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From exposing injustice to transforming policy, these documentaries didn't just tell stories—they rewrote the rules. Join us as we examine the true crime films that sparked real legal reform! Our countdown includes "Tiger King," "Making a Murderer," "Dear Zachary," and more! Which documentary do you think made the biggest impact on our justice system? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00nobody came to the door nobody came to help me came to my rescue or anything
00:07welcome to watchmojo and today we're looking at true crime documentaries so powerful and popular
00:13that they inspired either activists or policy makers to revise the law their innocence never
00:20got the attention that they're guilty tiger king you know when people are nuts man and i might be
00:27one of them people i don't know but they're all half out there man they're crazy netflix users were
00:33captivated by the epic feud between an eccentric zoo owner and a big cat advocate whatever tiger king
00:39viewers thought about joe exotic's conviction for attempted murder for hire everyone agreed that the
00:45cats caught in the middle deserved better when he was leaving he said check out what i just bought
00:50in the back of this guy's van was a snow leopard the three season docu-series raised awareness
00:58about the little known exotic animal trade industry and the risks it presented for both humans and big
01:03cats so in 2022 the u.s passed the big cat public safety act to ban private ownership breeding and
01:10novel contact with these creatures violators could face a hefty fine or up to five years behind bars
01:17so at least some faith in humanity was restored after the world witnessed tiger king we are thrilled
01:23to announce that today the big cat public safety act passed the senate unanimously murder on middle
01:30beach hi everybody we start with breaking news in madison tonight where a body has been found in a
01:36waterfront home their police tonight are treating it as a homicide madison hamburg utilized his resources
01:42as a filmmaker to personally investigate his mother's murder sadly the case remains unsolved but the
01:48docu-series murder on middle beach still had an important impact the madison police department denied
01:55producer anika niemeyer access to records related to the case on the grounds that an arrest was imminent
02:02i said no you're not telling me that's not real and it was real it was like being hit by a boulder
02:10when the freedom of information commission made a limited order the department's appeal went all
02:15the way to the connecticut supreme court after almost four years with no arrest the court ruled
02:20that the police must prove actionable progress in an investigation when withholding public records
02:26hopefully this will help at least other people in connecticut do their part in seeing justice done
02:31so hopefully this story can set an example and precedent for at least this state and eventually the country
02:39to re-examine how law enforcement interacts with the family members of homicide victims
02:46icarus it was inflammatory enough that they were afraid to run it while the the whistleblowers were
02:52still in russia so they got them out of russia ran the program and it was it was a bombshell
03:0099 of russian athletes are guilty of doping the crimes of a nation's government affected policy
03:06on a global scale but not before icarus exposed rampant use of illegal performance enhancing substances
03:12among russian athletes ironically sponsored by the moscow anti-doping laboratory whistleblower
03:18gregory rajankov's story prompted investigations that led to sanctions and the international olympic
03:24committee officially banning russia although russian authorities have since confirmed that
03:29someone had interfered with the data handed over to investigators the government continues to deny
03:35allegations of a state-run program her athletes have since had to represent neutral olympic delegations
03:41with uniquely strict drug screenings finally the u.s passed the rajankov anti-doping act in 2022
03:48this strengthened whistleblower protections within the sports industry and established penalties for
03:53doping conspiracies in any games with american sponsorship rajankov has been in witness protection
03:59in the u.s ever since he wrote he wrote a book it's dangerous to write a book in russia time the kalief
04:08broder story they said most likely we're gonna let you go home rikers violent james in the country
04:18but then
04:22i never went home there has long been debate about whether solitary confinement constitutes cruel and
04:27unusual punishment for adult prison inmates never mind juveniles like kalief broder whose brutal
04:34pre-trial detainment at rikers island was the subject of a six-episode docuseries time the kalief
04:40broder story didn't just inspire a successful civil lawsuit over the deceased young man's treatment
04:45new york state passed caliph's law in 2019 requiring the early production of crucial evidence to ensure
04:52speedier trials the state also restricted cash bails and prolonged solitary confinement
04:58before the latter practice was banned entirely in new york city jails this may only mark the beginning
05:04of greater judicial reform inspired by the tragedy shared by time and of course we could not be here
05:10today and this law would not be on the books without kalief broder name him today
05:17the keepers basically this story who killed sister kathy it's a 6 000 word monster review of the whole
05:30thing i would not ever hear the name sister kathy sesnick until 1994 when the first stories began to
05:40emerge father anthony joseph meskell was stripped of his title over child abuse with many believing he
05:47killed the sister katherine sesnick after she discovered him he passed away in 2001. it would
05:52be another 16 years before the docuseries the keepers prompted maryland to take real action
05:57and the boil continues to swell and the people who were injured most deeply continue to struggle
06:03and suffer and the public continues to ask what happened the state legislature promptly approved an
06:10extension on the civil statute for survivors of sexual abuse in childhood the child victims act of
06:162023 later removed the statute altogether although this was not a direct response to the keepers many
06:22of its participants pushed for the investigation which confirmed the baltimore archdiocese's massive
06:28cover-up survivors taking a stand usually starts with demonstrating the public's readiness to listen
06:34we are human beings who've been through a lot of trauma and finally finally the court has recognized that
06:40making a murderer even though there's no guarantee that steven avery will win this case he says it's
06:46still worth going through the trial just to hold somebody accountable for taking 18 years of his life
06:52netflix's first true crime docuseries supercharged both the genre and scrutiny of its credibility
06:58two seasons of making a murderer ultimately failed to clear steven avery and brendan dassey of homicide
07:04they did however inspire the public to question the methods by which the wisconsin men were convicted
07:10you have to be careful when you bring a lawsuit against a sheriff's department in a community where
07:16you still live because you could end up getting charged with murder experts linked this to the
07:22public pressure behind colorado's law requiring full recordings of police interrogations for certain
07:28crimes similar policies have since been proposed or enacted across the united states making a murderer
07:35remains popular in academic circles as both a representation of judicial failings and an example
07:40of biased journalism whether avery and dassey are indeed guilty the public agrees that it shouldn't be
07:46this hard to trust the system and so tonight we're going to take you to the place where it all unfolded
07:51to meet the central players and examine the evidence the documentary left out the invisible war
07:57he hit me across the left side of my face i remember holding the closet thinking what just happened
08:09little was known about the crisis of sexual assault and its denial within the u.s military before the
08:15invisible war following the documentary's premiere at the sundance film festival secretary of defense leon
08:21panetta was given a private screening and immediately ordered that these cases be handled by senior
08:26officers i had like a cold or pneumonia like symptoms and so they sent me to get checked out
08:34and while i was waiting to be examined he came in and he helped himself the theatrical release coincided
08:42with the marine corps's developing methods for cracking down on cultures of assault finally the 2013
08:48u.s defense budget called for systematic protection all thanks to the invisible war filmmakers kirby
08:55dick and amy zierig continued this streak with 2015's the hunting ground which influenced policies to
09:01hold universities accountable for sexual assaults on campus though these tragedies remain rampant
09:07acknowledging that can count for a lot i physically fall and got away and ran and then into the bathroom
09:14and like i still remember just putting my hands on the sink and just looking at myself in the mirror
09:19shaking like what just happened dear zachary a letter to a son about his father we came to the door
09:26and it was jackie and castigo walsh and i think oh my gosh somebody's with them now trying to tell them
09:32we went in and i told them and what i saw after that i will never forget in my life kurt cooney endured
09:40incredible anguish to tell the world about his friend andrew bagby after his ex-girlfriend was charged with
09:46his murder she was released on bail and took their child's life along with her own cooney thus decided
09:52to complete the documentary he started to come to terms with the initial tragedy and the policeman who
09:58found him said that um he had wrapped him in a blanket rather than a plastic bag and uh he and
10:05another officer carried him gently back and he made very sure that he kept the body very far away from
10:11the wicked woman who had murdered him all profits for dear zachary would be donated to scholarships
10:17in andrew and his son's names zachary's was also applied to a bill to strengthen protection of
10:22children of people charged with serious crimes canada's house of commons passed the law unanimously
10:28in 2010. as personally difficult as it was for cooney to make dear zachary it may have saved many lives
10:35but i think the part of this journey that meant the most to me was the night that december two weeks
10:39after the bill became law that i went to kate and david's home for dinner and saw that for
10:44the first time in nine years they had decorated for christmas the central park five i don't think
10:51the police department faced the truth of what had happened because the truth of what had happened
10:56is almost unbearable by prosecuting the wrong people for the central park jogger case
11:04matthias reyes continued to hurt maim and kill in 1990 five teenagers were convicted of a vicious
11:12assault in new york's central park it wasn't until the real perpetrator's confession 11 years later
11:18that they were released from prison another 11 years later the acclaimed documentary the central park
11:24five widened discussions about racial bias police coercion and the media's influence on the american justice
11:30system told them the truth came out truth came out this compelled the now called exonerated five
11:41to push new york state for 41 million dollars in restitutions plus a law requiring recording of
11:47interrogations for felony cases moreover netflix's 2019 dramatization when they see us inspired mandatory
11:55recordings of all police interrogations of minors it also proved that such cases can have an impact
12:01for as long as they stay in the public's consciousness the correction officer said well
12:05you know there's a lot of people out there you want to go through the back i'll get a car for you
12:10you know you go out the back way and i said well i'm a free man i'm going out the front open that door
12:16and let's go before we continue be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
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12:33the thin blue line my mom had a good phrase she said the first night she pulled into dallas it was
12:39raining that it was lightning and they're coming into dallas and she said if there was ever a hell on
12:47earth it's dallas county the whole documentary genre was impacted by private detective turned
12:52filmmaker errol morris's investigation of the supposedly solved murder of a dallas police officer
12:58the thin blue line even featured a confession from suspect david harris leading to randall dale
13:03adams release from prison i looked at all the evidence and i found i believe that david harris committed
13:10murder the jury looked at the same evidence and found they believe that randall adams committed
13:17murder the ensuing scandal increased pressure on a judicial system that many americans trusted innately
13:24texas gradually passed laws on credible evidence restitution for wrongful convictions and other
13:30policies that could have served adams sooner meanwhile true crime rose from an obscure subgenre of
13:36documentary into one of the most prominent and impactful the thin blue line may not have
13:41directly changed legislation but there's endless evidence of how it changed the relationship between
13:46the media and the system prosecutors in dallas have said for years any prosecutor can convict a guilty man
13:55it takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent man what are some documentaries that you feel did or
14:00should affect real change review the comments below
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