Brittany Smith face à la loi

This was a simple story; not a fantastical one. Told respectfully. The fact the prosecutor and the judge declined comment, meant this could only be told this far. The take-away from watching this is that the judicial system in Alabama is still heavily prejudice towards women (and as stated, towards minority groups).

I found this an honest portrayal of life for communities, that suffer the ills of neglect and financial hardship. Banality and rampant drug abuse - a common source for this self destruction that leads to the penal system mill; is a forever told story, but one that never ceases to draw attention and doesn't appear to want to fix itself. Selfish, tired and old; this kind of governance eats it's young and tube feeds it's corrupt establishment. This is the story of a broken system with it's pitiful outcome.

Leaves you empty but how else to tell it.

This is an extremely biased piece of work. It muddles an extremely complicated situation to conform to the author, and director's, narrative.

The author, Elizabeth Flock, has written about this case and made this poor piece of film. Rather than using the facts and details to tell the story, she is selective to the point of extreme bias and the utilises victimisation to try to support her point of view, such "there are no perfect victims", which there aren't, but that does not make it ok to try to frame information to shape your narrative.

Ultimately, there is no question that Brittany is a victim of abuse. That does not justify the crime she committed in this instance.

What was played down was the testimony Brittany gave, she lied and changed her story, this makes the ability to trust her account difficult. Additionally, McCallie came back to the house with a gun rather than informing the police, these are only a couple the facts totally played down by Flock.

Just read up on it, this particular case is not a "stand your ground is for white men" example and Elizabeth Flock is our looking for more of these cases now... no one ever seems to have explained let the evidence lead you to the outcome to her, she is clearly working backwards from an outcome.

To call this a documentary to begin with is a total inaccuracy. It is instead what I term a "mockumentary" where facts are glazed over and a story told that bears the bias of the producers of this film.

Lest I misquote something, listen to facts with a report originally seen on Local 3 News, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville (2022). Then pull up another local newspaper article as posted by news organization WHNT in September 2023. These two sources begin to offer different pieces of the puzzle that paint a very different portrait of Brittany Smith.

She has proven herself to be a scoundrel who flauts her probation violations--testing positive for alcohol and other drugs during her time on probation. She didn't complete court ordered courses. She also found her way back into court in 2023 when she was convicted of a double arson which carried a substantial sentence.

I realize that the report was zeroing in on Brittany, the wronged woman who stood up for herself by murdering her abuser and is left to suffer the fallout from a system that failed her. However, after reading a very different side to the whole story, her convictions and punishment for crimes committed are absolutely justified.

ALWAYS CHECK THE FACTS. Netflix aired a badly flawed report. I wonder if they actually performed their own due diligence prior to putting this on streaming. I find that I"m spending a lot less time on documentaries aired by Netflix and realize that they are not committed to a full and fair disclosure of ALL the facts--just the facts, mam.

It's clear from the start that this documentary is trying to push a narrative. This would be fine if they told the whole story, and had a strong case for that.

The details they left in and inconsistencies they tried to explain away muddied up that narrative as well as implying that the female judge had something against women.

The details they left out, which I looked up after watching this, make it very clear that this isn't a simple stand-your-ground case, as this documentary claims. This made me feel like I wasted 40 minutes on falsehoods.

I watched a 15 min breakdown by Dr. Todd Grande on YouTube on this case, and learned more than watching this.

In retrospect, she is very lucky with the plea they offered her.

A completely one-sided and biased presentation with the usual sparse case facts that is common with a low budget Netflix documentary. The documentary is so frustratingly one-sided that you find yourself shaking your head as to the point of the film. Little to no information is given surrounding the event. A ridiculous small amount of time is given to detailing the crime scene. No explanation of the court proceedings. This entire documentary is a showcase for the supposed racist and gender biases in the Stand Your Ground law of Alabama and across the United States. Perhaps there is a compelling story in this extremely poorly presented Netflix documentary... but seemingly no one felt the need to make the effort to do so.