as there a specific scene that got to you? Describe and explain how it moved you (Angry?
Curious? Delighted? Motivated?)
. Give a lot of detail, and really dive in to explain how it
affected you
1.Was there a specific scene that got to you? Describe and explain how it moved you (Angry?
Curious? Delighted? Motivated?) Give a lot of detail, and really dive in to explain how it
affected you. Don’t hold back.
The scene that has made me kind of curious was the case with Nick Harris being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder and was sentenced on death row and solitary confinement for 23 years. It made me curious because I question on how it took that long to prove him to be innocent after. If someone was wrongfully convicted for 23 years in my opinion it feels like the court did not try and rush anything to help Nick out. For someone having to be sentenced on death row for that long of a time you would personally think that they would look more into the case rather than waiting for that long especially if the man himself was pleading not guilty the entire time and telling the judge to his face that he was innocent and that they both knew that he did not commit that crime and the judge could not even directly make eye contact with Nick.
It personally affected me by showing how much the criminal justice system does not fully care enough about anyone to actually help them. They do not care that these people are taken away from their families and get their freedom taken away from themselves. It also shows that even after they are finally released from being wrongfully convicted the criminal justice system does not show remorse at all for those people. They just simply release them and that is it. For people who get their life taken away from them they should personally get something in return from being wrongfully convicted. Even something as little as $100.
2.What surprised you?
What had really surprised me would be the crime of Wilton. It surprised me because he was wrongfully convicted of rape for 22 years and sentenced for 2 life sentences. When his parents were then giving the description of what the girl who got raped described the rapist as Wilton did not have the same type of description as the rapist minus the long blond hair. He was 5’6 when the rapist was 6’0. How does someone even simply confuse a criminal description of something that simple to not miss. Personally, I feel like at some point the criminal justice system just simply wants to catch a person. I feel like they do not care who it is as long as they have someone they are content.
They then collected DNA from the case with a seman sample and two peices of hair from the case. The semen sample was inconclusive, but the hair sample was proven that it was not Wiltons, but since Wilton had not filed properly it then did not go as planned. They then told Wilton that he had basically proved his innocence to early. It still surprises me so much because it asks the question if innocence even matters? With this case i personally feel like it does not. The fact that Wilton had samples of the DNA and it showed that it was not him and they had the right to say to him that he is still considered guilty because he showed the DNA too early is ridiculous.
3.What questions remain after the viewing?
What feelings stayed with you after the film? Did
they “pop up” in your life in unexpected ways? When? How? What was that like?
The questions that still remain after viewing this film would be wondering with all of these falsely accused cases does the criminal justice system actually now take the time and try to help out people who are proved guilty but are really innocent? Or do they still not care enough and just want a person to prove guilty to make things go faster for them. Part of me feels angry with the concepts that were shown in this film. I feel like nothing was really done to help these people out who were falsely convicted. I said before a lot of these cases were convicted of rape which i said before is a touchy topic to be on. I feel like it is so easy to falsely accuse somebody of rape. Personally, I do not feel like it was the victim's fault because at the time of being rape they are not in the right mindset to even get a good look at the person who raped them. If they give them a description and show them a picture and it all matches up they will say it is that person when it really might not be.
I could never even imagine if I had ever gotten wrongfully convicted of something. The thoughts that would be racing through my head would drive me crazy. I would not know what to do or even say if the police had approached me and told me that I was guilty of something I did not do. I would be very scared and probably even start crying just from how scared and nervous I would be.
4.What problematic concepts do you see in the film, concepts you might research and write
about? Try to come up with at least five.
Some problematic concepts that I noticed in the film was that basically every case that got wrongfully convicted was rape. Rape is a touchy subject to talk about. I personally could understand on how so many people get constantly convicted of rape because while someone is getting raped they do not want to even think or look at the person who is doing it to them. I can see on how they can get a description wrong because that person is not attuned to what is happening at that moment. Another problematic concept that I had came across is how many years a person has been wrongfully convicted for and that nothing was done for 20+ years. It feels like the criminal justice system is not in any type of hurry to help out a person who was falsely convicted.
The third problematic concept that I had noticed was the conviction of Wilton. With Wilton’s case he had the DNA of hair samples that had proved his innocence and even with that they told him that he had proved his innocence to early. Instead of wanting to help someone out who was wrongfully convicted they were too concerned about themselves and how it would look on their part for wrongfully convicting someone who was innocent the whole 22 years of him being in prison. Another problematic concept that was shown was that these prisoners did not fully get the access of good people trying to help them out at all. I feel like they got the end of the totem pole.
about? Try to come up with at least five.
