Heather Ann Thompson

But what he does is he brings in these four burly-looking, kind of menacing-looking black men, puts them surrounding a white guy who's playing Bernie Getz.

And, you know, it's a whole theater, a whole charade of what no witness testified to that never happened.

It all plays out right there in the courtroom on the floor.

in front of the jurors.

It's just it's really kind of amazing to watch.

And then we switch gears later.

And, you know, Shirley Cabe, Daryl's mother, is refusing to let this be the last word on her son.

And she insists that there's going to be a day of reckoning in civil court.

So we then switch to a courtroom in the South Bronx.

And what is interesting about that is that by the time that trial happens, crime is so serious.

People are, you know, the black community is not loathe to, you know, to send someone to jail if they have committed a crime.

So the fact that it is resoundingly in favor of Daryl KB is another powerful moment.

Well, I think the word you used is so deeply significant.

Race is there fundamentally.

It's living and breathing in that courtroom, but it is an undertone.

It is implicit.

It is never said.

Slotnick routinely refers to them as men, not teenagers.

He routinely refers to them as thugs and animals.

He routinely refers to their long criminal records.