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Hollywood film focuses on false convictions based on Hearne informant

I just received a press release via email announcing the pending release of a feature film based on an incident in tiny Hearne, TX, just down the road from Bryan-College Station, though it was actually filmed in Louisiana. According to the notice:On April 17, Samuel Goldwyn Films will release AMERICAN VIOLET, a new film based on true events that occurred in a small Texas town. The film examines how drug laws and enforcement practices target African-Americans, and, how the justice system uses threats and intimidation to steer them towards guilty pleas, regardless of their innocence or the evidence against them. As the film points out, more than 95% of criminal convictions in this country are the result of plea-bargains, not jury trials. While the film is based on a specific case, the story it represents is hardly unique or isolated, and, the film?s release presents an exceptional opportunity to explore how the drug war has become the new Jim Crow...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 16, 2009 (boomark / email).