定罪

那个女警官真的很恶毒啊！该死的！。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

《定罪》是一部典型的沉冤昭雪型电影，同题材的例如《永不妥协》、《秋菊打官司》都为中外观众所熟知。如许多法律题材的电影一样，电影将一些法律知识汇于其中，亦描绘了行政的繁文缛节对实现司法公正的桎梏。然而电影并未过多纠缠在案件本身的证据收集和法庭辩论环节，而是将重心放在影片中的Betty Ann和Kenny之间的浓厚亲情之上，以此来展现影片的深层主旨：血脉相连的坚持和信念。

然而，沉冤昭雪的背后，亦有一些故事：

电影中的人物Kenny事实上在2001年他出狱后6个月后就不慎摔死了。人们因为这件有如“上帝的旨意”般的事件议论纷纷：看来Kenny还是待在监狱里更安全。然而导演Tony Goldwyn却解释：“这是一个艰难的决定。但是我认为，最终，电影不会顾及此。电影关注的更多的是Kenny的自由以及Betty Ann和他之间的亲情关系。“

波士顿人对这部电影充满期待，因为这个真实的故事发生在麻省的Ayer，然而，这部电影大部分场景都是在密歇根州的Ann Arbor拍摄的，只有一些为故事铺垫的背景是在故事发生当地拍摄的。

这是一部R评级电影。

这个精彩的故事被波士顿环球报的记者Farah Stockman报导，他偶遇了事件中的“专为因为未作DNA测试而被错误定罪的人们无罪辩护”的律师Barry Scheck。Barry Scheck把Betty Ann的故事告诉了Farah Stockman，经Farah Stockman回忆道：Betty Ann在Britol R.I的一个爱尔兰酒吧工作，非常腼腆，她似乎不愿自己被报导成一个高中辍学的人或是一个英雄。她认为做一个单身妈妈没什么了不起的，而帮自己的哥哥打官司更是理所当然，”这是我该为我亲人做的，难道不是吗？“ Betty Ann说道。她似乎不想出名，然而，荣誉却还是找到了她。

Betty Ann的故事被登载在环球报头版，并引起了巨大反响。十年后，这个故事被搬上了大银幕。

现实事件中的遇害者Katharina Brow的子女Melrosa和Charles的律师Gloria Allred在众多媒体报导中谴责《定罪》的导演Tony Goldwyn和主演Hilary Swank从拍片到影片上映，全然不顾Melrosa和Charles的感受，从来没有联系过他们是否同意将他们的母亲拍入电影，更是没有带着悲伤或者同情打过一个电话。



《定罪》是一部基于真实事件改编的电影，女主角由两度获得奥斯卡影后（《男孩别哭》/《百万宝贝》）的Hilary Swank出演，男主角则是在去年的一部优秀科幻电影《月球》中主演过的老牌演员Sam Rockwell。可以说，这部电影的出彩之处除了真实感人的剧本，更重要的是演员们的优秀演出。然而，又正因为真实事件取材的有限性，整部电影情节的可预见性又似乎太明显，明明一个精彩的故事，嚼起来却让观众们有些兴味索然。有时候真实的故事相比虚构的，正因为缺乏那么一些情节的不可预知，导致观赏度降低，在同期上映的《127小时》、《斗士》里，我们似乎看到了影子。

综上，3.5星

注：背景材料取材于ABC新闻、新美国评论等英文网页，理解不妥处敬请勘误斧正。

目前百度不给力，没有相关网页，只有google搜出来几篇相关报道，翻译水平有限，仅摘过来：
1、kenneth很不幸，出狱后只享受了6个月的自由，就死了。
2、兄妹俩获得了3.4million的赔偿。
3、Nancy taylor没有受到任何形式上的处罚，网上连的照片我都没找到。有找到的麻烦给我个地址，我去吐口口水。

--------------------------中英分割线--------------------------------------------
Estate of Kenneth Waters To Receive $3.4 Million In Settlement For His 18 Year Imprisonment

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Avi Kamionski
The Boston Globe is reporting:
波士顿环球 报道：

The town of Ayer and five of its insurers have agreed to pay $3.4 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by the estate of the late Kenneth Waters, who spent more than 18 years in prison for a murder he did not commit before his sister earned a law degree and helped free him through DNA evidence. The estate was represneted by Barry Sheck of Neufeld Sheck and Brustin.

Ayer police were accused of coercing false testimony to convict Waters and withholding evidence that could have cleared him. A sixth insurance company, Western World Insurance Group, has declined to settle, but negotiations are continuing. Kenneth Waters was freed from prison in March 2001, and the Middlesex district attorney’s office dropped the charges against him. But he enjoyed only six months of freedom. He died on Sept. 19, 2001, after he fell on his head from a 15-foot wall in Rhode Island while taking a shortcut to a restaurant.

Ayer’s town administrator, Shaun A. Suhoski, said the lawsuit was “a very complex case and, through the very diligent efforts of our legal team, with close oversight of the Board of Selectmen, it appears we’ve reached an acceptable endpoint in this litigation.’’

Kenneth Waters was convicted in 1983 of first-degree murder and armed robbery in the death of Katharina Brow. She was found on May 21, 1980, with more than 30 stab wounds, in her mobile home in Ayer. Waters; his girlfriend, Brenda Marsh; and two of her children, one of whom Waters had fathered, had been living in a house behind the mobile home.
 

According to the complaint filed by Betty Anne Waters, her brother had a solid alibi for his whereabouts when the killing occurred: He had been working a night shift at a local diner and then had a court appearance the next morning for an unrelated matter. Ayer police interviewed him after the killing, but filed no charges, and the case remained unsolved for 2 1/2 years.

 

In October 1982, a man who was living with Marsh approached Ayer police and said she told him that Waters had confessed to killing a woman in Ayer, according to the complaint. She also said she had washed Waters’s bloody clothes, he said. Ayer Police Chief Philip L. Connors and Officer Nancy Taylor-Harris interrogated Marsh. Although she initially denied that Waters had anything to do with the killing, Marsh ultimately relented and said he had come home drunk the morning that Brow was killed with a long, deep scratch on his face, according to the complaint. Police arrested Waters, even though officers had examined him after the killing and found no wounds.

The complaint alleged that Waters was indicted based in part on false testimony before a grand jury by Taylor-Harris that fingerprints found at the crime scene were smeared and useless to investigators. In fact, authorities found a bloody fingerprint on a broken toaster and a partial print on a kitchen faucet that was still running when Brow’s body was discovered. Taylor-Harris knew that Waters had been excluded as the source of the prints, the complaint alleged. Waters was convicted by a Middlesex Superior Court jury and sentenced to life in prison.

有人说，人生贵在坚持。我想这句话真是一点都没错。是不是有很多人也和我一样，在一个新学期的开头，信誓旦旦地说我要取得好成绩。第一个月非常好好，第二个月just so so，第三个月开始觉得自己坚持不下去了。于是就在对着老天抱怨说，为什么这个学期过的那么久。可能女主并不是一个很聪明的学生，至少生活上有很大的压力造成她在兼顾家庭和事业上失去了平衡。所以，她才会学业上没有成就，然后连自己的孩子都计划离开自己。其实她也想过放弃。女主也有一段日子没有去上学，也有情绪低落的时候。谁人不是呢，人之常情。如果是你身处于这样一个进退两难的状态，可能很多人都坚持不下来吧。

But she did.
就是传说中的，有志向的人，在付诸于行动上是不会吝啬的。我很感慨，也希望可以成为这样坚强的人。我听说过一句话，如果连你自己都不坚强，那就真的没有人能帮你坚强了。

我或许也是多多少少在学业上遇到了瓶颈。presentation啦essay那些浮云啊成绩不高啦种种。可是真的是相较于女主来说的话，这些困难好像就真的不算得上是那么回事了。我也是个学生，我也在学law。我自然知道essay赶不及deadline的那种恐慌感，我自然知道做presentation时候那种紧迫感，我也自然知道成绩太差或者attendance太低被学校劝退的那种绝望感。人生在摇摆不定和停滞不前的时候最恐怖了，因为它真的是考研一个人意志力的最佳时期。我最近意志力也开始受到各种外界诱惑，我想要真的做到“不以物喜不以己悲”还是需要一定距离的。

所以还在等什么呢。为什么不愿意坚持走下去呢。

加油。

PS：这其实是励志片子。这其实是励志片子。
PS的PS：里头涉及的关于各种law的英文词汇我现在听起来好顺耳啊。o(╯□╰)o