The documentary, Murder on a Sunday Morning, was by far the most intriguing one I've ever seen. It was the best in the sense that I enjoyed it so much, but at the same time it was very disturbing, in that it disappointed me and discouraged my faith in the police force. I've never seen a documentary that had such an effect on my emotions.
I became very caught up in the whole trial. I formed my own opinions while watching the cross examinations, and thought about what I would decide if I happened to be sitting on the jury. I almost felt as if I would be visibly upset if Butler was found guilty. I am disgusted with the way the police investigators handled the case, and am now weary of the way they must handle every case. I can't understand how in the legal system, where justice is supposed to be done, how something so unjust can occur. It is my true opinion that the public defense attorney went above and beyond the call of duty to prove his case. If every person in the legal system was as fair as he is, maybe we could call the system 'just' again.
This video relates to the course in a few different ways. For one, it supports the class discussion on how minorities/blacks tend to be stereotyped. Although they may not be guilty, simply fitting the description well enough to become a suspect seems to be enough these days for prosecution. This was the ONLY thing that the police had against Butler. It is now obvious that this is not nearly enough.
In the readings, I've also learned that there tends to be a correlation between the criminals that commit major crimes and chronic offenders. This makes sense with the documentary example. The true criminal, Juan Curtis, had committed many other crimes and had been arrested previously, whereas Brenton Butler had never even been in trouble before. This is something that should have been considered during the investigation. .
I really question just how this happened, and how it got as far as it did.