There’s been a boom over the last five years or so in the popularity of “true crime” documentaries and podcasts such as “Making a Murderer” and “Serial” that frequently take a murder case committed in relatively recent history and present evidence that overwhelmingly indicates the person convicted for the murder was falsely accused, often as a result of the corruption and/or bigotry of the investigating local police. Patrick Forbes’ The Phantom is yet another new entrant to an already swelling sub-genre, but it doesn’t really contribute anything new to the scene, either in terms of content or documentary technique.
The film tells the story of Carlos DeLuna, a 20-year-old Hispanic-American man who was arrested for murdering convenience store employee Wanda Lopez in the course of an armed robbery in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1983. He was arrested by police running away from the crime scene as a man fitting the description of the robber Lopez gave on a 911 call as she gave the robber money from the cash register. Forbes interviews various police, lawyers and journalists who dealt with the case at the time.
He makes the case that DeLuna was merely passing by the convenience store when the robbery happened, got scared by what he saw and ran away from it, and that the robbery was actually committed by Carlos Hernandez, a man to whom DeLuna bore a strong resemblance and who various interviewees say had a track record for violence towards women and had previously bragged to various associates about planning to murder Lopez. It is also claimed in the film that the police investigation was flawed due to officers’ lack of interest in conducting a rigorous examination of what happened in a case wherein the victim was poor and Hispanic and the main suspect was poor and Hispanic.
Interviewees suggest the police may also have turned a blind eye to evidence indicating Hernandez’s guilt because he was an informant for them. The film informs viewers that none of this made any difference to the investigation and DeLuna was found guilty of Lopez’s murder, then executed for it in 1989.
As with most films of this type, you’re presented with a lot of very compelling evidence for the convicted party’s innocence and another party’s guilt. Forbes seems very convinced that Hernandez murdered Lopez, rather than DeLuna. So much so, in fact, that you’re left with the suspicion that the film was made as an exercise in confirmation bias, and that some equally compelling evidence for the opposite scenario being the case may be being excluded here. The fact that DeLuna had a prior record for stalking women is referred to only briefly as if it is some insignificant little detail.
Nevertheless, The Phantom does work reasonably well as an indictment of the fundamental immorality of the death penalty. It’s not massively riveting and doesn’t do anything particularly innovative with its format, but it does present yet another good example of why this tool of the criminal justice system is so grotesquely unfair. I wouldn’t bet on it changing too many viewers’ minds on the matter, though.
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