Helen Archer | On 28, May 2024

Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Cast: Patrick McGuinness
Certificate: 15

A couple of years before he started working on The Staircase, which would take up much of the next two decades of his life, French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade made Murder on a Sunday Morning, a feature-length documentary that would go on to win an Oscar. A classic in the true crime genre, it an understated yet extremely powerful look at one murder case which manages to distil the essence of racial injustice at the heart of America’s penal system.

In May 2000, Mary Ann Stephens and her husband, James, were holidaying at a Ramada Inn in Jacksonville, Florida, from their native Georgia. As they walked back to their room after a continental breakfast, they were accosted by a Black man, who demanded Mary Ann’s handbag. As she was fumbling to give it to him, he shot her in the head, killing her instantly, before fleeing. De Lestrade sets the scene within the first two minutes of the film, as shocking stills of Mary Ann’s body flash up to underscore the brutal nature of the crime.

Having received a description of the gunman – a Black male, in his 20s, skinny legs – police called to the scene were discussed how they would find him. “There’s a young Black male there. Could be him, could be anybody,” said one cop to the other. That particular “Black male” was 15-year-old Brenton Butler, who happened to be passing the area on his way to apply for a job at his local Blockbuster. He was bundled into the back of a police car, from where Mary Ann’s traumatised husband made a positive identification. Brenton was taken into police custody, unbeknownst to his parents, interviewed for 12 hours without a lawyer, and then escorted deep into some Floridian woods at twilight by one detective, from which he emerged with facial bruising. During this time, he signed a confession.

Most of these facts are relayed to the viewer by Pat McGuinness, the public defender assigned to the case, in his cool, Floridian drawl, as though he is narrating a Carl Hiaasen novel. Introduced to the viewer as he drives the filmmakers around, an ever-present cigarette in his mouth, in the background original music by Hélène Blazy, he cuts a dapper figure. The rest of the documentary follows his case, in chronological order, as it is investigated and presented to the jury.

Brenton, for much of the documentary, is silent and impenetrable, shackled and in an orange prison jumpsuit, even as his parents visit him in prison, praying with him from behind a glass screen. It is only when his mother takes to the stand, as a witness, that his self-containment crumples, tears flowing down his cheeks as he listens to her describe her worry, her faith in him, and the discussions about re-mortgaging the family home to pay for his defence.

The real highlight of the film comes McGuinness’ masterful takedowns of two of the corrupt detectives who worked on the case, as it is their turn in the witness box. Though a cordial and genial figure throughout, his seething anger at the way in which Brenton was treated – the way in which untold numbers of young black men are treated – by the police force simmers under the surface, as he pulls apart their lies. Indeed, he takes enjoyment in it, and is vocal in interviews about his feelings towards the detectives, “who I do not find to be honourable men.” McGuinness proves himself to be the star of the show, a ray of hope not only to the Butler family, but to the Floridian justice system, which held him in such high regard. De Lestrade captures him in his prime, and doubtless realised he’d struck gold with his subject.

Murder on a Sunday Morning is a must-watch for any appreciator of true crime, and a masterclass in how to do it.

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