Leon McDuff

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

I come before you to plead for the life of Leon McDuff

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

I'm asking you to be the judge of when enough is enough

Now Leon McDuff worked on his daddy's farm

Everyday since the day that he was born

Plowin' in the field and hoeing in the garden

And helping to pick the cotton and the corn

Then came time of Mississippi floods

When all of his work went down the drain

His land was parched by sun, blown by the wind

And finally washed away by the rain

So Leon went to his friends trying to get help from them

But their crops and their money all were gone

So Leon went to the bank trying to mortgage his home

But the banks wouldn't give Leon a loan

Could not decide how his family could survive

With no crop and no money to buy food

And as he struggled with his hands trying to rework his land

A notice came and said your land tax is due

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

I come before you to plead for the life of Leon McDuff

In an air conditioned office on the other side of town

There sat a government official with a frown

Seems he been trying all week long

To find land to build his summer home but

Cheap river land could not be found

And in the middle of his gloom

His boss walked in the room

He said I got some real good news for the house you planned

See there's a farmer who's so poor

And who's luck has gone so sour

He'll never pay the taxes on his land

So you just wait a week or two

Until the moneys overdue

Then go to the cashier down the hall

Hold this deed in your hand pay the taxes on his land

And have the sheriff give Leon McDuff a call

And you can tell Leon to move by the last day of July

Cause his taxes on his land are overdue

Tell him he's gotta move away

Cause his taxes were not paid

And then all that river land belongs to you

Same air conditioned office in about a week or two

Here comes the sheriff saying I got bad news

That old Leon McDuff knows he's had bad luck

He says he'll try to get the money but he wont move

Well that bureaucrat jumped up and grabbed the sheriff by the arm

He says we're going out to take his land today

And so he and the sheriff drove on out to Leon's farm

To tell the McDuff's to move away

There stood Leon on his land with a shotgun in his hand

And his eyes they were narrow beneath the brim of his hat

He said I've worked hard on this land

As a boy and as a man

And I'll lose it now to no damn bureaucrat

Well that bureaucrat got mad

And he grabbed the gun in Leon's hand

And in the struggle an explosion cracked the air

And when the smoke and dust had cleared

And the ringing left their ears

The sheriff he lay dying on the ground

The sheriff he lay dying on the ground

Now on this table I will lay this here gun exhibit A

And there's two sets of fingerprints you can't even see

Other hands were here none perceived by eye to ear

To help trigger off this morbid tragedy

And now to me its still unclear

What really caused the problem here

There's just too much you got to know before you know enough

And no we can't find out today

Just where all the guilt should lay

It shouldn't be on Leon McDuff

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

I come before you to plead for the life of Leon McDuff

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

I'm asking you to be the judge of when enough

Is enough

It's just about enough