Confessions, executions and bombs

I had to finish watching the abortion movie this morning.  Nothing like dismembered fetus parts first thing in the morning to really get you moving!

Second I watched Frontline: The Confessions which explains the case of the “Norfolk Four” who were four men who were browbeat into confessing to gang rape and murder, even though their DNA didn’t match and the person who actually committed the crime said over and over he did it alone.  Sigh.  It’s amazing how people don’t understand why someone would falsely confess…I get it.  I know that I would say whatever someone wanted to hear if they had me in a room annoying me for eight hours. 

Next up is Sacco & Vanzetti was a famous case of two men being convicted of murder when there was no real case against them.  The two men were Italian anarchists and they were not given most of the rights that are supposed to be given to people in American courts.  They were branded as Communists (kinda like if you get called a Muslim now) and convicted and sent to death, and the conviction was based almost completely on false evidence and racism.  Granted, it took place right after World War I, but it still happens now.  The jury foreman’s friend stated that he thought that they might be innocent, and the foremen replied “doesn’t matter, we should hang them anyway”. 

To Die in Jerusalem is about two young girls killed in a suicide bombing in Israel.  They look very similar, but one of them is the suicide bomber, and one a victim.  This movie is very sad, talking to both parents and friends of the bomber and the victim.  Their injuries were mirror imaged, and their faces look so similar that when one father was looking at a picture of the two girls, he pointed out the wrong one as his daughter.  As you see both families struggling to understand the death of their child, you can see why there is such a struggle for peace.  There is no communication, no way for the two sides to see anything but the ugly of the other side, and it is depressing. Something as simple as two people having coffee, two people who live 30 miles apart, but separated by ideology and borders, takes 4 years for them to finally meet, and then only via satellite.  Even during this opportunity for the two mothers to come together, they couldn’t find any common ground.