Movie Review: Conviction

By Nancy Hablutzel Phil and Nancy Hablutzel and Latham Williams were privileged to represent the ISBA at a pre-screening event for the new film "Conviction" due to be released on October 22, 2010. The film tells the true story of Betty Anne Waters, a high school dropout and mother of two boys, whose older brother, Kenny, was convicted of murder in 1982 in Massachusetts. Betty Anne was positive that he was innocent, and put herself through college and law school over the next 16 years, in order to be able to represent him and win his freedom, supporting herself by tending bar in a nearby pub. The film, starring Hilary Swank as Betty Anne, follows her through school, as a working mother under considerable stress, and finally to the time when she and her law school classmate Abra Rice (played by Minnie Driver) and who is now in real life an assistant public defender in Connecticut, are working on freeing Kenny. Working with Barry Shreck and the Innocence Project, they are able to finally track down the evidence from the original trial and have DNA tests done, which eliminate Kenny as a suspect and lead eventually to his freedom. In the end, they are able to show that Kenny was framed by a vicious police officer, who had persuaded some of the major trial witnesses to perjure themselves. Sam Rockwell plays the role of Kenny. In a Q and A session following the screening, the real Betty Anne took questions from the audience. Asked how it happened that the evidence had been preserved all those years, her answer was "pure luck." She said that Kenny, after 18 years in prison, had the best 6 months of his life before dying tragically in an accident. She still manages the pub, and does pro bono work for the Innocence Project. The day after the pre-screening, Phil and Latham obtained a private interview with Betty Anne Waters and the director, Tom Goldwyn (see picture). They learned that in almost every instance, the movie used the real names of the persons involved. When attorneys see the film and think that the defense counsel at trial could have done a better job, the real Betty Anne agrees. This movie is very well done, quite true to the facts, and well worth a few hours of your time. If you ever had any doubts about the value of the work being done to free those who were wrongfully convicted, or even whether (as some have said) there really are wrongful convictions, this movie will make you a believer.