Shadows of Doubt: State vs. 81588 Vincent Simmons

In their documentary THE FARM: ANGOLA, USA from two years ago, Jonathan Stack and Elizabeth Garbus followed a number of men who had been convicted to long sentences in the largest prison of America. One of them was Vincent Simmons, whose story is further examined in SHADOWS OF DOUBT. In 1977, the black Simmons was sentenced to 100 years in prison for raping two white 14-year-old twin sisters; to this day, he claims to be innocent. Stack and Garbus hired a private detective to take a fresh look at the facts, and they interviewed the people involved, like the twins’ and Simmons’ lawyers and relatives. Gradually, doubts arise about the question whether the trial was fair: Simmons’ lawyer at the time did not use a great number of facts that could have been advantageous to the suspect, and apparently racial discrimination also played a role. The twin sisters, on the other hand, are convinced that Simmons is the perpetrator. The documentary reaches its climax when Simmons and the then 36-year-old twins talk to each other for the first time. The women are still haunted by the violation every day, but finally want to close the past by means of this rendezvous. Simmons, however, bombards them with factual questions about the trial, so the conversation is awkward, to say the least. It is a tragic encounter, during which the pain that both parties have felt for many years is suppressed, but is at the same time clearly tangible.