
Murder in the First
A young, inexperienced public defender is assigned to defend an inmate accused of committing murder while behind bars.
Movies Like Murder in the First
Similar in style, tone, and themes — find your next watch.

Rampage
1987★ 6.0
Liberal district attorney decides to seek the death penalty for a man who slaughtered a family at Christmastime, then drank their blood. He escapes, though, and starts killing again.

The Enforcer
1976★ 6.7
Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vietnam veterans.

Felon
2008★ 7.1
A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

The Life of David Gale
2003★ 7.4
A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.

Escape from Alcatraz
1979★ 7.5
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

The Mauritanian
2021★ 7.4
The true story of the Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center without charges for over a decade and sought help from a defense attorney for his release.

Birdman of Alcatraz
1962★ 7.5
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.

Convict
2014★ 6.5
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.

Peppermint
2018★ 6.7
A grieving mother transforms herself into a vigilante following the murders of her husband and daughter, eluding the authorities to deliver her own personal brand of justice.

Lock Up
1989★ 6.8
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.

Brubaker
1980★ 7.1
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

Sleepers
1996★ 7.6
Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.

Winged Creatures
2009★ 5.9
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.

The Enforcer
1951★ 7.1
After years of investigation, Assistant District Attorney Martin Ferguson has managed to build a solid case against an elusive gangster whose top lieutenant is about to testify.

Marshall
2017★ 7.3
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.

All Day and a Night
2020★ 6.2
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.

Monster
2021★ 6.5
The story of Steve Harmon, a 17-year-old honor student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder.

Sleeping Dogs
2024★ 7.0
Roy Freeman, an ex-homicide detective with a fractured memory, is forced to revisit a case he can't remember. As a man's life hangs in the balance on death row, Freeman must piece together the brutal evidence from a decade-old murder investigation, uncovering a sinister web of buried secrets and betrayals linking to his past. With only instincts to trust, he faces a chilling truth - sometimes, it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.

The Chamber
1996★ 6.0
Idealistic young attorney Adam Hall takes on the death row clemency case of his racist grandfather, Sam Cayhall, a former Ku Klux Klan member he has never met.

Primal Fear
1996★ 7.7
Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.