黒い司法

Jay Zの抗議など、巻き込み度がどんどん大きくなっているAhmaud Arberyの件。本当に検察は2ヶ月何やっていたんだという話です。

Ahmaud Arbery: What do we know about the case?

16 May 2020

別件でも誤認逮捕があったことが暴かれ、検察のいい加減さが浮き彫りになっています。

Ahmaud Arbery: new focus on district attorney’s flawed prosecutions of black women

George Barnhill eventually recused himself from Arbery case

* Prosecutions include woman wrongfully imprisoned for murder

* Oliver Laughland and Sam Levine

Sun 17 May 2020 10.00 BST Last modified on Sun 17 May 2020 10.47 BST

映画やEnglish Journalの4月号をご覧になった方はどうしてもこの映画を思い起こすことでしょう。

この映画は1990年代なので30年前の出来事ですが、まだまだ変わっていない状況に愕然とします。English Journalの4月号でも触れていますが、この映画の舞台はアラバマ州。名作映画の舞台でもありました。グレゴリー・ペックの弁護士役はAFIの調査で歴代ヒーローの1位に選ばれています。

この映画では「あらまば物語記念館にはもう行ったのか？」と聞く場面が出てきますが、聞かれた弁護士である主人公の反応は冷え冷えで記念館を見ようともしないんですよね。安っぽい演出になるかもしれませんが、グレゴリー・ペックとオーバラップさせた方が正義の弁護士として観客にもわかりやすくなるのにそれをしなかったのはなぜか。映画ではそれ以上深入りしなかったのですが、原作では主人公の気持ちが率直に書かれていました。

Even though he had lived in Monroe County his whole life, Walter McMillian had never heard of Harper Lee or To Kill a Mockingbird. Monroeville, Alabama, celebrated its native daughter Lee shamelessly after her award-winning book became a national bestseller in the 1960s. She returned to Monroe County but secluded herself and was rarely seen in public. Her reclusiveness proved no barrier to the county's continued efforts to market her literary classic-or to market itself by using the book's celebrity. Production of the film adaptation brought Gregory Peck to town for the infamous courtroom scenes; his performance won him an Academy Award. Local leaders later turned the old courthouse into a "Mockingbird" museum. A group of locals formed "The Mockingbird Players of Monroeville" to present a stage version of the story. The production was so popular that national and international tours were organized to provide an authentic presentation of the fictional story to audiences everywhere.

Sentimentality about Lee's story grew even as the harder truths of the book took no root. The story of an innocent black man bravely defended by a white lawyer in the 1930s fascinated millions of readers, despite its uncomfortable exploration of　false accusations of rape involving a white woman. Lee's endearing characters,　Atticus Finch and his precocious daughter, Scout, captivated readers while confronting them with some of the realities of race and justice in the South. A generation of　future lawyers grew up hoping to become the courageous Atticus, who at one point arms himself to protect the defenseless black suspect from an angry mob of white men looking to lynch him.

Today, dozens of legal organizations hand out awards in the fictional lawyer's name to celebrate the model of advocacy described in Lee's novel. What is often overlooked is that the black man falsely accused in the story was not successfully defended by Atticus. Tom Robinson, the wrongly accused black defendant, is found guilty. Later he dies when, full of despair, he makes a desperate attempt to escape from prison. He is shot seventeen times in the back by his captors, dying ingloriously but not unlawfully.

アラバマ物語では白人弁護士のアティカスが頑張っても黒人トムの容疑は晴れずに、自暴自棄になったトムは逃げ出そうとして射殺されてしまう。まさに無実の罪で起訴された黒人を救おうとしている弁護士にとって、アティカスになるだけでは不十分だったのかもしれません。

アラバマ物語自体はドラマ『ホワイトハウス』の脚本家Aaron Sorkinが昨年ブロードウェイで舞台化していましたね。名作としての力は衰えていないようです。