Documentary: Murder on a Sunday Morning

            Murder on a Sunday Morning, is a documentary based on the case "Brendon vs. Florida," which is one of America's most mishandled cases. In this documentary, a 15-year-old African American male named Brendon Butler, was arrested for the murder of a German female tourist named Mary Ann Stevens. The incident took place on May 2001, in Jacksonville, Florida, and was handled in one of the most unprofessional, ill-faith manners ever conceived. For the purpose of this paper, I will focus on the Jacksonville Police's tactics, in getting a "quick case" and the lack of detective work performed, which undermined their possibilities of catching the actual killer. .
             The beginning of the film opens with a German female tourist who has just been murdered. Jacksonville police, put a rush on finding the murderer and came across an African American male named Brendon Butler, whom was immediately detained for questioning because of his skin color. Brendon, who was on his way to a job interview, all of a sudden finds himself being identified as the guilty party, by a grieving husband, while sitting handcuffed in the back of a police vehicle. Without looking any further, the Jacksonville Police Detectives figured they had their man and proceeded to beat, threaten and force Brendon into signing a confession statement.
             There are big differences in what I believe the Jacksonville Police Department did versus what they should have done. Even though the police were under pressure to find a suspect that was African American, there is no excuse for the events that took place in Florida. In the film, it appeared the judicial system and the police detectives were working together to put Mr. Brendon in jail. They needed to find an African American suspect, to close their case and Mr. Brendon fit that description. Instead, of doing proper police work which includes, interviewing and investigating, the Jacksonville Police detectives ended up taking Brendon Butler deep off into the woods for a supposed "weapons search.