Errol Morris, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, made a little movie back in the 1980s called The Thin Blue Line. It’s an investigation of the murder of a Dallas police officer, and its findings led to the release of Randall Dale Adams, who had been wrongly convicted of the crime. Adams came within days of being put to death for something that he didn’t do.
I decided to ask Morris if he’s been following the case of Cameron Todd Willingham (he has) and what it says about our justice system. He said:
My view is that the death penalty encourages mistakes. It’s not just ‘mistakes can happen.’ It engenders them. And Texas, as we all know, has been enthusiastic about the death penalty. Not just in passing new legislation, but in the number of capital murder cases and convictions and death warrants and just in the number of executions.
And he raised an interesting line of argument. To crudely paraphrase it, these capital cases involve horrific tragedies for which the community demands some justice (e.g., a dead cop, or three dead little girls). And because of that, investigators go to extraordinary lengths to find someone that they can punish. Morris’ words again:
If there’s a choice between no case and a case, unfortunately it becomes very easy for the human mind to find justifications for making one decision, one preferred decision, rather than another.
At the last minute on Friday afternoon, Eric Celeste, after a hard day of shooting people with his finger guns, asked me to be his date to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Wyly. Given the glowing review of the play from the fruit of my loins, I jumped at the chance. And if you’ll be so kind as to jump, I’ll share some pics and some thoughts from the night (which included an after party at Jorge’s).
Okay, the story isn’t that interesting. I just wanted to write that headline. Carry on.
I should probably, at this point, have further investigated the various candidates for the District 3 spot on the Dallas ISD school board, since that’s the district in which I vote. I’ve been busy. I’m sorry. But, in a way, I have been paying attention to at least one candidate. His name is Bruce Parrott. I drive past his signs every day. After a month or so of staring at those signs while stopped at this light or that, I’ve come to a conclusion. Based on his name and general appearance, I believe Bruce Parrott to be an anthropomorphic parrot. That’s right. A real bird. I don’t know how it happened, but there it is. I also may be staying up too late.
I don’t know. You tell me if I’m crazy, based on the most recent head shot I could find. It’s after the jump.
(And before you set your comments to “stun” because you’re having a bad Monday and think I’m somehow being racist or xenophobic or something with the headline joke — “Kenyan wins marathon” brings up 3.8 million hits on Google. Its less discriminating cousin “Kenyan marathon” brings up more than 25 million. Kenyans are universally acknowledged for kicking people in the jeans when it comes to running long distances extremely quickly.)
Yesterday the Texas Giant, once the tallest wooden roller-coaster around, roughly jostled its last group of riders. It was 19. Tip of the hat to the Dallas Morning News for running that story across from the obits page. Clever. (And don’t worry — it’s basically coming back in 2011, in some form at least.)
If so, the people who are shooting the TV series The Deep End are looking for you. (After some Googling, I found a synopsis of the show that compares it to Grey’s Anatomy, but set at a law firm.) They’re casting extras daily until Dec. 6. The other qualifications are that you have to be fit, young, and upscale. Check the jump for the details.
An alert FrontBurnervian passed along this video of Mike Snyder getting the Heisman from Newy Scruggs. Listen as Snyder attempts to make smalltalk with him. That’s the definition of a layout. (h/t Liberally Lean)
1. Articles in the DMN for $200, please, Alex: Blogger who, despite workshopping some jokes, failed to write a funny post about Eric Aasen’s Jeopardy-speak filled profile of Terry Linwood, a Plano resident who cleaned up on a recent run on the Alex Trebek-hosted quiz show. Ding! Who is Laura Kostelny?
2. Moving on to matters of church, First Baptist Church of Dallas announced plans to spend $130 million on pumping up its six-block campus. Expect a new sanctuary, state-of-the-art education building, and high-def televisions.
3. In (more) entertainment news. Paranormal Activity was second at the box office this weekend. The movie, which by now you surely know was made for about $11,000, has earned a staggering $84.8 million to date. What’s the Dallas connection? Me. I saw it this weekend. Oh, and star Katie Featherston is an SMU graduate. Someone should write a profile about her using punny demon terms so I can blog about it.