Sin City Law Felons and Lawyering in Las Vegas The just-the-fac

Sin City Law Felons and Lawyering in Las Vegas
The just-the-facts, by-the-books law enforcers of any of Dick Wolf’s “Law and Order dvd” episodes offer the promise that all crimes are soluble so long as good people do their jobs. The legal eagles of “The Practice,” released from David E. Kelley’s imagination, offer more histrionics than methodology, and justice gets reduced to a personality contest.
The truth is somewhere in between, and rarely more memorable than as rendered in “Sin City Law,” a Sundance Channel documentary series set in las vegas box set and beginning tonight.
On each of four consecutive Mondays a pair of hourlong episodes chronicles a grisly homicide complicated by the lawless, lurid abandon for which the city is known. A team of French filmmakers, led by the producer Denis Poncet and the director Jean-Xavier De Lestrade, focuses not only on those ensnared by their own misdeeds but also on the prosecutors and public defenders. The lawyers don’t come off as robots or freak shows. They’re simply adversaries whose skill, compassion and sacrifice forge a resolution — whether plea deal, guilty verdict or exoneration.
In these filmmakers’ “Murder on a Sunday Morning,” which won a 2001 Academy Award for best documentary, a public defender in Jacksonville, Fla., representing an accused Alias seasons dvd teenager pushes forward in Sisyphean increments. Sundance presented their next project, “The Staircase,” which unspools over six hours and documents the legal defense of a wealthy North Carolina author, accused of bludgeoning his wife to death. Sundance is rerunning both productions, and they are among the most gripping, troubling considerations of right and wrong ever televised.
“Sin City Law” continues in this vein, perfectly in keeping with the team’s respect for procedure and sense of suspense but with fewer twists and quieter grace notes. Never does the viewer feel manipulated, nor do the players appear prodded to give heightened versions of who they are. Even so, this is the era of reality television — or just past it — and no one shies away from the occasional flourish.
A murder suspect arrives in a holding cell with tweezed eyebrows and her hair in double buns. A platinum-blond prosecutor punctuates a silent doubt with a hair toss. A public defender with studly sideburns offers a flirty comment and a wink. It’s just part of a courthouse culture in which all parties concentrate on the nuances of self-presentation.
“Sin City Law” has one indubitable star, and the term shouldn’t detract from her dedication to civic duties. Alzora Jackson is a public defender examining the murk of what happened in Space 33 of the Casablanca RV Park in Mesquite, Nev. One bad night there started with a kitchen knife and some crystal meth and ended with two young children, one injured and one dead. The brother and sister accused of the murder were not much older than the victims.
Ms. Jackson clearly aches for all involved but is oddly, deliberately upbeat. She confronts ornery prison guards with a compliment and a wide grin. She is sweetly indomitable in plea negotiations with prosecutors who have deeper reserves of public resources and public support. She opines movingly to local news crews, knowing they’ll never run her words of wisdom and only await a gaffe or an outburst.
Ms. Jackson engages in legal brinkmanship without ever descending to anything unseemly. But when the case is resolved, she finds it hard to move on, even though she will likely have another grim character awaiting her help down the docket.
“Some people have the ability to cope from things, and others don’t,” she says, talking about a client whose mother signed cards with “Hail Satan,” whose father was in and out of jail, whose Uncle Pokie earned his nickname through cruel abuse. “And those are the ones who are my clients.”
“Sin City Law” is a breakthrough for these filmmakers in that they also gain entry to prosecutorial ranks, giving viewers extra insight into courtroom proceedings. All the lawyers’ personalities are too intricately drawn to summarize. But even without a narrator drumming home any conclusions, there is a recurring pattern of prosecutors tending toward the smug, suspicious and unyielding, while the outmatched defenders slow any rush to justice with world-weary determination. Foibles are evenly distributed.
One prosecutor, Summer Tanasi, is also a sore winner who can’t believe her public-defender adversary really thought she had a chance. After all, she gossips with another prosecutor, doesn’t signing up to defend a perp generally mean signing up to lose? It’s as if the public defender joined the wrong sorority.
In contrast Ms. Jackson, when she takes a break from the convicts, leaves this realm entirely, raising her voice in a gospel choir. She memorably demonstrates the series’s larger The 67th Annual Golden Globes box set disney movies are children’s favorite show and COLD CASE dvd is good show about men,Two and a Half Men dvd my favorite show is Two and a Half Men dvd The 67th Annual Golden Globes welcomed Ricky Gervais as host at a gala at the Beverly Hills Hilton, and it wasn´t long into his opening monologue before NBC COLD CASE dvd show is the best populor show on tv box set disney movies brass were doubtless holding their breath, hoping that jokes about his penis and its relative size didn´t go too far. Too late. But things settled down and the winners, true to tradition, were full of emotion and impromptu remarks. The most unusual thank-you went out to Jeff Bridges´ Mad Men Season dvd longtime stand-in, Lloyd, and perhaps the funniest acceptance speech came from surprise winner Robert Downey, Jr., who did a "no thanks" speech instead. As for biggest surprise winner, that would be las vegas box set"The Hangover," for Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical. House MD dvd and the pop king Michael Jackson ultimate collection music, cds The Beatles Collection dvds is also classical music. las vegas dvd series is a tv show about the city One Tree Hill dvd is suit for students in college love One Tree Hill dvd
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message: You don’t have to be sanctimonious to hold something like justice sacred.
SIN CITY LAW
Sundance, tonight at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8 Central time.
Denis Poncet and Jean-Xavier De Lestrade, producers; Rémy Burkel, director; Maha Productions for the Sundance Channel.