ABOUT THE PROJECT
LOGLINE
In 1993 a Louisiana town framed an innocent man. Now the truth reveals the murder never happened. It’s a phenomenon called moral panic. Will he still be executed? Or freed?
SYNOPSIS
From the creator of The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith and Met While Incarcerated/From Prison with Love, this psychological thriller documentary unfolds as a courtroom drama. It begins in 1993 against the backdrop of peak crime in America when the accidental death of a child triggers a Louisiana town into a moral panic.
Witness by witness, prosecutors turn a man into a monster as a community frames him for a horrific crime, sentencing him to death. In a twist that will hit headlines this fall (2024) witnesses reappear in court 30 years later arguing to unearth what’s been buried—the murder never happened.
But one still might.
After years on death row, this inspirational story of a wronged-man fighting for freedom, will expose the crushing power and fallibility of the State. And it’s an inconvenient time to be innocent as Louisiana resumes executions after a near 20 year blink on an eye-for-an-eye, promising to execute “the worst of the worst” at all costs. This time the world will be watching.
This documentary goes beyond what happened to why, linking this outrageous wrongful conviction to dozens of others through the moral panic of the era, including the Central Park Five and West Memphis Three cases. The 90’s archive meticulously frames the hysteria driven by sensationalistic news media, the emboldened prosecutors/police, and political leaders trading on fear. These powerbrokers enabled an industry of fraudulent forensics peddling certainty to juries ravenous for definitive proof.
The impact of early 90’s mob justice is still playing out across death rows today. This documentary is a call to a generation raised on true crime to see beyond the hype. In this case of innocence, there’s still time to do the right thing.
PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature
DIRECTOR Catherine Legge
SCREENWRITER Catherine Legge
PRODUCER Catherine Legge, Diana Warme
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Catherine Legge, Susanne Reber
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Tara Suri
WEBSITE themurderthatneverhappened.com
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