Trial 4

This is a great example of how in the US justice system, any person can be a statistic or an example before they are a human. It does this by humanizing the protagonist. his attorney, his family and his supporters, while at the same time, giving in-depth examination the system which they are fighting against.

In reaction to those who are rating this documentary based on how much it entertained them, it illustrates that the big picture is still being missed in our society: and that is that these are no actors performing for our Netflix entertainment -- these are real human lives that were and still are being seriously effected in ways that most of us could not bear by a deeply flawed system.

I thought this was really well done. I see other reviews that it was too long and I can see where they could have made it shorter but I was never bored with this story.

Listening to Edward McNelley.. What would it take for that man to even consider that the man might be innocent? I guess nothing. That can be the problem with those DA & police that instead of seeking justice they just want one in the win column. Why did they withhold information if they were so sure of their case?

I am not anti-police by any means but when the blue line is so strong that none of them want to step up and do the right thing by telling the truth. Something is amiss. I am sorry for the death of anyone but the Boston PD showed all this loyalty to a corrupt cop. It seems to me if you are a good cop and I know many who are, you would want the corrupt ones, the racist ones... gone.

Maybe a few people could watch this and still think that he might have done it but I don't see how anyone could not find reasonable doubt in this case.

I was looking for the he sued the Boston PD part and I guess that is still something that may occur. I hope so.

I am astonished at the criticism in some reviews. This is a true life, mega serious event which took away the life of a 19 year old black male. Is there anything worse than being stitched up by corrupt police as you head off to a very lengthy prison sentence? Being killed is probably the only worse occurrence. Sean Ellis clearly has not one tiny bit of malice or badness in his body. The accepted conspiring of power by Police Associations as power leverage is of itself an abuse of the rule of law. You cant go wrong with real life reports. This is a brilliant series. If it is aimed by Netflix to enlarge upon the political scene in USA today in a somewhat subtle manner then this I do not like. The "victims" (not the police) all speak from a natural attitude without animus. The police seem arrogant and sorry they were caught out.

Another story of a young black man getting screwed to close a big case. The boston DA, prosecutor and the cops who gathered "evidence" should be the ones in jail. This happens EVERY DAY. A complete perversion of the justice system in every way.

I will admit that I'm a sucker for these types of documentaries. And there's a lot of them. In general, I love crime shows, fictional or real. But you give me a documentary or a docuseries about a person wrongfully convicted of a crime and I'll be glued to the screen. These are stories that are very important to tell. For every person like Sean Ellis who was fortunate enough to eventually go free, there's still plenty more locked behind bars. And most of them aren't lucky enough to have a Netflix documentary telling their story. It's a cold, dark, sad life for them, which is a depressing thought.

The thing that I liked about the structure of this docuseries is that they don't play this "did he or didn't he go free" game that some of them do. We don't know the very end of story right away, but we start with him getting released after being granted a new trial in 2015, then we go back to the beginning to tell what happened. The fact that he's being interviewed along the way clues us in that this probably ended well. Thus the purpose is to tell his story instead of stringing us along.

I think my biggest complaint is that I don't know if this really needed eight episodes. Granted, I know a lot of work got put into this and the filmmakers wanted to give it the time they deemed necessary. But I look at fellow shows like "The Innocence Files" from earlier this year, also on Netflix, and they only needed an episode or two for each story. They could've edited this a bit more because it does drag at times, like when they decide to spend a full episode on the District Attorney race. I think they were trying to be the next "Making a Murderer," but I don't know if they needed to.

That said, this story does have some bizarre twists and turns to it. The level of corruption that's uncovered is shocking and the justification from some of the Boston police officers that agreed to be interviewed was disturbing. That's why I say that this is important. To the reviewer who gave this one star and complained about when are they going to stop making these... the answer is when it stops becoming an issue. Which unfortunately is probably never. As long as there's still problems with the system, these stories deserve to continue to be told.

If you like this type of docuseries, you probably don't need the approval from a random internet person like myself before deciding to give it a chance, but you have it anyways, so check it out!