The Thin Blue Line

The Thin Blue Line is a brilliant example of documentary film that covers the case of Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted and sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit. The crime: a Dallas police officer who was shot from the window of a stolen car. The car thief and actual killer, David Ray Harris, a juvenile at the time of the murder, fingered Adams in a desperate attempt to shirk responsibility, and the cops ran with it because they could pursue the death penalty on 28-year-old Adams, but not 16-year-old Harris. The protocol the police and members of the justice system follow is downright confounding, based upon blind reliance upon gut instinct to determine how to proceed in building the case, systematically making excuses for the real killer, and overt manipulation of evidence and testimony at trial. Particularly ridiculous was the psychiatric evaluation that was used to determine that he was a menace to society and should receive the death penalty, which sheds light on th... Read more