The Ox-Bow Incident.
 

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) - Rotten Tomatoes

A very good and still relevant movie about the abuse of power and the results of it.

Had seen this on a reel projector while still a high school student at Earl Wooster High School in 1975 or 1976.

The writer of the book of the same name-- Walter Van Tilburg Clark-- had grown up in Reno, Nevada and had taught at the University of Nevada, Reno. Walter Van Tilburg Clark - Wikipedia

Yes a very good movie , for something like that in a more modern setting watch fury with Spencer Tracy

A powerful movie.

This was one of the films that we had to review and breakdown in a humanities elective class (ha, I thought this was going to be a 'fluff' course...had to work my butt off). Harry Morgan and Henry Fonda were excellent in this classic black & white
flick

I will look into that.

My English teacher at Earl Wooster HS had used films frequently to get us interested. And this film was quite well known in Reno, Nevada because of Clark's connection to it. He wrote the book on which the movie of the same name was based.