The story of Nick Yarris is an extraordinary one – but this documentary about him is a missed opportunity. In 1981, after a chaotically violent and hot-tempered response to being pulled over for a traffic violation in Pennsylvania, Yarris was arrested for the attempted murder of a police officer, before being charged with an entirely different unsolved rape and murder. This innocent man was convicted on the shakiest of grounds and finally held on death row for decades, while he demanded postconviction DNA testing. It was an incredible ordeal from which Yarris emerges with dignity, having become an autodidact in prison (learning among many things the meaning of triskaidekaphobia).
Director David Sington effectively turns the film over to Yarris, who is allowed to narrate the documentary on-camera and control its pace, tone and content. For me, he feels like a ham actor auditioning for the role of himself in a movie version: he delivers what sounds like an overwritten, over-rehearsed monologue in a breathy-mellifluous voice. His story is important, yet the style is mannered. I wondered if it might have been better as an interview, with Sington interrupting him, questioning him, getting more perspective on his (important) story. This is of interest to those studying miscarriages of justice and to campaigners against the death penalty, but I found it frustrating.
