An Interview With Oscar-Winner Errol Morris, Author of 'A Wilderness of Error'

Christopher Danzig talks with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris, who wrote a new book about the famous Jeffrey MacDonald murder case.

Here’s what Morris said when we chatted last week:

When I call it a wildness of error –- I mean it seriously. Because it’s a [compilation] of things. There was Brady material. But it goes so far beyond all that. To massive suppression of evidence of all kinds. And a manipulation of the trial in such a way that the jury never really got to hear a lot of the evidence.

That’s what so amazing about the story.

I’m not a believer in conspiracies, I should make that clear… I don’t think there was a grand conspiracy about this, but there was a mindset — and this is even more more disturbing, and in some ways even more pernicious. Once they believed Jeffrey MacDonald was guilty — probably within hours of the crime — they stopped looking for certain kinds of evidence.

So why and how does this sort of injustice occur? Morris is hesitant to generalize, but he supposes it comes from a basic human need to know (I need to know! ‘Cause I don’t know how loooong, I can hold onnnn… If you’re makin’ me waaaiiit….):

The question of how and why it happens is a really interesting question. And it doesn’t have a simple answer. Usually its the need to come to some kind of conclusion. And we all share that. People don’t like ambiguity much. They like like closure. One of the things the legal system tries to give us is closure. Somewhat of a decision, a good or bad one — a decision has been made.

Part of my aggravation with this case — and I am aggravated — is everybody knows you can make mistakes in legal proceedings.

Morris tells a story about when Mitt Romney was still governor of Massachusetts and legislation had been proposed to reinstate the death penalty. Over various concerns about executing innocent men, Romney said something along the lines of, “Well, let’s just make the law fool proof.” This mindset doesn’t sit well with Morris:

That’s the problem! Nothing is fool proof! Errors are constantly made by people. People make mistakes!

Within the last 15-20 years, the courts have moved to restrict appellate review, so that protections we have to prevent error and false conviction have been removed.

That’s wrong. I’ll use a moral word here: that’s wrong.

For better or worse, MacDonald has earned a new evidence hearing, which is scheduled for next week. Morris isn’t confident about the results, but at least one can hope for the best, and believe it’s a step in the right direction.

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A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald [Amazon (affiliate link)]
Errol Morris Takes on the Jeffrey MacDonald Case [The Atlantic]
Prying Open a Cold Case [New York Times]

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