PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

PODCAST: IN THE DARK: SEASON TWO

Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For 21 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He's won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. What does the evidence reveal? And how can the justice system ignore the prosecutor's record and keep Flowers on death row?

MY VERDICT: I loved listening to this podcast but it made me angry. It made me angry because it just didn’t seem fair. This seemed to be your usual case of someone convicted on not enough evidence but it goes much deeper than this. It doesn’t seem like it should be allowed that when someone wins an appeal against their conviction they should have to stay in prison if the DA says he’ll just try again. Why does the DA not face some kind of punishment when he was found to be in the wrong – why do only the defendants suffer? 

This podcast team does some deep, deep investigating. Finding documents long thought lost and collating information on cases going back decades to crate stats that don’t get recorded or checked, but should. 

I would recommend this podcast but prepare to feel dismayed in large doses.

Their website is also very well put together: https://www.apmreports.org/in-the-dark/season-two

And if you haven’t listened to the first season, I would highly recommend that too, it’s not the same story so you don’t need to listen in a particular order. 

FILM 1481: THE CHESHIRE MURDERS

In the quiet suburb of Cheshire, Connecticut, Jennifer Petit and her two young daughters were killed in a horrific home invasion; husband and father William Petit was the only one who escaped alive. This gripping film explores the events of that shocking triple homicide that rocked the town and set off a politically charged death-penalty trial. The result is a disturbing revelation of police failures and untold personal dramas that point out the biggest tragedy of all: the crime could have been prevented at many turns.

(IMDB)

FILM 1478: THOUGHT CRIMES: THE CASE OF THE CANNIBAL COP

Dubbed "The Cannibal Cop," Gilberto Valle was convicted in March 2013 of conspiring to kidnap and eat young women. Valle argued it was all a fantasy; the prosecution's narrative convinced jurors otherwise. Valle was facing a possible life sentence when filmmaker Erin Lee Carr began visiting him in prison. After 22 months behind bars, his conviction was overturned in a stunning reversal. Carr was there for his release and subsequent house arrest to examine a life arrested. But the question remains: given the chance, would he, could he, have done it? "Thought Crimes" unravels the conflicting stories of a potentially dangerous young man and the unexpected consequences of our online activity.

(IMDB)

FILM 1235: CAPTIVATED THE TRIALS OF PAMELA SMART

A small-town murder in New England became one of the highest-profile cases of the twentieth century. As the first fully televised court case, the Pamela Smart trial rattled the consciousness of America. From gavel to gavel, a nation tuned in, and reality TV was born. Pulsating with sex, drugs, betrayal, and murder, the trial inspired 20 years of television shows, books, plays, and movies, including To Die For, starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Gus Van Sant.

FILM 1159: 12 ANGRY MEN

TRIVIA: At the beginning of the film, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects. As the film progresses the cameras slip down to eye level. By the end of the film, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia.

The movie is commonly used in business schools and workshops to illustrate team dynamics and conflict resolution techniques.

Nominated for 3 Oscars, the film lost out in all its categories to The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

Sidney Lumet had the actors all stay in the same room for hours on end and do their lines over and over without taping them. This was to give them a real taste of what it would be like to be cooped up in a room with the same people.

In 12 Angry Men (1997) Lee J. Cobb's character was played by George C. Scott. Making it the second time Scott followed Cobb in portraying the same character. He did it previously, playing the character of "Lt. Kinderman" in The Exorcist III (1990), the same character Cobb played in the original film The Exorcist (1973).