Presumed Guilty (film)

Presumed Guilty Spanish Presunto Culpable is a documentary following Antonio Ziga, a person whom was falsely convicted of crimes. It holds the box office record for documentary in Mexico, previously held by Michael Moores Fahrenheit 911. According to The Economist, this is by far the most successful documentary in Mexicos History. The plot of the film is the attempt by two young Mexican attorneys to exonerate a wrongly convicted man by making a documentary. The film was released theatrically at about the same time the Oscar nominated films such as Black Swan and The Kings Speech were being shown on cinema screens in Mexico. It surpassed both of those films at the box office. The film was televised by Televisa on Channelin the fall of 2011.

Unfortunately, situations like these are more common than one would hope after viewing Presumed Guilty. One woman, Rosa Juilia Leyva Martinez, told the Washington Office on Latin America that she was traveling within Mexico to buy seeds with some people in her town. Unbeknownst to her, she carried one of their bags through the airport that contained heroin. Once arrested, she reported that she was tortured, raped, and forced to sign a confession which sentences her toyears in prison. She was released afteryears. According to the Mexican Ministry of the Interiors 2012 National Survey of the Criminal Justice System, onlyof the Mexicans surveyed had confidence in the justice system. Responders said the main problems were that criminals are not held accountable, the system is corrupt, the judicial process slow, and the service from public servants is poor. Some other startling facts that the documentary display for the viewers are the following 95 of verdicts are convictions 92 of those convictions are not based on physical evidence 78 of inmates are fed by their own families 93 of inmates are never shown arrest warrants 93 of defendants never see a judgeThe story of Presumed Guilty was made into an episode of the TV series P.O.V. that aired onJuly 2010. It subsequently was nominated to three Emmy awards for Best Research Best Documentary and Outstanding Investigative Journalism. ........

Source: Wikipedia