Documentaries are different from movies in the fact that they work to inform the public of facts instead of entertaining them. An example of this is the Oscar winning documentary A Murder on a Sunday Morning. The documentary talks about how a woman was shot and killed on a Sunday morning and a young black male was arrested and how the defense builds a case that frees the wrongly convicted man. The documentary mainly talks racism, the imperfections of the police system, and the injustice in said system. On May 7th, 2000, Mary Ann Stephens and her husband James Stephens were coming out of a motel when a person arrived in front of them and demanded money. As Mary Ann Stephens
…show more content…
The documentary focused mainly on the case but there were unsettling points in the case, like racial discrimination. There was implied racial discrimination in the case. First, when the police are searching for a suspect, they are told that the suspect is a “skinny black male wearing dark shorts, unknown shirt, had on a hat.” (A Murder on a Sunday Morning) When two police find Butler, one of them said, “Well there’s a young black male there. Could be him, could be anybody” (A Murder on a Sunday Morning). They then stop him and ask him questions and then ask him to come with them for more questions. It seems that because a person is black, then they are subjected to being stopped randomly and asked questions. The documentary also shows how a cop allegedly called Butler a racial slur, this cop being black also. One person in the documentary states how this is unfair to them and how unjust it is to just stop someone because they are black and that they are subject to being asked question, even if they have done nothing wrong. This, along with the imperfections of the police system, show how the case was …show more content…
The eyewitness did not actually see Brenton Butler as the shooter, which was the main evidence for the prosecution. He had instead saw Juan Curtis, but had misremembered. The misremembrance of the shooter nearly caused an innocent young man to be sent to jail for a crime he did not commit. The eyewitness statement is the only strong point they had for their case. In the article “5 Most Unjust Convictions Of Black Men That Were Overturned,” it gives readers five wrongfully convicted black males who were innocent but had been convicted due to the prosecution withholding evidence, and giving false testimony. With false testimonies and withheld evidence, innocent people can be arrested and thrown in jail. A Murder on a Sunday Morning tells viewers about the case of Brenton Butler, a 15
The documentary focused mainly on the case but there were unsettling points in the case, like racial discrimination. There was implied racial discrimination in the case. First, when the police are searching for a suspect, they are told that the suspect is a “skinny black male wearing dark shorts, unknown shirt, had on a hat.” (A Murder on a Sunday Morning) When two police find Butler, one of them said, “Well there’s a young black male there. Could be him, could be anybody” (A Murder on a Sunday Morning). They then stop him and ask him questions and then ask him to come with them for more questions. It seems that because a person is black, then they are subjected to being stopped randomly and asked questions. The documentary also shows how a cop allegedly called Butler a racial slur, this cop being black also. One person in the documentary states how this is unfair to them and how unjust it is to just stop someone because they are black and that they are subject to being asked question, even if they have done nothing wrong. This, along with the imperfections of the police system, show how the case was …show more content…
The eyewitness did not actually see Brenton Butler as the shooter, which was the main evidence for the prosecution. He had instead saw Juan Curtis, but had misremembered. The misremembrance of the shooter nearly caused an innocent young man to be sent to jail for a crime he did not commit. The eyewitness statement is the only strong point they had for their case. In the article “5 Most Unjust Convictions Of Black Men That Were Overturned,” it gives readers five wrongfully convicted black males who were innocent but had been convicted due to the prosecution withholding evidence, and giving false testimony. With false testimonies and withheld evidence, innocent people can be arrested and thrown in jail. A Murder on a Sunday Morning tells viewers about the case of Brenton Butler, a 15