher, a woman Rutledge saved from Apache attack, Cantrell extracts a confession from witness Chandler Hubble, exonerating Rutledge from the guilty verdict that initially seemed inevitable.