Presumed Guilty (film)

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Presumed Guilty
Directed by Roberto Hernández
Geoffrey Smith
Produced by Layda Negrete, Roberto Hernández, Martha Sosa, Yissel Ibarra
Starring Antonio Zúñiga
Eva Gutiérrez
Rafaél Ramirez Heredia
Editing by Felipe Gomez
Roberto Hernández
Studio Lawyers with Camera;
Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía CONACULTA;
Fondo para la producción cinematográfica (FOPROCINE)
Distributed by Cinépolis
Release date(s)
  • 21 November 2008 (2008-11-21) (Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival)
  • 18 February 2011 (2011-02-18) (Mexico)
Running time 87 minutes
Country Mexico
Language Spanish

Presumed Guilty (Spanish: Presunto Culpable) is a 2008 Mexican film that shows the attempt by two young Mexican attorneys to exonerate a wrongly convicted man by making a documentary. In the process, they expose a judicial system that presumes suspects guilty until proven innocent.

Contents

Plot[edit]

Two lawyers struggle to free a man, Antonio Zúñiga, who has been wrongly convicted by the Mexican judicial system. Zúñiga was arrested on charges of murder and convicted largely on the testimony of one man. However, the man was a close relative of the victim who had no firm evidence against Zúñiga, while the accused produced several witnesses able to place him far from the scene of the crime at the time of the murder. Despite this, Zúñiga was found guilty, and when lawyers Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete learned about his case, they agreed to help him. After it was revealed that the lawyer appointed to represent Zúñiga did not have a valid license to practice law, authorities grudgingly agreed to a new trial, but with the same judge presiding. This judge showed little interest in evidence that Zúñiga was falsely convicted. Battling an arrogant judge, uncooperative witnesses and a legal system riddled with corruption, Hernández and Negrete found that it was easy to prove Zúñiga's innocence, but hard to get the authorities to acknowledge this fact. Presumed Guilty was a selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.

The story of Presumed Guilty was made into an episode of the TV series "P.O.V." that aired on 27 July 2010.

Cast[edit]

  • José Antonio Zúñiga Rodríguez (Antonio Zúñiga, the wrongly convicted man) as himself
  • Eva Gutiérrez (wife of Antonio Zúñiga) as herself
  • Rafaél Ramirez Heredia (Zuñiga's defense lawyer) as himself
  • Roberto Hernández (filmmaker/lawyer) as himself
  • Layda Negrete (filmmaker/lawyer) as herself
  • Hector Palomares (the judge) as himself
  • Maricela Guzman (the prosecutor) as herself
  • Victor Daniel Reyes (witness for the prosecution) as himself
  • Jose Manuel Ortega Saavedra (Detective) as himself

Production[edit]

The film was produced chiefly by Roberto Hernández and Layda Negrete. Hernández and Negrete (LL.M. 1996, M.P.P. 1998) are candidates for PhDs in Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. They are married and have a five-year-old daughter.

Accolades[edit]

Presumed Guilty has received numerous awards and honors, including the following:

Mexican exhibition and banning[edit]

Cinépolis announced that Presumed Guilty would premiere in its movie theaters in Mexico on February 18, 2011.

On March 2, 2011, a Mexican Federal Judge ordered that the exhibition and distribution of the documentary be suspended, on the basis that the main witness for the prosecution had filed an "amparo" for moral damage. The Cinépolis theater chain complied and suspended screenings of the film.

The suspension order was then revoked on March 9, 2011 by a higher court based on Article 6 of the Mexican Constitution which protects the right to free expression. By then, the movie had been widely distributed by street vendors as well as on YouTube.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://www.documentamadrid.com/index.php?change_language=en
  2. ^ http://www.hrw.org/en/iff/new-york
  3. ^ http://humanrightsfilmfestival.ca/2010/03/05/tonights-film-presumed-guilty-with-special-guest-mary-jo-leddy/
  4. ^ http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/
  5. ^ http://www.sandiegored.com/noticias/19367/Provocative-film-Presumed-Guilty-wins-Emmy/
  6. ^ http://www.elgolfo.info/elgolfo/nota/85005-el-documental-presunto-culpable-gana-emmy/

External links[edit]

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