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Originally Posted by MuckyFunster  I watched making a murderer but was more or less fed up with it after episode 2 and only watched it till the end so I could join in the workplace discussions about it. I felt the documentary was so very one sided and only interested in painting some sympathetic picture of him that his defence counsel wanted to paint.
On a lighter note, me and the Mrs have been bingeing on New Girl, starring Zooey Deschanel. Top comedy stuff! We're midway through season 3 at the mo [emoji1360] |
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Originally Posted by Frankenhooker Of who ? Stephen Avery or Brendan Dassey ? Neither got a fair trial, there were grave systematic flaws during both their trials, Dassey's especially. He was borderline mentally retarded, didn't understand the gravity of the situation, was led during questioning, was questioned without a parent, guardian and at times even without a solicitor. Regardless of whether you believe they were guilty or not, and I believe one of them was guilty, their trials were farcical and helped propagate the opinion that they were set up.
Everyone deserves a fair trial, even those who are guilty. |
I watched the episodes eight and nine last night, so have (I think) reached the end of the court cases. As you say, Brendan Dassey is not an 'average' 16-year-old (at the time of his arrest and questioning), and missing in the court that he didn't even know the difference between feet and yards after describing his uncle's house as being 200-300 yards away, before saying it was closer than the length of a football field.
Sadly, the American system doesn't have the equivalent of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984), so children can be questioned without parents or lawyers present in something which is accurately described as an 'interrogation' rather than, as in our system, an 'interview'. The cases of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are far from unique and, thanks to the efforts of law students working pro bono for such organisations as the Innocence Project, numerous people have been exonerated, including a sizeable number who were on death row.
Whatever you believe about the cases in Making a Murderer, it is a troubling look into the American legal system and what courts are willing to overlook (such as tainted evidence, interrogation of juveniles and those with mental disabilities, falsified documents, 'expert' witnesses with very shaky credentials, such as in the case of
David Camm) in the name of securing a conviction and putting a seemingly guilty person behind bars. I certainly don't believe the system in the US is unique and there are miscarriages of justice all over the world, but the presence of cameras in American courtrooms made that documentary series possible, which it wouldn't be in England and Wales.