On November 29, 1976, a police officer was murdered in Ladas, USA. In the middle of the night, police officer Robert and a novice colleague were on the road patrol together. On the road, they encountered a blue car that had been parked on the side of the road for a long time. Robert approached and asked him to show his driver's license. However, the window was rolled down, and Robert ushered in. Truly a robbery. The scene was bloody and terrifying, and the rookie police officer who was with Robert was so frightened that she couldn't speak. She said that when she reacted, the prisoner had disappeared into the fog.
Police immediately identified two suspects: 16-year-old David and 28-year-old Randall.
David always put on a good-natured look, saying he didn't know it, he just happened to be on a trip with Randall, bought a sandwich and sat next to him, only to see him kill someone. Landau's testimony is that he saw David buy a gun and a sandwich, and asked David what he did with the gun. David immediately rolled down the car window and fired several shots out the opposite window.
The contradictory testimony of the two was not enough to conclusively determine who was the murderer, but at this time, a third-party witness, a passing couple, appeared. The wife testified that it was Lando who killed him that night, and he saw it clearly. At the same time, the rookie police officer who said that he couldn't remember the details at the beginning also insisted that the murderer was Lan Dao. In fact, these testimonies, after careful scrutiny, will find that they are full of loopholes, but the judge still sentenced Lando to prison.
Nine years later, Errol Morris came into contact with Randall by chance. He found many people from the past, such as judges, lawyers and... David. He wanted to use a documentary to restore the truth of the year. Different people have different reactions, and I remember the judge's extraordinary confidence that he would never be wrong in his judgment. Just when I thought things wouldn't change, David suddenly admitted that he did the crime of killing the police.
Who would have thought that a documentary that just wanted to find out the truth at first, suddenly helped an innocent person who was wrongfully imprisoned for ten years to overturn the case. This film reproduces the case using the method of event reproduction, that is, the use of "true reproduction". The case was reorganized through interviews with the real people involved in the incident. The filming technique is novel and the ideas are unique. In my opinion, the music in it has helped a lot in rendering the atmosphere of the film. Although it caused a sensation in the United States at the time, it is a pity that it was not awarded because it was found by the Oscar judges to violate the principle of "authenticity" of the documentary, but this did not shake its status in the film industry. In addition to this, the film also uses dark humor. It satirized the imperfect or flawed judicial institutions in the United States at that time. The judge's self-righteousness, torture to extract confessions, police threats... It is difficult for anyone to resist such mental torture, especially a person who is frightened, he is helpless and afraid and defends himself, but no one wants to believe it, he can only do this Unjustly imprisoned for ten years.
Landau's lawyers have raised questions, but the request for review has been repeatedly rejected for the simple reason that they don't want to believe that such a horrific crime was committed by a 16-year-old who, despite his many criminal records, is still young. , so pardonable. As for Lando, his age met the conditions for committing the crime, so he was the culprit.
This so-called judicial government is just creating a normal "prisoner" to comply with the public reaction, which is really sad. At the end of the film, it is mentioned that there are thousands of such scapegoats...
Do a random search on the website, there are definitely not a few reports of wrongful imprisonment in the United States, such as the following case:
The compensation was obtained, but the years he lost for no reason, these 15 years, including the most fighting age in his life, he may have been able to make great achievements in these 15 years, and then he became someone else's scapegoat 15 What a ridiculous thing this is, how can I repay the fifteen years I have suffered injustice? Think again, there are only a few people who wash away their grievances like this. There are still many people. They have words of suffering, and no one wants to believe them. They are likely to stay in prison until they leave this world, and they will never go out and see the sun again. . Like Lan Dao in this film, although he finally cleared his grievances, he died of a brain tumor not long after he came out, and he did not receive compensation in the end. There are too many places in this world that justice cannot reach. So, "how can this happen" "God knows".
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