The System with Joe Berlinger
In this groundbreaking new series airing on Al Jazeera America, The System with Joe Berlinger, award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger explores the state of our justice system. Berlinger personally guides us through a suspenseful journey as he doggedly searches for the truth where others have not found it or didn't care to look. Every episode explores one of the most pressing issues of the criminal justice system - flawed forensics, faulty eyewitness testimony, juvenile justice, prosecutorial misconduct, mandatory sentencing, among others - through the lens of controversial and dramatic cases that both distill the issues and speak to their larger implications for the system and society itself.
- 2014-2014
- 1 season
- Al Jazeera America
- Documentary
In this groundbreaking new series airing on Al Jazeera America, The System with Joe Berlinger, award-winning documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger explores the state of our justice system. Berlinger personally guides us through a suspenseful journey as he doggedly searches for the truth where others have not found it or didn't care to look. Every episode explores one of the most pressing issues of the criminal justice system - flawed forensics, faulty eyewitness testimony, juvenile justice, prosecutorial misconduct, mandatory sentencing, among others - through the lens of controversial and dramatic cases that both distill the issues and speak to their larger implications for the system and society itself.
Season 1 Episode Guide
8 Episodes 2014
Episode 1
False Confessions
Sun, May 18, 2014
Las Vegas detectives find a homeless man stabbed to death and a teenage girl confesses to the salacious crime. In NY, a high school girl is brutally raped and murdered and one of her classmates confesses. But what if both suspects are innocent? Who would confess to a crime that they didn't commit? In this episode we'll look at two cases where convictions were reached almost entirely on the suspect's confession and explore whether the system got it right.
Episode 2
Mandatory Sentencing
Sun, May 25, 2014
In this episode, Joe Berlinger explores the effectiveness and justness of mandatory sentencing in a current climate that preaches reform. In Florida, the unintended consequences of mandatory minimum gun laws seem to outweigh its merits as a father is sent to prison for 20 years for "defending his family." While in Illinois, politicians carefully craft a tough-on-crime bill inspired by the death of a promising honor student that may offer relief to a community plagued by escalating gun violence.
Episode 3
Flawed Forensics
Sun, Jun 1, 2014
Nearly 20 years later, the fates of two men are still entangled in the FBI's faulty hair analysis from all those years ago. Both men were found guilty of multiple murders and now one is on the outside, recently released and waiting for a retrial, while the other, after coming within hours of actual execution, is hoping that long-awaited DNA testing will finally prove his innocence.
Episode 4
Eyewitness Identification
Sun, Jun 8, 2014
In this episode, we'll explore how the system is grappling with emerging insights into eyewitness science. In Dallas, a man is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. The prosecutors relied on eyewitness testimony to convict him. In New Orleans, another man sits in prison convicted of murdering his best friend during a botched armed robbery in 1985. There was no physical evidence tying the suspect to the scene, but two eyewitnesses picked the suspect out of a six-pack photo lineup - a practice that has now been discredited.
Episode 5
Parole: High Risks, High Rewards
Sun, Jun 15, 2014
In Massachusetts, aftermath from a senseless cop-killing led Governor Deval Patrick to clean house at the state's parole board. In Connecticut, a Cheshire home invasion that resulted in the slaying of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her two daughters by two parolees led to the revamping of its entire system.
Episode 6
Juvenile Justice
Sun, Jun 22, 2014 46 mins
In this episode we take a look at the issue of juvenile sentencing, and consider two compelling cases in Michigan that raise the question of whether children convicted of murder should be subjected to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A battle is now waging to decide how to sentence juvenile killers, and what to do with the more than 360 juvenile lifers already sentenced to die in the state's prisons.
Episode 7
Geography of Punishment
Sun, Jun 29, 2014
Crime rates of previous decades continue to have a large impact on how the criminal justice system functions today. Proactive policing strategies such as "drug-free zone" laws and "stop-and frisk" were implemented with the best of intentions, but critics say they are not working, and are in fact causing more hardship - for the community and the state's taxpayers - filling up prisons and infringing on civil rights. What can be done to repair the public's trust in the system?
Episode 8
Prosecutorial Misconduct
Sun, Jul 6, 2014 46 mins
The sixth amendment to the US Constitution guarantees every American the right to a speedy and public trial before an impartial jury, and the right to a defense attorney. What the sixth amendment doesn't lay out are rules for law enforcement and prosecution. What happens when these officials face intense pressure to close cases and get convictions in a time of rampant violent crime? What systems are in place to make sure these guardians of justice aren't cutting corners, railroading suspects through a criminal justice system that's set up to heavily favor the "good guys?"