Women on Trial

Last updated
Women on Trial
Directed by Lee Grant
Produced by Joseph Feury
Lee Grant
Virginia Cotts
Roberta Morris Purdee
Narrated byLee Grant
CinematographyHart Perry
Edited byGeof Bartz
Music by Tom Carpenter
Distributed by HBO
Hope Runs High [1]
Release date
  • October 26, 1992 (1992-10-26)
Running time
57 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Women on Trial is a 1992 documentary film directed by Academy Award winner Lee Grant. The film follows a group of women navigating the family court system in Texas. Originally scheduled to aired on HBO, the film played only a single night before being pulled from the public after inciting a million dollar lawsuit initiated Texas family court judge Charles Dean Huckabee. The story unfolds as woman after woman loses custody of her children to fathers who have either a documented history of abuse, or admittedly do not want custody of the children. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Development

Women on Trial was produced under Grant and husband/producer Joseph Feury's production deal with HBO. Grant became interest after seeing the number of women losing custody of their children to allegedly abusive fathers in Harris County, Texas.

Reception

The film received positive reviews. Before the film was pulled, disappearing for the next 27 years, Variety felt that it was "chilling...starkly moving." [6]

Legacy

The film is part of Grant's documentary collection and is expected to receive a digital and limited repertory cinema re-release in the Winter of 2019-2020 along with the majority of her non-fiction work. A screening at New York's Film Forum in December 2019 will mark the film's first public exhibition since its single night on HBO. [1]

Related Research Articles

Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1 (2004), was a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit, originally filed as Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al. in 2000, led to a 2002 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are an endorsement of religion and therefore violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The words had been added by a 1954 act of Congress that changed the phrase "one nation indivisible" into "one nation under God, indivisible". After an initial decision striking the congressionally added "under God", the superseding opinion on denial of rehearing en banc was more limited, holding that compelled recitation of the language by school teachers to students was invalid.

Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1875), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that, while women are no less citizens than men are, citizenship does not confer a right to vote, and therefore state laws barring women from voting are constitutionally valid. The Supreme Court upheld state court decisions in Missouri, which had refused to register a woman as a lawful voter because that state's laws allowed only men to vote.

Forum shopping is a colloquial term for the practice of litigants having their legal case heard in the court thought most likely to provide a favorable judgment. Some jurisdictions have, for example, become known as "plaintiff-friendly" and so have attracted litigation even when there is little or no connection between the legal issues and the jurisdiction in which they are to be litigated.

Parental alienation syndrome (PAS) is a term introduced by child psychiatrist Richard Gardner in 1985 to describe signs and symptoms he believed to be exhibited by children who have been alienated from one parent through manipulation by the other parent. Proposed symptoms included extreme but unwarranted fear, and disrespect or hostility towards a parent. Gardner believed that a set of behaviors that he observed in some families involved in child custody litigation could be used to diagnose psychological manipulation or undue influence of a child by a parent, typically by the other parent who may be attempting to prevent an ongoing relationship between a child and other family members after family separation or divorce. Use of the term "syndrome" has not been accepted by either the medical or legal communities and Gardner's research has been broadly criticized by legal and mental health scholars for lacking scientific validity and reliability.

The paternal rights and abortion issue is an extension of both the abortion debate and the fathers' rights movement. Abortion can be a factor for disagreement and lawsuit between partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supreme Court of Texas</span> Highest court in the U.S. state of Texas for civil appeals

The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for civil matters in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort in criminal matters.

Joint custody is a court order whereby custody of a child is awarded to both parties. In the United States, there are two forms of joint custody, joint physical custody and joint legal custody. In joint physical custody, the lodging and care of the child is shared according to a court-ordered parenting schedule with equal or close to equal parenting time. In joint legal custody, both parents share the ability to make decisions about the child, regarding e.g. education, medical care and religion, and both can access their children's educational and health records.

Child custody is a legal term regarding guardianship which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of legal custody, which is the right to make decisions about the child, and physical custody, which is the right and duty to house, provide and care for the child. Married parents normally have joint legal and physical custody of their children. Decisions about child custody typically arise in proceedings involving divorce, annulment, separation, adoption or parental death. In most jurisdictions child custody is determined in accordance with the best interests of the child standard.

Susan Polk is an American woman convicted in June 2006 of second degree (unpremeditated) murder for the 2002 death of her husband, Dr. Frank "Felix" Polk. Polk's trial, described by one Associated Press correspondent as "circus-like", drew extensive media attention with its sensationalist elements.

Khulʿ (Arabic: خلع, also called khula, is a procedure based on traditional jurisprudence, that allows a Muslim woman to initiate a divorce by returning the mahr and everything she received from him during their life together, or without returning anything, as agreed by the spouses or judge's decree, depending on the circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Men's rights movement in India</span>

The men's rights movement in India is composed of various independent men's rights organisations in India. Proponents of the movement support the introduction of gender-neutral legislation and repeal of laws that they consider are biased against men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Herring Sorin</span> American attorney (1861–1914)

Sarah Herring Sorin was Arizona's first woman attorney and the first woman to try a case in front of the United States Supreme Court unassisted by a male attorney. Sorin practiced law with her father William Herring in the firm "Herring & Sorin" initially in Tombstone, Arizona, and later in Tucson. After her father's death, Sorin moved to Globe, Arizona, where she became the attorney for the Old Dominion Copper Company and United Globe Mines. Sarah Sorin is a member of the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.(See photo of Sarah Herring Sorin in the Arizona Library Archives.) She is also included in Stanford Law School's Women's Legal History Biography Project.

Jamie Leigh Jones is a former employee of KBR, an American engineering, construction and private military contracting company. During her employment, KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton from 1962 to 2007. She is notable for accusing then fellow KBR employees of drugging and gang-raping her on July 28, 2005, at Camp Hope in Baghdad. A federal grand jury investigated her claims but issued no indictments.

<i>Gronow v Gronow</i> Judgement of the High Court of Australia

Gronow v Gronow, was a decision of the High Court of Australia.

The Pastor's Wife is a 2011 biographical television film, starring Rose McGowan as Mary Winkler and based on the true-crime book of the same title by author Diane Fanning. It premiered on November 5, 2011, on the Lifetime Network.

United States obscenity law deals with the regulation or suppression of what is considered obscenity and therefore not protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In the United States, discussion of obscenity typically relates to defining what pornography is obscene, as well as to issues of freedom of speech and of the press, otherwise protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Issues of obscenity arise at federal and state levels. State laws operate only within the jurisdiction of each state, and there are differences among such laws. Federal statutes ban obscenity and child pornography produced with real children. Federal law also bans broadcasting of "indecent" material during specified hours.

Chafin v. Chafin, 568 U.S. 165 (2013), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held the appeal of a district court's decision to return a child to his country of residence is not precluded by the child's departure from the United States. It arose from the divorce proceedings of Mr. and Ms. Chafin; she wanted their daughter to live with her in Scotland, while he wanted her to remain in the United States with him.

<i>Leaving Neverland</i> 2019 documentary film

Leaving Neverland is a 2019 documentary film directed and produced by the British filmmaker Dan Reed. It focuses on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused as children by the American singer Michael Jackson.

State of Texas vs. Melissa is a 2020 French-American documentary by Sabrina Van Tassel. The documentary follows the case of Melissa Lucio, a Texan woman who was the first woman of Hispanic descent in Texas to be sentenced to death. It was selected for the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020, and won best documentary at the Raindance Film Festival. As of 2021, Lucio has been on death row for 13 years, having been convicted of the abuse and murder of one of her children. The rights were acquired by Hulu, for streaming in the US.

Melissa Elizabeth Lucio is the first woman of Hispanic descent to be sentenced to death in the U.S. state of Texas. She was convicted of capital murder after the death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, who was found to have scattered bruising in various stages of healing, as well as injuries to her head and contusions of the kidneys, lungs and spinal cord. Prosecutors said that Mariah's injuries were the result of physical abuse, while Lucio's attorneys say that her death was caused by a fall down the stairs two days prior.

References

  1. 1 2 "Film Forum · WOMEN ON TRIAL". Archived from the original on 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2019-10-29.
  2. "Libel suit against HBO dismissed over proof of actual malice". May 11, 2000.
  3. "FindLaw's Court of Appeals of Texas case and opinions". Findlaw.
  4. "FindLaw's Supreme Court of Texas case and opinions". Findlaw.
  5. Ford, Carole Bell (January 1, 2010). The Women of CourtWatch: Reforming a Corrupt Family Court System. University of Texas Press. ISBN   9780292781948 via Google Books.
  6. Hilsman, Hoyt (October 27, 1992). "Women on Trial". Variety .