Crime Film Documentaries

Instructor: James R. Elkins

| fall | 2018 |

"Mississippi Innocence" (2011) | 58 mins. | Instructor's Notes in progress

[The case of Levon Brooks & Kennedy Brewer]

Reading

Tucker Carrington, Mississippi Innocence: The Convictions and Exonerations of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer and the Failure of the American Promise, 28 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 123 (2015)

The Film

"Mississippi Innocence"

Flawed Autopsies Send Two Innocent Men To Jail
NPR

The Exoneration

Mississippi Innocence Project Contributes to Exonerations
University of Mississippi

'You're Free To Go'
Jackson Free Press

Prosecutorial Misconduct

Despite DNA Test, a Case Is Retried
NY Times, Sept.6, 2007

Videos

Levon Brooks
[12:57 mins.] [brief focus on Lavon Brooks; background on the Mississippi Innocence Project]

Levon Brooks & Kennedy Brewer: Flawed Autopsies Send Two Innocent Men To Jail
[7:31 mins.] [NPR] [Mississippi Innocence Project] [forensic science (Dr. Michael West): human bite marks]

A Long Road to Innocence: A Screening and Dialogue of "Mississippi Innocence"
[46:06 mins.] [See: Tucker Carrington, Mississippi Innocence: The Convictions and Exonerations of Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer and the Failure of the American Promise, 28 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 123 (2015)]

Bibliography

Peter Neufeld, Keynote Address, 37 Sw. U. L. Rev. 1051 (2008).

Angela J. Davis, Film review: "Mississippi Innocence and the Prosecutor's Guilt,"25 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 989 (2012).

Valena Elizabeth Beety, The Death Penalty: Ethics and Economics in Mississippi, 81 Miss. L.J. 1437 (2012).

K.C. Taylor et.al. CSI Mississippi: The Cautionary Tale of Mississippi's Medico-Legal History, 82 Miss. L.J. 1271 (2013).

Books

Radley Balko & Tucker Carrington, Dr. Death and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Corruption and Injustice in the American South (New York: Public Affairs, 2017).

Isabelle Armand & Tucker Carrington, Levon and Kennedy: Mississippi Innocence Project (Brooklyn, New York: Powerhouse Books, 2018).

Civil Case Against the Alleged Experts Who Provided Trial Testimony

Kennedy Brewer v. Steven Timothy Hayne & Michael H. West, with Levon Brooks v. Steven Timothy Hayne (5th Cir., U.S. Court of Appeals, 2017) [online text]

Case Resources: Bad Forensic Science

Sources compiled for my course, Convicting the Innocent

Forensics, Pseudoscience & Criminal Injustice (with Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington)
Podcast :: 38:15 mins.

Bite Mark Evidence Cases

Description of Bite Mark Exonerations and Arrests