PART OF THE APPEAL OF TRUE-CRIME DOCUMENTARIES is their ability to turn viewers into armchair sleuths and jury members. One minute you’re donning your deerstalker hat and embracing your inner Sherlock Holmes, dissecting the who and how of a crime, and the next minute you’re sitting yourself down in the jury box, forming a judgment of guilt or innocence based on the testimonies of witnesses. What audiences often neglect to question, though, is who gets to be considered the authoritative voice in the courtroom, and how the very framing of the question—guilty or not guilty—leads the jury down a particular path.
In Sherien Barsoum’s riveting new documentary , a criminal justice system that gives more consideration to certain professionals than it does to members of minority communities is put on trial. “That is a central question for me…Whose voices do we believe?
