DVD for Public Libraries
American Library Association “Notable Videos for Adults” Selection
Booklist “Starred” Review • Video Librarian ★★★½ Review
American Bar Association Silver Gavel Awards for Media & the Arts Honoree
One of the most honored justice documentaries in recent years, this riveting true crime documentary explores a haunting question: What might lead an innocent man to confess to something he didn’t do?
“SCENES OF A CRIME” inspired a legal campaign that freed a wrongfully convicted man from prison earlier this year.
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Police investigating the suspicious death of a four-month-old boy secretly video-recorded nearly 10 hours of their interrogation of the child’s father, Adrian Thomas. The video provides a window on the hidden world of police interrogation techniques in wide use by investigators in the US, and became the focus of a contentious and controversial criminal trial in New York state. The case – and the film – drew the attention of the Innocence Project, Center on Wrongful Convictions, and other legal advocates, and the resulting appeal brought new standards for police interrogation.
New York Times, Stephen Holden: “This smart, cool-headed film…
presents a disturbing picture of courtroom justice”
presents a disturbing picture of courtroom justice”
Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan: “A cool documentary that makes the blood boil… The movie manages, through intense focus on one particular case, to make points that resonate throughout our entire criminal justice system”
Steven A. Drizin, Northwestern University School of Law:
Professor and Assistant Dean at the Bluhm Legal Clinic
“What a powerful documentary! It speaks volumes to the corruptive power of confession evidence.
“It is one of the best films to examine the modern psychological interrogation and the ways in which legally permissible interrogation tactics can lead a suspect to provide an unreliable confession.”
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Detailed product description continues below:
The DVD contains the Theatrical Version of the film (88 mins.) and a special Shortened Version (48 mins.) suited for viewers with limited time. (Click for User Agreement – opens new page.)
The film examines the interrogation of a young African American father from Troy, New York – Adrian Thomas – whom police suspect of battering his 4-month-old son to death. Doctors treating the brain-dead infant misdiagnosed a skull fracture, and contacted law enforcement about “shaken baby” abuse.
The story is told from all sides of the case: detectives, prosecutors, defense attorneys, jurors, witnesses and the accused himself. Prof. Richard Ofshe, a groundbreaking figure in the study of police interrogation, analyzed video-recordings of the interrogation for the defense, and presents a detailed analysis in the film.
The police video shows that detectives didn’t resort to physical intimidation in the interrogation room, but instead deployed a wide array of intense – and potentially problematic – psychological techniques to win a confession from their unwilling suspect, including: false medical statements, promises of leniency, threats to pursue his wife, and demonstrations of violent acts that police might accept as “unintentional.” After two sessions in the police station spanning 10 hours, Adrian Thomas eventually confessed.
Afterward, Thomas quickly recanted, and it was revealed that Thomas’s son suffered from a brain infection that was undiagnosed by doctors who touched off the investigation.
Ultimately a judge must rule on whether the defense can present Prof. Ofshe’s highly critical analysis to the jury – a still-evolving area of the law.
And a jury must decide whether police tactics led an innocent man to confess falsely to a horrendous crime.
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