Lately I have become addicted to HBO's investigative documentaries and mini-drama series, all because of how well constructed they are where they try to show the facts so that we as viewers can have access to different versions of the events. Also because they are narrated in a chronologically perfect way, crossing paths easy to travel no matter how complicated the stories are.

This mini-documentary trapped me a lot by the severity of the events it deals with, after all the murder of a 12-year-old boy is something horrendous and more if it is intensified with a high degree of racism where the police and all the people blame a man just because of his skin color.

[Source](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/91514-who-killed-garrett-phillips?language=en-US) # # The Murder story # > The documentary examines and chronicles the years following the 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips and the subsequent trial of Clarkson University soccer coach Oral "Nick" Hillary. [Source](https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/91514-who-killed-garrett-phillips?language=en-US) # Going into detail, the documentary follows the entire process of investigating of the murder of a 12 year old boy while he was in his house apparently alone, through real and intense testimonies of people who were involved in some way in such a horrendous crime.

To give you some context it is necessary to establish that the crime took place in a town outside of New York, a town where the great majority of the population is white and where one of the most relevant things is a university. The creators of the documentary do a fantastic job entering fully into the plot showing us the assumptions of how the crime happened. A crime that more than raising relevance for the murder of the child raises intensity in the population when it is supposed almost immediately that the killer is the ex-boyfriend of the child's mother, a humble and common man but one of the few black men in town.

Basically the story develops as a consequence of the murder of the child, leaving that issue in the background and focusing more on the search for the truth and the situation of the only accused who is treated as guilty even before being judged.

[Source](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiD98v2r5LlAhUEUKwKHbZ0Dp0Qjhx6BAgBEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fallthatsinteresting.com%2Fgarrett-phillips-nick-hillary&psig=AOvVaw1Br5zMFbTD59KRbVPQxClL&ust=1570820331166795) # # The seek for the truth. # The truth, a word that for some means something and for others a simple opportunity.

The crime of the child represents something horrendous, but comes nowhere near the horrendous work done by the police, which guided by the false testimony and the false allegations of a policeman who was related to the child's mother, puts in the police spotlight a black man who should never have been involved in something as serious as murder.

A man whose only sin was to have been the boyfriend of the mother of the murdered child and who because of that is taken to the center of a crime that destroys his life and exposes him to all kinds of humiliations, abuses and criticisms guided by a sense of racism and super latent police xenophobia throughout the documentary. A man who sees all of his rights violated and subjected to public scrutiny by a police system that accuses him without any evidence against him, using hundreds of assumptions as starting points to judge him and go after him.

Throughout the documentary we see how the police only focus on the black man, forgetting the corresponding and necessary processes to investigate a murder. It is incredible to see how police officers carry out a shameful prosecution of the accused man, leaving him without intimacy and constantly subjecting him to humiliations such as when they make him undress without need only to look for some kind of mark or scar they can use against him.

There is never a true search for truth, the police conduct a kind of witch hunt where they do the impossible to find ways to blame the defendant, trying to manipulate testimonies and evidence guided by assumptions that lack strength to blame man.

[Source](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiG5PXJtJLlAhULTKwKHSNSBdMQjhx6BAgBEAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2F2020%2Fvideo%2Fnick-hillary-weeps-verdict-garrett-phillips-murder-trial-42488446&psig=AOvVaw2fvq2vOlz7HkY6yBuHm7Y9&ust=1570821563589744) # # Last Words. # This is an intense, dramatic and very moving documentary in which it is incredible to see how the judicial system is only interested in investigating those who suit their needs and not in looking for evidence that would lead to the real killer. Without forgetting how some politicians more than wanting to help solve the murder only used the crime as a political trampoline without caring about the suffering of those involved.

This is another notable criticism to the US justice system, and the way some people are treated just because of their skin color. A documentary that shows us that sometimes the truth goes beyond what is right and is usually based on the concepts that society has elaborated from you.

I highly recommend this mini documentary because it will let us see an investigative process damaged and stained by a man who tries to manipulate everything to blame Nick Hillary for a murder he didn't commit.

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