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Brenton Butler Trial

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Murder on a Sunday morning is a documentary assembled and directed by a French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The documentary presents a case of a young boy who was wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Brenton Butler, a 15-year-old boy, was charged with shooting and killing Mary Ann Stephens, a 65-year-old tourist woman, in a parking lot in Jacksonville, Florida on May 7th, 2000 (De Lestrade, 2001). In an attempt to protect their image and not scare away tourists, the Jacksonville police officers carried out a hasty arrest which led to the prosecution of the wrong suspect. 15 minutes after Mrs. Stephens was shot dead while walking with her husband, the police hurried and picked the first black suspects who happened to be available. …show more content…

Butler, as the guilty one, which he did without having all his facts right. After Mr. Stephens identified Mr. Butler as the one who committed the crime the police took Mr. Butler to the police station where he was practically coerced to confess to a felony he knew nothing about. But when the case reached the court chambers, and aware they had no case to prosecute, the police officers chose to give forceful confessions, which further weakened their case (De Lestrade, 2001). The attorney of the accused (Mr. Butler), Patrick McGuinness, knowing that the prosecution’s case had reeked to high heavens, framed a powerful defense that exposed the false confessions given by the police and the shoddy investigations done by the detectives involved in the case (De Lestrade, 2001). In the end, Mr. Butler gained his rights and freedom back, which were denied to him when the police, the media, and public sentenced him wrongly. Despite all the wrongful accusations the jury declared him not guilty for all the charges leveled against

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In the film Murder on a Sunday Morning, fifteen-year-old Brenton Butler is arrested and blamed for the murder of Mary Ann Stephens. While on trial,

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Murder on a Sunday Morning, is an Oscar award-winning documentary that tells of the conviction and trial of 15-year-old Brenton Butler for the death of Mary Ann Stephens in Jacksonville, Florida of May 2000. The film is a 111-minute movie directed by Jean-Xavier de Lastrade. The plot originates from the incident of Mary Ann Stephens being shot in the head by a black assailant; and then begins to unravel as Brenton Butler is arrested 90 minutes after the murder has occurred. Pat McGuinness, one of the main interviewees in the movie, takes up the case and defends Brenton Butler. The documentary presents the film from the trial, as well as interviews and investigations that Pat McGuinness and his partner Ann Finnel performed to gather facts for

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