Murder on a Sunday Morning
Encyclopedia
Murder on a Sunday Morning is a documentary film
by French
filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
. Its subject is the Brenton Butler case
, a criminal case in which a fifteen-year-old boy was wrongfully accused of murder
. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards
in 2001.
Brenton Butler was arrested and tried for the 2000 murder of a tourist in Jacksonville
, Florida
. The prosecution's case relied heavily upon a positive identification made by the victim's husband, and on Butler's confession, which the teen claimed was coerced. The film follows Butler's defense team building their case for his innocence.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade is a French writer, director and producer of films and television series.Lestrade was born in Mirande, Gers, in southwestern France...
. Its subject is the Brenton Butler case
Brenton Butler case
The Brenton Butler case was a 2000 murder case in Jacksonville, Florida. During the investigation of a shooting death outside of a motel, police arrested 15-year-old Brenton Butler and charged him with the murder. Butler subsequently confessed to the crime, and the case went to trial...
, a criminal case in which a fifteen-year-old boy was wrongfully accused of murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 74th Academy Awards
74th Academy Awards
The 74th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2001 and took place March 24, 2002, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. It was the first ceremony to take place...
in 2001.
Brenton Butler was arrested and tried for the 2000 murder of a tourist in Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. The prosecution's case relied heavily upon a positive identification made by the victim's husband, and on Butler's confession, which the teen claimed was coerced. The film follows Butler's defense team building their case for his innocence.