MovieChat Forums > The Thin Blue Line (1988) Discussion > The black man's statements were ridiculo...

The black man's statements were ridiculous

posted 19 years ago by 666Night999
7 replies | jump to latest

The interview with the apparently stoned/drunk black man who claimed to witness the aftermath of the shooting and saw Adams' face, what a joke. He made it up for the money, but then in the interview with Morris he's acting like he has a great memory, but then fumbles through his recollections. Come on. He didn't see sh%t. He probably shouldn't even have been in the documentary. It didn't contribute to anything.

Well, at least justice was served eventually.

"Nice beaver!"
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."--The Naked Gun

[–] billymac72 19 years ago

Well, that's pretty much the point. Morris juxtaposes his interview footage of the man claiming to "have what you could call, 'total recall'...I don't forget names, places, faces..." with that of him questioning his own accuracy ("he was walking to the car? He had to be walking to the car. Wait a sec..."). On top of what you mention about the likelihood of him being impaired by alcohol, he also seemed very distracted by his mistress at the time, who was getting sick and had rolled down the passenger side window.

It seems that the three witnesses (not counting the man's mistress) indeed drove by the scene and saw some minor detail at the scene that they grossly exaggered for whatever reason. None of them were even able to pick Adams out of a lineup, except for David Harris. Morris wanted to show just how incredibly unreliable their testimony actually was. The fact that it led to Adams' conviction in the face of everything else that pointed to his innocence was certainly what Morris wanted to prove.

[–] 666Night999 19 years ago

I also mean he was impaired during the interview, not just the night in question.

"Nice beaver!"
"Thanks, I just had it stuffed."--The Naked Gun

[–] rdaniel2919 19 years ago

Most sickening was Ms. Miller, who according to Adams' attorney, had the gall to wag her finger at Adams in court and say "That's the man!" only to admit later she couldn't even pick Adams out of a police lineup. Still, as low as she is, most of the blame has to rest with the DA's office for being so obsessed with trying to kill Randall Adams that they would put a person such as her on the stand when they surely knew she was lying.

[–] billymac72 19 years ago

I've been reading Adams' book lately, and it's even more appalling to me that Doug Mulder, the DA, basically popped these 3 eye-witnesses on the defense without allowing them to prepare for cross-examination. They kept entirely quiet about them until one Friday when they introduced them as rebuttal witnesses (not primary witnesses, which would fall under the normal discovery rules of the court at the time). Dennis White, Adams' attorney, was obviously unprepared for this and argued that he needed more time, which Judge Metcalf didn't give him. Not only did Ms. Miller say that she identified Adams in a lineup at the time (a total lie), but she also signed written statements for the police when she volunteered her information to them. The statement said the driver was "a light skinned black or Mexican." Mulder never allowed White or the court to examine these statements. On Monday, White asked the witnesses to be recalled, but Mulder claimed that had all skipped town (this ended up not being true, and Mulder likely knew they were still around). He was not given opportunity to further examine their testimony. On appeal, White argued - to no avail - that the witnesses should have been sworn in as primary witnesses in the original trial. The appeals judge, Metcalf again (!), of course was not about to admit his error.

[–] mrbruto 13 years ago

Yea, I've seen and dealt with this before and it's usually the loud mouthed, know it all, throw back, idiot, moron, low lifes who say lines like "oh I can tell who people are by their eyes, you can just tell it's something about the eyes!" and "I love watching drama and cop movies so I know people and can size them up pretty quick" and "how could he not be a serial killer. look at his messy hair and ugly picture. he looks like one!" and "she is so creepy. don't you think she's creepy? she looked over here twice and she acts strange!" and "I know you did it! Well I don't know... but I do! I can just tell. I am intuitive and my gut is always/usually right!" and so on.

Those people are scary as hell and so are the idiots who listen to them. They exist in the public and in the system. Sometimes education is no replacement for good common sense.

You wouldn't dare!
http://thesentinel.fcpages.com/

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] RoundTheTwist 7 years ago

I almost got the impression there was an indication in the film that these three "witnesses" were not so much ones who happened to come forward as actively picked by the police and told what to say.

They Millers were known to cops. Not sure of the "salesman" but my guess is they all happened to be given a sweetener by the bent cops to give "their story"