Time Simply Passes (2015)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Simply Passes is a documentary film which premiered in 2015.

 

The topic is the criminal justice system in the US, with special focus on a case of wrongful conviction: the case of James Joseph Richardson, an African American man, who served more than 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Writer, producer, and director: Ty Flowers

** Available on TUBI TV

** Language: English

** Subtitles: English

** Run time: 54 minutes

 

THE CASE

James Joseph Richardson -- born 1935, and the father of seven children -- lived in Arcadia, Florida. In 1967, all his children died. They were poisoned.

 

In 1968, James Richardson was arrested and charged with poisoning his oldest child. He was tried in a court of law where he was found guilty. The sentence was death.

 

He was on death row for four years (1968-1972), but the sentence was not carried out. In 1972, his sentence was converted to life in prison.

 

In 1989, his case was reopened because his lawyer Mark Lane was able to prove that he had not received a fair trial in 1968.

 

The evidence against him had little or no credibility. It was fabricated by the police and introduced into the trial by the prosecutor. It was accepted by the judge and this allowed the jury to find him guilty.

 

The police and prosecutor were under pressure to solve this case. They needed to find a person who could be charged with this horrible crime. They needed to close the case. 

 

James Richardson was chosen. They said he had means, motive and opportunity. They did not look for any other suspect. He was a suitable candidate, who was found guilty and sentenced to death.

 

The prosecutor wanted to be sure that Richardson was convicted for this crime. He had a devious strategy:

 

He did not charge him with the murder of seven children. He only charged him with the murder of his first child. If he lost the case, he was going to charge him with the murder of his second child. If he lost the case, he was going to charge him with the murder of his third child. He was prepared to carry on like this until he got a conviction.

 

In 1989, having served more than 20 years in prison, Richardson was granted a second trial. Having heard all the relevant facts, the judge declared that Richardson was innocent and free to go. He was in effect exonerated.

 

In 1989, he was a free man, but he had no job and no home. How was he going to support himself? The authorities released him, but they did not do anything to help him start his life in freedom.

 

At the time, the state of Florida had no legislation to deal with a situation where a prisoner had been the victim of a wrongful conviction.

 

In 2008, the state of Florida introduced a law which offered economic compensation to a prisoner who had been the victim of a wrongful conviction, but the law had many conditions which made it difficult for a former prisoner to get any compensation.

 

According to this law, the prisoner’s innocence must be proved by DNA evidence. 

 

Since his case took place in 1967 and 1968 -- long before DNA testing was available -- Richardson could apply, but his application would be denied.

 

In 2014, the state of Florida introduced a law which offers compensation to a prisoner who has been the victim of a wrongful conviction before 1979 and who is unable to get any other compensation from the state. 

 

This law offers a compensation of 50,000 dollars for each year of wrongful incarceration.

 

Having served 21 years in prison, Richardson should be entitled to a compensation of 1,050,000 dollars.

 

When Richardson applied, his application was accepted, but for a while no money was paid.

 

Apparently, the compensation will not be paid as a lump sum. It will be paid in annual installments of 50,000 dollars. In 2016, more than 25 years after he was released in 1989, he finally received his first check of 50,000 dollars.

 

Today Richardson is more than 80 years old. His health is not good. If his compensation is planned to be paid over 21 years, with an annual rate of 50,000 dollars, it is difficult to see how he can live long enough to receive the full amount.

 

What about the leading members of the criminal justice system in Florida -- the sheriff, the public prosecutor, and the trial judge – who were responsible for this miscarriage of justice? What happened to them? 

 

The answer is nothing.

 

People who work for the criminal justice system in the US are almost never punished for their actions while on the job; not even when they break the rules, because they have what is known as qualified immunity.

 

In addition, there is a statute of limitations on cases of prosecutorial misconduct which runs for five years.

 

Whenever such a case is discovered and proved ten or twenty years after the fact, as is often the case, it is far too late to do anything about it.

 

In this film, the story of the case is told in great detail. There are interviews with people who followed his case over the years and who tried to help him. 

 

Archive footage is used extensively to tell the story of his case. Clippings of newspaper articles are shown to illustrate how this case was reported by the media.

 

RATINGS AND REVIEWS

What do reviewers say about this film? On IMDb it has a rating of 75 percent, which corresponds to a rating of 3.8 stars on Amazon. 

 

There are seven user reviews on IMDb. Here are the headlines and the ratings:

 

100 = No humanity in the human condition

100 = What a good movie

100 = See how our judicial system works against us. Must see

90 = A moving documentary about injustice

80 = Crazy story!

 

Two reviews offer no specific rating, but both are positive. Here are the headlines:

 

** A real injustice

** A very sad story that needs to be known

 

As you can see, these reviews offer a rating which is higher than the average rating on the website.

 

On Amazon there are at the moment 35 ratings, 33 with reviews. The average rating is 4.6 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 92 percent.

 

Here are the details:

 

5 stars = 71 percent

4 stars = 20 percent

3 stars = 9 percent

2 stars = 0 percent

1 star = 0 percent

 

Here are the headlines of some five-star reviews:

 

** Elite injustice documentary

** A film about how far and how long government will go to keep an innocent man down

** A moving documentary about injustice

** Very well researched documentary

** An easy 5-star rating

 

CONCLUSION

What do I think about it? In my opinion, this is an important film about an important topic.

 

I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

REFERENCES

 

# 1. Documentary films

 

** The Thin Blue Line (1988)

 

** Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001)

 

** After Innocence (2005)

 

** The Trials of Darryl Hunt (2006)

 

** The Confessions (2010)

 

** The Central Park Five (2012)

 

** An Unreal Dream (2013)

 

** A Murder in the Park (2014)

 

** Crown Heights (2017)

 

# 2. Historical dramas

 

** Call Northside 777 (1948)

 

** The Hurricane (1999)

 

** Conviction (2010)

 

# 3. Books

 

** Convicted but Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy by C. Ronald Huff, Arye Rattner and Edward Sagarin (1996)

 

** Wrongful Convictions and Miscarriages of Justice by C. Ronald Huff and Martin Killias (2013)

 

** Wrongful Conviction and Criminal Justice Reform by Marvin Zalman and Julia Carrano (2013)

 

** Wrongful Convictions: True Murder Cases -- Unbelievable Miscarriages of Justice by Jack Smith (2015)

 

** Arcadia Revisited: The Story of James Joseph Richardson by Mark Lane (2015)

 

** Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution by Daniel S. Medwed (2017)

 

** Wrongful Convictions by Micheal Poncelet (2019)

 

** Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions by Mark Godsey (2019)

 

*****

 

 

James Richardson

 

A mugshot from 1968

 

*****

 

 

 

 James Richardson

 

After his release in 1989

 

*****

Arcadia Revisited:

The Story of James Joseph Richardson

 

By Mark Lane

(2015)

 

*****

 

On this blog:

 

Reviews of 

seven documentary films and

two historical dramas about

wrongful convictions

 

Posted in September 2020

 

 

*****

The War at Home (Part One): Rebellion (2020)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The War at Home (Part One) Rebellion is a documentary film which premiered in 2020.

 

The topic is the untold history of class war in the United States.

 

Part One covers the time from 1886 to 1937.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Writer and director: Scott Noble

** Narrator: Mikela Jay

** Available on Films for Action

** Available on YouTube

** Subtitles: sadly, not available

** Run time: 104 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Andrew Cornell – author of Unruly Equality: US Anarchism in the 20th Century (2016)

 

** Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz – a historian

 

** Julie Green – a labor historian

 

** Graeme MacQueen – co-founder of Center for Peace Studies

 

** Peter Rachleff – a labor historian

 

** Lance Selfa – author of The Democrats: A Critical History (2008)

 

** Christopher Simpson – author of The Science of Coercion (2015)

 

Archive footage (clips, photos, and drawings) is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the talking heads. Archive footage is used while the narrator is talking.

 

Several cases are presented and discussed in this film, including the following:

 

** The Haymarket Affair

(4 May 1886)

 

** The Pullman Railroad Strike

(11 May – 20 July 1894)

 

** The Lattimer Massacre

(10 September 1897)

 

** The Lawrence Textile Strike

(1 January – 12 March 1912)

 

** The Ludlow Massacre

(20 April 1914)

(An on-screen-message says this was in 1912) (The narrator says this was in 1914, which is correct)

 

** The San Franscisco Preparedness Day Bombing

(22 July 1916)

 

** United States Anarchist Bombings

(April – June 1919)

 

** The Battle of Blair Mountain

(25 August – 2 September 1921)

 

** The Crash of the Stock Market

(1929)

 

** Massive strikes

(1934)

 

** The Sit-Down Strike in Flint, Michigan

(30 December 1936 – 11 February 1937)

 

Several organizations are presented in the film, including the following

 

** The Knights of Labor

Founded in 1869

 

** The American Federation of Labor (AFL)

Founded in 1886

 

** The Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.)

(Members of this organization were known as the Wobblies)

Founded in 1905

 

** Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

Founded in 1935

 

Several labor organizers and political activists are presented in the film, including the anarchist Emma Goldman.

 

While her tombstone is shown, the narrator explains that Emma Goldman died in 1940, which is correct.

 

Unfortunately, the dates written on the tombstone are wrong:

 

The date of birth – on the stone = 29 June 1869

** The correct date is 27 June 1869

The date of death – on the stone = 14 May 1939

** The correct date is 14 May 1940

 

♣♣♣♣♣

 

When we watch this film, we can understand why there is no workers movement in America; no socialism; no socialist party; not even a social democratic party.

 

When the question is asked, the standard explanation is that no Americans like socialism. But when we watch this film, we can see that the standard explanation is not true.

 

Back in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, some Americans wanted some kind of socialism. In fact, many ordinary Americans believed that some kind of socialism would offer them a better life than the one they had under capitalism.

 

They acted on their belief. They tried to build trade unions; they tried to build a socialist party, but they did not get very far before they were stopped.

 

The corporations were not happy about trade unions. But after a while they learned how to live with them and how to deal with them.

 

Most trade unions were for white men and for skilled workers only. People of colour were not welcome. Unskilled workers were not welcome.

 

Women were not welcome.

 

Women of colour were absolutely not welcome.

 

The corporations were prepared to accept that members of one trade union (white men and skilled workers) got what they demanded, as long as all the others did not get anything.

 

The corporations learned how to set one group against another group. Men against women; white men against people of colour; skilled workers against unskilled workers.

 

This tactic is old. It was invented by the Romans in antiquity. It is called Divide and Rule.

 

In Latin:

 

Divide et impera!

 

This tactic did not work against Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), which was the most radical union in the history of the US.

 

What was so radical about this union?

 

It was open for all workers. White people and people of colour. Men and women. Skilled workers and unskilled workers.

 

The leaders of the I.W.W. wanted to build one big union. They believed this was the only way to build a union which was able to stand up against the private corporations and the government.

 

In this film, we see how the corporations and the government waged war against the workers. How they made sure that trade unions were unable to protect their members and defend their interests.

 

Since the corporations and the government were unable to stop the development of a workers movement with peaceful and legal methods, they decided to use violence and illegal methods.

 

The methods used against the Wooblies were especially harsh. Perhaps because this union was regarded as a serious threat to the establishment.

 

In this film, we see how the beginnings of a socialist movement in the US were crushed by the corporations and the government.

 

Being a socialist worker was dangerous; being a member of a trade union was dangerous. The corporations spied on the workers. Members were identified and fired. Trade union organizers were identified and attacked.

 

The corporations and the government had two goals:

 

** The primary goal was to scare the people who were involved in a socialist movement.

** The secondary goal was to scare others from becoming involved when they saw how bad things happened to those who were involved.

 

For the corporations and the government, the campaign against trade unions and their socialist ideas was a war; a constant war. This film shows us how this war managed to create an America in which there is no socialism, “because no Americans like socialism.”

 

♣♣♣♣♣

 

What do reviewers say about this film?

 

It is listed on IMDb, but there is no rating and there are no customer reviews.

 

Top Documentary Films has a rating of 76 percent, which corresponds to a rating of 3.8 stars on Amazon.

 

Mickey Duff posted a long and detailed review of the film on the Project Censored website (17 March 2021).

 

This review, which is very positive, is also posted on CounterPunch (22 March 2021).

 

What do I think about it? I think it is a powerful document about an important topic. The stories which are covered in this film are not well-known by the public. They deserve to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

PS # 1. The War at Home (Part Two) Blacklist premiered in 2021. Run time = 119 minutes.

 

PS # 2. Scott Noble is the director of several documentary films, including Plutocracy, which was released in five installments over a period of five years (2015-2019).

 

REFERENCES

 

# 1. The Haymarket Affair (1886)

** The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich (1984)

** Death in the Haymarket by James R. Green (2006)

 

# 2. The Pullman Strike (1894)

** The Edge of Anarchy: Railroad Barons, The Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America by Jack Kelly (2019)

 

# 3. The Lattimer Massacre (1897)

** The Guns of Lattimer by Michael Novak (1996) (2018)

** The Lattimer Massacre Trial by Pasco L. Schiavo (2015)

 

# 4. The Lawrence Strike (1912)

** Lawrence and the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike by Robert Forrant and Susan Grabski (2013)

 

# 5. The Ludlow Massacre (1914)

** Legacy of the Ludlow Massacre: A Chapter in American Industrial Relations by H. Gitelman (1988)

** The Ludlow Massacre: Labor Struggle and Historical Memory in Southern Colorado by M. Walker (1999)

 

# 6. The San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing (1916)

** Frame-Up! The Incredible Case of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings by Curt Gentry (1967)

** The Mooney Case by Richard H. Frost (1968)

 

# 7. The History of Class War in the US

** A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn (1980) (2003) (2009)

 ** Revolts, Protests, Demonstrations, and Rebellions in American History: An Encyclopedia edited by Steven L. Danver (2010) (1,138 pages) (three volumes)

** A History of America in Ten Strikes by Eric Loomis (2018)

 

*****