MovieChat Forums > Trial & Retribution (1997) Discussion > Case 1 vs. Case 2 outcomes made no sense...

Case 1 vs. Case 2 outcomes made no sense to me


The verdicts in the first two cases seemed flip-flopped to me.

In the first case I was convinced that Michael Dunn was not guilty until the very end when the trial was already over and they confirmed it was his prints in the girl's blood on the blue bottle which really seemed like a sucker punch to the viewers imho and the program ended without explaining it. So it astounded me when he was found guilty with no physical evidence, contradictory witness statements, witnesses who lied, and the police admitting that a young Constable had planted the key piece of evidence linking him to the girl.

What astounded me even more was that in the next case in contrast Damon Morton was acquitted of the attack on the third woman even though he had her severed breast in a jar in a box in the ceiling of his office, his van was used to carry out the attacks and she identified him out of around 8 different men in the identity parade.

I suppose it is just the vagaries of the justice system and the unpredictability of jurors that made these cases seem so contradictory, but I am left scratching my head at both verdicts.

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I don't think it's the vagaries of the justice system, I think it's the vagaries of this program. Loose ends are OFTEN left dangling. I agree with what you said about Michael Dunn. I've watched a few seasons now, and there are plenty of times when questions go unanswered or even unaddressed.

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I think Dunn was framed. Still cant believe the verdict. I expected the second case verdict after the first.

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The second series is way too over the top, it's ridiculous. There's not enough background on the characters either for it to make any sense. Why did he have such a hold over those men? What was lacking in them psychologically to submit to his bidding and confess to murder to keep him out of prison? Why were the two women so controlled by him, to the point where they were sharing a home with him despite hating each other? None of this was touched upon, which made the whole thing hard to take seriously. Mike suggesting they had their own "Charlie Manson" made me roll my eyes. And as for the jury seemingly siding with the killer because the prostitute freaked out when she saw a man she thought was the killer walking past her window, have they never heard of PTSD? And then his spurned wife mutilating herself to put him back behind bars, it was like something out of a Stephen King book or the Twilight Zone, absolutely absurd.

In fairness with the first two outcomes I think the writer was maybe trying to make a point about class prejudices. Dunn was found guilty without any DNA or forensic evidence because he was a known alcoholic and a vagrant type, whereas Morton was cleared despite all the evidence because he was seen as a articulate handsome family man. Just a theory.

One final point, Dunn would have been released after an appeal in the real world. There is no way in hell that verdict would stand after it was discovered the police had tampered with evidence. It's a shame this wasn't addressed.

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