Karl Childers, a mentally disabled man, has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for killing his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, he is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.
Billy Bob Thornton
Karl Childers
Dwight Yoakam
Doyle Hargraves
J. T. Walsh
Charles Bushman
John Ritter
Vaughan Cunningham
Lucas Black
Frank Wheatley
Natalie Canerday
Linda Wheatley
James Hampton
Jerry Woolridge
Robert Duvall
Karl's Father
