Oscar-winning documentary that documents a murder trial in which a 15-year-old African-American is wrongfully accused of a 2000 murder in Jacksonville, Florida.
When one of the cops told public defender Pat McGuinness "to keep sucking on that cancer stick," McGuinness said, "I always have a cigarette before sex... I was letting him know I was going to screw him."
Reviews from IMDb:
Blind Justice
Author: tieman64 from United Kingdom
26 June 2010
"I began to feel that the drama of the truth is far richer and more interesting than the drama of Hollywood movies. So I began looking at documentary films." - Ken Burns
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's "Murder on a Sunday Morning" is a powerful documentary which focuses on the wrongful arrest of Brendon Butler, a fifteen year old African American kid from Jacksonville, Florida.
The documentary watches as various authority figures rush to pass judgement on young Brendon, falsifying evidence, manipulating the kid and wrongly charging him with the murder of Mary Ann Stephens, a 65-year-old tourist from Georgia.
Much of the documentary focuses on public defender Pat McGuinness, a figure seemingly straight out of a John Grisham novel. A chain-smoking, whisky drinking, hard-working, lone-wolf attorney, McGuinness seizes upon this miscarriage of justice like a rabid hyena, dazzling us with his quiet determination and subtle tactics (watch how he ingratiates himself with the police force, only to sucker information out of them).
Because Lestrade's camera crew is given access to seemingly every nook and cranny of this case, the film branches off into several interesting directions. For example, the film examines the way the police, anxious not to damage the local tourist trade, frantically rushed to close the case. Under pressure to find the murderer as soon as possible, the cops then plucked Brendon (who at the time of his arrest was en route to a job interview) randomly off the streets, simply because he was a young black man.
The film touches upon racial profiling and stereotyping, but complicates things when it is revealed that the detective who intimidated and physically beat up Brendon was himself an African American. The film then gradually reveals how the police used strong-arm tactics to coerce witnesses and unlawfully squeeze a guilty verdict out of the distraught kid.
What's really great about the film, though, is the Butler family. A tightly knit group of black Christians, they quietly rally behind their son, who himself comes across as a rather soft spoken, bespectacled, kind-hearted kid. The film presents a very endearing view of this family unit, contrasting their religious faith with the cold, logic-driven style of Pat McGuinness. Many of the film's greatest moments simply involve the family praying together or sitting anxiously in the courtroom while their little boy is tried for murder. When the camera lingers on them, always in a state of extreme anxiety, it's hard not to empathise with their plight.
Mostly, though, documentaries like this are powerful in the way they capture a "realism" impossible in fictional cinema. Every line of dialogue here, every gesture, every emotion, is infinitely more powerful precisely because it is genuine. You cannot ever "simulate" or "act" in such a way as to reproduce this (which is why the opposite approach is often utilised by cinema's most profound directors, who favour an abstract, metaphysical tone). When a craggy looking female lawyer stands before a courtroom and interrogates a nervous looking police officer, it is emotionally charged and sociologically interesting in a way that you simple can not find in any other art-form or medium. Every mannerism, every tick, gesture, habit or bit of clothing, takes on a whole new level of interest. These aren't design or stylistic choices we're asked to witness, but the actions and decisions – both grand and small – of real human beings.
Many buzz words can be used to describe "Murder on a Sunday Morning" – a tale of faith, power abuse, the importance of integrity, the dangers of large systems and the benefits of their various checks and balances – but mostly the film works because it's scary, the warmth of the Butler family juxtaposed to the cold sterility of wood panelled public courtrooms. Like a hospital waiting room, the film takes us to that space of terror where the domestic and the public intersect. That place where one's fate is placed entirely in another's hands, the family unit taken out of its comfort zone and placed at the mercy of a monstrous bureaucracy whose various rituals are seen to be cold, dispassionate and wholly terrifying. The monster of this film is thus bureaucracy itself, whose invisible hands influence all, through targets, deadlines and a hunger for met statistics.
9/10 - See "The Staircase", "Century of Self", "Paradise Lost 1 and 2", "The Thin Blue Line", "Capturing The Friedmans" and anything by Frederick Wiseman. Aside from "The Wire", cinema hasn't really been able to capture the tempo of the criminal justice system as well as the best works in documentary cinema. Worth two viewings.
You MUST watch this true documentary if . . .
9/10
Author: charlytully from Rosebush
5 July 2009
You think the police are always right.
You believe that "eye-witnesses" are always right.
You believe the prosecutors will not take a case to court if lazy police have failed to perform 98% of a basic investigation.
You believe a U.S. city might have a "few bad apples" in law enforcement, but that the "good cops" will quickly nip those who systematically engage in evil-for-evil's sake in the bud.
You believe that the possibility of an ex-football lineman being instated as a detective solely because his dad is the county sheriff, and being allowed to beat "confessions" out of randomly-selected teenagers with absolutely no fear of negative consequences to himself could happen in the America of the 1930s, but not today.
You believe a judge will NOT send a case to the jury if anyone with a brain in their head can see the defendant is a totally random passer-by nabbed by the police because it was hot, and they did not feel like working that day.
You believe that all the innocent people imprisoned six months here or 20 years there are "exceptions to the rule," and an injustice like this could NEVER involve your family member, someone in the middle class, or someone like YOU.
You think that you are aware of every terrible, indisputable, 100% proved outrage of the last 10 years in America--yet you haven't seen this film.
Brilliant and Disturbing
Author: Tiger_Mark from The Greater Southwest
9 July 2003
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
There are very few films that I think everybody should be required to see and this is one of them. If this film does not open your eyes to the reality of criminal law, well, nothing will. The story involves the robbery and murder of an older woman in Jacksonville. The woman is shot dead for refusing to give up her purse, her husband witnesses the act. The one thing that the husband is sure of, is that the murderer was a black man. *SPOILERS* Sadly, the Jacksonville's PD's solution is to go out to the crime scene a few hours later and arrest the first black person they see. Who they arrest is a 15 year old boy, on his way to Blockbuster Video. What is next, is pure insanity. The police charge the young man, who is from a nice family, with no criminal background, with murder. Not only will the police get an alleged confession from the accused, but they will also get a positive ID from the husband of the murder victim. The only problem, the kid did not do it. Yes, it is true, witnesses are wrong and people often confess to what they did not do. What few people realize, is how often police and district attorneys are the real criminals. Too often, the evidence does not lead to the suspect, the evidence is instead built around the suspect. More often than not, that suspect is black. I have this film and I show it to my classes every year and every year young people start to realize that justice is not black and white. And sometimes, those people we think are the good guys, well...
This film changed the way I think
10/10
Author: Tony Lewis from Matcham - Australia
3 January 2006
You know, before seeing this film I had little sympathy for those caught up in criminal cases. I mean if they were arrested and charged, "they must have been guilty" I reasoned?
I formed this opinion over some years. You see a good friend of mine once worked as a detective in some of the more seedy areas of Sydney. He frequently complained that his policing efforts were wasted due to 'bleeding heart' lawyers and magistrates. He would "bang the crooks up in the morning and they would be "back on the street by noon". It took its toll... they wore him down. He quit.
He has argued since, not unreasonably I thought, that creative evidence gathering, to keep the baddies "where they belong", was... well... "acceptable".
My arguments about the rights of innocent people weren't valid he claimed. "What are the chances that you will ever be arrested and charged with a serious crime"? he would argue. And, being a law abiding citizen, the weight of his argument convinced me he was right. The chances of me, or any of my family or friends, being charged with murder or a serious offense were zero to none I thought.
Hmmmmm. Well as mentioned earlier, seeing this wonderfully enlightening documentary changed all that.
I'm sending him a copy.
Gripping affirmation of what we already know about Southern cops.
10/10
Author: gordem1 from Burlington, Ontario Canada
31 March 2002
I'm pleased that this was the work of foreign cinematographers because it can't be accused of unfair bias. With absolutely no cause, the Jacksonville cops rush to judgment in this case and pick the first black suspect to accuse of the murder of a white, foreign tourist. They picked a 15 yr. old kid who is just about as close to a saint as you could randomly find and then make fools of themselves trying to pin an unlikely case against him. In addition to the unfairness resulting from the blatant prejudice there is the matter of 6 months of unjust imprisonment of a completely innocent young black teenager. It makes one question whether as a society we should compensate those who are charged, imprisoned and subsequently found innocent. This docudrama is well produced, professionally recorded and presented in a captivating package from which you won't want to take a 1 minute break. If you care about social justice, don't miss this one. It certainly deserved its Oscar.
Good Triumphs over Stupidity
Author: Edgar L. Davis (luludavis@aol.com) from Hardwick, Vermont
21 July 2003
Hollywood could not have written this story. Thank God for documentaries! This story is the frightening tale of a young, unassmuing black teenager who is wrongfully accused the murder of an elderly white female tourist. The police are arrogant, corrupt and shameless. The prosecutor seemed almost non-chalant in her pursuit of the facts and the husband of the victim was a victim of his own grief and bias. The heroes are the family of the accused and the defense attorney. The filmmaker was so priveledged to be allowed into the home and church of the young man's family. The warmth of scenes in the family's church were well juxtaposed with the sterile wood paneled cortroom. This film should be required viewing at every police academy.
Both an indictment and a pat on the back for the justice system
Author: bob the moo from United Kingdom
11 July 2003
On the morning of the 7th May 2000, Mary Ann Stephens and her husband were accosted by a young black man who held them up at gunpoint, taking her purse and shooting her at point blank range. A matter of hours afterwards police pack up 15 year old Brenton Butler after the husband identifies him on the street. Butler is interviewed and signs a confession which he says he was forced to sign. This film follows Public Defenders Ann Linnel and Patrick McGuiness as they defend Butler on all charges.
I watched this film expecting some form of fireworks akin to a fictional courtroom thriller – these were not forthcoming, I was misled by the advertising. However the outcome is a stronger film because it is not an extraordinary case, or one that is unusual. This is alarming due to the nature of the investigation which is lacking at best – brutal at worst. The fact that McGuiness does more investigation than the police is worrying simply because I refuse to believe that every court appointed attorney is as professional as he is depicted here – or as thorough. I'm sure many in his situation must grow numb to the numbers of young black men who pass through the courts daily.
Having mentioned his colour, I was pleased to note that the film never played the race card once. Even the fact that the husband could clearly care less which black kid he picked wasn't played up. This is helped by the fact that one of the officers involved in the courtroom is black, but it is refreshing to look at the courtroom scenario without having someone shout `racist' every 2 minutes. The focus of the film is very much on the process of the trial. As such, McGuiness is a likeable and honest guide, his interviews are scattered throughout him working the court and he makes interesting observations. His actual work in court is very sharp and he is very skilful attorney. I suspect the angelic light that the film casts him in may not be totally true but he is certainly not the other side of the spectrum as many of the others here are. It is alarming to see officers completely neglect their duties simply because they have already made their minds up.
As a documentary this is a solid film that does very well to condense the trial down without doing it a disservice. The only area I felt it could have done better with was in presenting a balanced view of the trial – the prosecutor is only really in objectives and a brief closing statement. I can't help wondering if a film about `a black man being prosecuted by an unjust system' winning the Oscar was a little to do with the politics of Hollywood, but regardless I'm glad this won.
Overall this is not a wild legal ride – in fact the details of the case are not that extraordinary (in terms of the crime). However this is the film's strength – it shows how easy it would be for one man to be locked up in jail for life, how twisted the system can be but also, happily, how the system works just fine when it is not abused or perverted.
The documentary reveals that detectives are very human and,
9/10
Author: va_eer from United States
19 November 2006
with that, carry the same dark weaknesses we all unfortunately possess: lying, deception, laziness, the list goes on.
However, as an American, I was shocked to see that corruption and racism exist in today's police force as is reflected with the Duval County Sheriff Department's horrible detective and police work with the murder of a white female tourist and a 15-year old accused black youth. I shook my head in shame that detectives were protected from their abusive work while a young man's LIFE hung in the crooked balance of justice.
However, there is also a story of hope with our judicial system and how poorly-paid public defenders stuck by their guns (irony intended) and forced the truth from the detectives. I wanted to fly down to Florida and tell anybody with influence what a great public defender team they have in Duval County; those lawyers care about the "little" man and, most importantly, for justice.
The other story line is about faith and family. Praises to the accused's family and their strong Christian (submit any dedicated religion) beliefs and wonderful family values. I hope they win their lawsuit against the Duval County Sheriff's Department.
Bravo for justice!!! Bravo for the little guy!!!
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