Documentary screening: “The Trials of Darryl Hunt”

USC Law will host a preview screening of award-winning documentary “The Trials of Darryl Hunt” Monday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m. in Room 3.

The film chronicles the personal story of Daryl Hunt, a black man who was wrongfully convicted by an all-white jury in 1984 for the rape and murder of a white woman in North Carolina. Hunt was cleared by DNA analysis after 10 years in prison but was not freed for another 10 years, following an exhaustive legal battle.

Hunt, along with his defense attorney Mark Rabil, will participate in a question-and-answer session after the screening. A cheese and wine reception will follow.

Professor of Law and Psychology Dan Simon – who teaches a wrongful convictions seminar at USC Law and is writing a book on the subject – saw parts of the film at a conference.

“The film very powerfully depicts how easily a criminal case can go wrong and how much inertia that error can accumulate,” said Simon. “Undoing these kinds of errors requires a monumental effort. The film demonstrates that law isn’t an abstract process, but a very worldly one: Prosecutions are tied in with politics, with the personas of the people involved, with community pressures.”

As a result of Hunt’s case, North Carolina’s criminal justice system has undergone major reforms and is currently the most attuned jurisdiction to wrongful convictions, Simon said.

“Many mistakes of this nature have occurred elsewhere and will rarely be detected and corrected,” he said. “And mistakes like this continue to occur.”

The film, by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and has received 13 Best Documentary and Audience Awards at film festivals to date. It will air on HBO in April 2007.

The screening event is presented by the Student Bar Association, the Review of Law and Social Justice and ZdC, a graduate student group of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, in association with Cinematheque108, an alternative screening series.

For more information, visit www.breakthrufilms.org or view the event flyer here.