This argument is made with an acknowledgment that Butler's confession did not meet the formal requirements of the declaration against penal interest exception to the hearsay rule. During the investigation of a shooting death outside a motel in 2000, police arrested 15-year-old Brenton Butler and charged him with the murder. A grand jury determined that there had been no "criminal wrongdoing" on the part of the city, but changes to the department's interrogation policy were instituted. The incident could have been worse then what it was., Machine Gun McGurn had what became called a blonde alibi he had been at a hotel with his blonde girlfriend from 9 p.m. on February 13 through 3p.m. He added that he also recognized Curtis by his face. He remained in the county jail until the Curtis trial. En la serie 'Seven Seconds', la muerte de un joven afroamericano de 15 aos en Jersey City suscita un encubrimiento policial y una bsqueda desesperada de la verdad. 1001, 1009 (N.D.Ill.1997). TV dramas don't get much timelier than Seven Seconds. 1038. It did not help him that Florida generally recognizes an exception for declarations against penal interest, because the exception could not be employed under the facts of his case.
While the national law for post-birth abortion is legal and binding, the law may not be legal under United Nations international treaties and statutes. For these reasons, we reverse the convictions and remand the case for a new trial. Before Curtis' trial, the state moved to exclude the evidence that Brenton Butler had confessed to the crimes. Curtis presented evidence that Mr. Stephens had identified Butler, and the state countered that evidence by providing an alibi for Butler. Mr. Stephens testified that the crimes were committed on the morning of May 7, 2000, as he and his wife were walking back to their motel room after breakfast. The state argued that Butler's confession was not admissible as a declaration against penal interest because he was available to testify. Bryant questioned Curtis about Williams' statement, and Curtis generally admitted to Bryant that he had committed a robbery. Documentary Crime Oscar-winning documentary that documents a murder trial in which a 15-year-old African-American is wrongfully accused of a 2000 murder in Jacksonville, Florida. He told the officers that he had kept the money and that he had placed the purse with the gun inside it on a truck in traffic. Brenton is a very friendly and talented barber. Mr. Stephens described the assailant as a young black man wearing cut off jeans and sneakers in two or three colors of blue. [2] The Butler case figured into the new trial; the judge allowed Curtis' lawyers to discuss the eye-witness identification, but ruled that Florida's evidence laws forbade them from using Butler's confession. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Butler subsequently confessed to the crime, and the case went to trial. Brenton's father, Andre, testified that he had heard Brenton playing music in his room on the morning of May 7, 2000, and that he was there until about 10:25 a.m., when he and his wife went to church. [1] Mary Ann Stephens was shot in the head in front of her husband and the killer fled. [1] Butler was brought to the victim's husband, who identified him as the killer. We conclude that the trial court erred in excluding evidence that another person had confessed to the crime. Later that day, Brenton Butler, a black male who was walking back from applying for ajob at blockbusters was accused and arrested for this crime. Brenton Butler, Basketball Player The National Institute of Justice sampled 28 cases in which the people convicted of a crime were later released based on DNA evidence. The film Murder On A Sunday Morning, a documentary about Butler's arrest and the trial that followed, was released only a year later, and addressed how public opinion impacted the case. Brent Butler is on Facebook. A statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate the accused is inadmissible, unless corroborating circumstances show the trustworthiness of the statement. ``It was a poor piece of work,'' Gordon said of the case. Later McDonald repudiated these confessions. Then the police should learn how and when to draw the line, when they are tested to their limits., Also, Patriot Act gave the FBI to increase entitled to spy on people which strip human rights. When 15-year-old black cyclist Brenton Butler dies in a hit-and-run accident -- with a white police officer behind the wheel of the vehicle -- Jersey City explodes with racial tension. It tells a story that we know far too well: a young black man is out walking and the police frame . [5] The documentary follows Butler's defense team as they build their case for his innocence. The officers failed to inform Butler's family upon his arrest and interrogated him privately without a parent or lawyer present. Jax Teen Acquitted Of Murder Arrested In Indiana, Teen Falsely Accused Of Murder Writes Book About Ordeal, Officers' Discipline In Butler Case Overturned, Internal Affairs: Suspend 3 Officers In Butler Case, Falsely Accused Teen Sues For $8.5 Million, Grand Jury To Hold Off On Decision In Butler Case, Shorstein, Glover Apologize To 'Wrongly Accused' Teen. Butler confessed to police officers, knowing that they were not there to help him and with full knowledge of the consequences. Brenton is the son of a middle-aged, middle-class black couple: his mother Latrice (King) works at a private school full of snotty white kids; his father Isaiah sweeps blood at a slaughterhouse. Harper (Clare-Hope Ashitey) and detective Joe "Fish" Rinaldi (Michael Mosley) are left. Absolutely. He also explained that the $91 in cash Brenton had in his possession at the time of his arrest was a payment for his work at a Burger King and that it did not come from the robbery. After he spent months in prison, a jury deliberated less than an hour before acquitting him. Brenton Butler is on Facebook. Butler eventually confessed to the crime, even though the. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The state originally claimed that a juvenile named Brenton Butler had committed the crimes. Mrs. Stephens gave him a mean look and mumbled a racial slur under her breath. That may be what happened here, but there is no indication of it in the record. The trial faced many challenges during the time, it was even considered the Trial of the Century because it caused so much controversy. ``It was a long way from being our best example of what our detectives could do. The wife was shot in the head in front of her husband and the killer fled. O.J. Butler was acquitted by a jury. The police might be liable under international law while they have no liability in the United States. The state also called a jail inmate, William Johnson, who testified that Curtis had told him that he was the one who shot Mrs. Stephens. The email address cannot be subscribed. The victim, Mary Ann Stephens, was shot in the head at point-blank range. This argument misses the point. The Butler case was the subject of the French documentary film Murder on a Sunday Morning, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards in 2001. Brenton Butler was solely charged based on the fact that, an eye witness, Mr. Stephens identified Brenton as the murderer.
(National) by "New York Times Upfront"; News, opinion and commentary General interest Murder Police brutality Personal narratives Updated: 6:42 AM EDT May 27, 2004. At trial, a fingerprint expert testified that the print was made by the defendant Curtis. When the police officers informed him that he had been identified by the victim's husband, he started crying and said, If that's the case, I need a lawyer. Butler asked to speak with the officers again that afternoon, but again he denied that he had committed the offense. It's an embarrassing situation for everybody.''
Undersheriff John Gordon said Friday he recommended a 30-day suspension for Sgt. At FindLaw.com, we pride ourselves on being the number one source of free legal information and resources on the web. The fact that Butler was available to testify and subject to cross-examination by the state supports the argument made here that his confession should have been admitted as a matter of constitutional law. I would have notified the parents of Brenton of his whereabouts before interrogating him. Join Facebook to connect with Brenton Butler and others you may know. Dfendu par Patrick McGuinness, un brillant et pugnace avocat commis d'office . The police, prosecutors, courts, prisons an .more Get A Copy [1] Butler subsequently confessed to the crime, and the case went to trial. Brenton is an English place name and surname. The officer must also decide if the law is so evil that he/she has no choice but to disobey it and accept whatever punishment results from that decision., Miranda was not aware he should be given a lawyer if could not afford one and the right to not self-incriminate. The jurors were also told that Butler filed a lawsuit against the City of Jacksonville alleging that he had been mistreated by the police, and that he was awarded a sum of money as a result of the suit. Netflix provided Bustle the following statement from showrunner Veena Sud: The real Butler's story became fairly well known, having become nationally recognized when it became the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Murder On A Sunday Morning. However, in 2004 appeals court found that the exclusion of the confession denied Curtis' constitutional right to a fair trial, and granted a retrial. Section 90.804(2) provides that a declaration against penal interest is admissible if the declarant is unavailable. Brenton Butler, who was accused of killing a Georgia tourist when he was 15, apparently drove to Indianapolis to see a girl he considers his girlfriend. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. The cops figured they had it solved in record time. In support of this conclusion, the Court listed four factors that supported the reliability of McDonald's confessions: (1) each of the confessions was made spontaneously to a friend shortly after the murder was committed; (2) the confessions were corroborated by other evidence; (3) the confessions truly were statements against McDonald's penal interest; and (4) McDonald was available to testify and could have been cross-examined by counsel for the State. According to Johnson, Curtis said that the woman threw coffee at him, and when the coffee hit his neck, the gun went off. A grisly hit-and-run by a White police officer leaves a Black teenage boy dead, forcing his parents and an attorney to fight a police cover-up for justice in "Seven Seconds," a series that premieres on Netflix today (February 23).According to Netflix, the 10-episode series follows the chain of events stemming from Jersey City Police Department officer Peter Jablonski (Beau Knapp, "The Signal . Though the series revolves around a black teenager by that name and highlights similar flaws in our systems of law and order, Seven Seconds is not based on the real Butler's life. However, it would not be appropriate for us to take into account the news articles written about the case in evaluating Butler's confession. He is a 16 year old African-American on trial for the murder of a drug store owner. BROWNING, J., concurs. The same is true of Butler's confession in this case. See Cunningham v. Peters, 941 F.2d 535, 540 (7th Cir.1991); Rivera v. Director, Dep't of Corrections, 915 F.2d 280, 282 (7th Cir.1990); People v. Kokoraleis, 149 Ill.App.3d 1000, 1020-21, 103 Ill.Dec. He did not identify Curtis as the assailant at that time. Learn more about FindLaws newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. The job took its toll on him," she said. The only thing the jurors did not hear is that Butler had confessed to the crime. Her parents had since sent her to live with relatives in Indiana, hoping to avoid her having any contact with Butler. Police say Butler had been warned repeatedly by school officials and the school resource officer about Delegal said she published it herself after rejections from small publishers who said they liked the story and her writing,but told her they wanted "authentic voices.". The short answer to this potential criticism is that he was already a necessary feature of the trial, given the nature of the defense. In particular, Butler views the Tenth Amendment as a mere tautology, a view which has changed in subsequent cases. Our conclusions are necessarily based on the evidence presented in the record. When asked if he could identify the man who shot his wife, Mr. Stephens said that he could make an identification if he could see the man's legs. McDonald's confessions therefore did not qualify under the exception. Confession As a mother, she couldn't help but think of how much he'd suffered and lost. On May 7, 2000, in the parking lot of . But we could not say that a confession is neutralized merely because it was recanted. Netflix's new crime anthology series Seven Seconds paints a brutal picture of police corruption in its first season, premiering Feb. 23. The woman's traumatized husband identifies him as the killer and, after hours in police custody without a lawyer or notification of his parents, a confused and scared Jason eventually confesses. Indeed, the Florida courts have consistently applied the constitutional analysis in Chambers, despite the exception in section 90.804(2)(c), Florida Statutes, for declarations against penal interest. Its about time," she said. I was right! The girl's parents had obtained a restraining order against Butler. Murder on a Sunday Morning. The book includes new inside informations about the whippings. Those tapes are now routine and relied on during trial.". He also had 6 rebounds, 2 assists. " Murder on a Sunday Morning ", the winner for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Award ceremony, premiered on Home Box Office on March 31st. When the police arrived at the scene, her husband described the man who ran away with her purse - over 6ft tall, 20-25, skinny. The state does not contest this point. The then 15-year-old said he spent hours being interrogated by police, without his parents' knowledge, and eventually confessed after being beaten and threatened. Today, that is now a rule that officers must perform before questioning anyone taken in. 4/2/2002. Alex Murdaugh and his family long dominated the legal scene in his small, rural South Carolina county where the only roads in are two lanes. The Court reasoned that the exclusion of the confessions denied Chambers the right to due process of law, as well as the right to confront the witnesses against him. [1][2], After the case, the State Attorney's Office launched a grand jury investigation into the conduct of the officers and prosecutors, while the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office began an internal affairs investigation. In contrast, Butler's confession was previously offered by the state as evidence against Butler in his own trial. 2023 www.jacksonville.com. SEVEN SECONDS Review: Episode 8-10. "My first thought was, you know, maybe the world is turning a corner. 2. Brenton Butler was accused of allegedly robbing and murdering an elderly woman at a nearby hotel in his hometown Jacksonville, Florida. All of the negatives are from before he took over. During their last meeting of the year Monday night Flowery Branch City Council members approved a 120 day moratorium on cell tower applications. [3] The grand jury investigation criticized the prosecutor and police for their handling of the case but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Although a witness may be impeached in Florida by [a]ny party, including the party calling the witness, pursuant to section 90.608, Florida Statutes, it is still improper under Florida law for a party to call a witness merely as a device to place the impeaching testimony before the jury. For the investigators and the media it's just another messed-up youth, just another wasted life. TermsPrivacyDisclaimerCookiesDo Not Sell My Information, Begin typing to search, use arrow keys to navigate, use enter to select, Stay up-to-date with FindLaw's newsletter for legal professionals. To dismiss this evidence, we would have to assume that Butler not only falsely confessed to murder, but, by some tragic coincidence, he was also mistakenly identified as the killer by an eyewitness to the murder. The end goal of the officers was to arrest a dangerous man and get him off the street, but by not fulfilling a technicality that the man was released and free even after stating everything he was charged for was true. Juan Curtis was the second suspect tried for the robbery and murder of Mary Ann Stephens. All rights reserved. The writers behind Seven Seconds gave us a real ending to the trial involving the tragic death of Brenton Butler and its cover-up. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday entitled Oversight of the Department of Justice, featuring testimony from Attorney General Merrick Garland. Lastly and most importantly, I would have not used violence to reach the outcome that I want. A subsequent grand jury investigation criticized the police handling of the investigation but found no criminal wrongdoing. Brenton Butler was accused for murdering Maryann Stephens who was walking with her husband to their hotel room after breakfast, when he supposedly approached Ms. Stephens and demanded for her purse at gun point, then proceeded to lift his gun and shot her in the face, leaving Mr. Stephens as the eye witness to the crime. At that point, the prosecutor had the defendant Curtis show his legs to the witness and to the jury. Its subject is the Brenton Butler case, a criminal case in which a fifteen-year-old African-American boy was wrongfully accused of murder. Defense lawyers say police are more careful with eyewitnesses than they used to be.