December 21, 2011

Film Review: Scenes of a Crime

<a href="http://scenesofacrime.com/">Scenes of a Crime</a>

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Scenes of a Crime

NEW BOX PRODUCTIONS

86 minutes

When Adrian Thomas slams that binder to the floor, we know he’s toast. We’ve just seen excerpts from a 10-hour police interrogation where he not only confesses to killing his infant son but actually reenacts the crime. But wait: Could he have simply been acting out what the detectives said he’d done? Scenes of a Crime is a gripping study of how one homicide suspect is cajoled, soothed, threatened, and lied to in pursuit of a prosecutorial money shot. Once an exhausted and emotionally broken Thomas provides it, it’s clear that all the physical evidence in the world won’t save him. “False confession is probably the second leading cause of miscarriages of justice,” explains Richard Ofshe, an expert on false memory. “Juries don’t understand why an innocent person would confess.”

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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