Everyone Needs to See This Film

Everyone needs to see this film because New York is only one of many cities and states where this happens--young people coerced into confessing to a crime they did not commit, wasting years of their lives in prison and, when finally exonerated, the entities responsible for the wrongful conviction fight against compensating them. That is why I wrote "Accidental Felon" -- to show people how easily this could happen to them or someone they know.

Ken Burns believes race is at the heart of most injustice in the US. Read about the Chicago torture trials--innocent young Black men physically tortured to confess--and you will be convinced. But this happens regardless of race. It happened to White, young sailors in Norfolk (known as The Norfolk Four), who suffer to this day because judges (with one exception, the dissenting opinion at the 4th circuit) refuse to acknowledge their primary role is to uphold justice and fairness. Instead, they refuse to acknowledge these young men are innocent, refuse to accept DNA evidence that proves their innocence.

There will be no remedies for the injustice that is solidly part of the system until sufficient numbers of the public become outraged and demand their legislators and Congress implement change. Until then, your young adult or teen, your grandchild, your neighbor, may be the next victim of corrupt police, corrupt prosecutors, negligent judges.