The Phantom

While the makers only manage to scrape the surface of this deeply unsettling murder case, it is definitely a story that needs to be told. In a state known to hand out a lot of death penalties (Texas i.e.) especially to its citizens of color, the case in question is undoubtedly the most outrageous one. The first half of the documentary marches ahead like it wants to paint a straightforward, somewhat lazy picture of Carlos De Luna as a vicious murderer, and then proceeds to turn that story on its head, ripping apart every detail piece-by-piece.

For what its worth, The Phantom is best enjoyed when you know as little about the case as possible. In fact, don't even read its one-line description. The second half dives into a much darker space, when a second character is linked to the incident. However, the holes are aplenty. Even the makers struggle to piece the whole thing together. It's done haphazardly at best, but the very fact that an innocent person may have been executed without question is extremely disturbing to digest.

This is a case where the justice system failed because they wanted to close the case. 75% of the evidence was never put into the case and used, the actual man that committed the crime had been on the radar of a CCPD for yrs, but just didn't listen to him. Me being a Texan, it hit home as a case of one of the worst injustices we could have done.

I love how the state indicts and convicts someone, multiple appeals courts uphold the conviction, but they are all wrong because a law professor with an agenda can present innuendo and hearsay to question said verdict. And make no mistake, the so-called evidence presented that tries to place blame on Carlos Hernandez instead of Carlos DeLuna, is nothing more than innuendo and hearsay. Absolutely nothing discovered by the Northwestern University innocence professor would have ever been admitted as legitimate evidence. It is smoke and mirrors, you can do it with any crime. But it is nothing more than propaganda. Texas got the right guy.

It is a heart felt story that implies the justice system got it wrong. But it wasn't an unbiased documentary presenting facts. It was designed to make it seem like race was involved. Rene Rodriguez was in this "documentary" and had nothing to do with the case. Everyone from corpus christi knows that Mr. Rodriguez is known for race baiting and doesn't actually doing anything positive for the city. Does tell a great story of potential flaws in the case but brings too much about race into it. When there is no proof of racism. It has plenty of witness' that heard things but never called it in, but magically have something to say for the documentary.

This is a poor attempt in telling a serious story. The first 45 minutes is redundancy after redundancy after redundancy. Really, do not waste your time. Read an article about the story. Please, save yourself 1h21m.