The Thin Blue Line

Committed some other burglaries and what have you. 451 00:36:36,110 --> 00:36:39,746 All this time I was on probation. Juvenile probation. 452 00:36:41,782 --> 00:36:45,577 Eventually I turned myself in for this stuff in Vidor. 453 00:36:51,091 --> 00:36:55,227 I think I made a confession. I can't even remember exactly. 454 00:36:55,696 --> 00:36:57,295 So I'm told I did. 455 00:37:04,371 --> 00:37:06,740 He had told us he had robbed stores, and we laughed. 456 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:08,642 "Sure, we know you have." 457 00:37:08,742 --> 00:37:10,744 I'd given him one of my hats. 458 00:37:10,844 --> 00:37:13,848 It's an old Bonnie-and-Clyde-looking hat, it's turned sideways. 459 00:37:13,948 --> 00:37:17,151 <i>We said, "We'll draw you a little mustache, walk in with that gun.</i> 460 00:37:17,251 --> 00:37:19,646 <i>"Nobody'll know who you are."</i> 461 00:37:19,753 --> 00:37:23,791 About 2:00 that morning, I was asleep and the phone rings. 462 00:37:23,891 --> 00:37:27,161 I said, "Hello?" He said, "This is David." "This is David Harris?" 463 00:37:27,261 --> 00:37:29,830 "Yeah," he said, "I did it. Will you come and get me?" 464 00:37:29,930 --> 00:37:32,325 I said, "I'm not coming to get you. I'm asleep." 465 00:37:36,637 --> 00:37:38,702 He didn't have a conscience. 466 00:37:39,940 --> 00:37:42,743 If I do something bad, it kind of gets to me. 467 00:37:42,843 --> 00:37:46,809 I feel, "Shucks, I shouldn't have done that. I feel bad about it." 468 00:37:47,414 --> 00:37:50,549 But it didn't bother him. Didn't bother him at all. 469 00:38:06,066 --> 00:38:08,769 <i>We asked the D.A. In Vidor, Texas...</i> 470 00:38:08,869 --> 00:38:11,372 what they were going to do with little David. They said: 471 00:38:11,472 --> 00:38:14,175 "We'll send him to the Texas Youth Council." 472 00:38:14,275 --> 00:38:16,210 And we sort of tried to inquire... 473 00:38:16,310 --> 00:38:19,847 didn't he think it was strange that there was a robbery committed... 474 00:38:19,947 --> 00:38:21,582 with that same pistol. 475 00:38:21,682 --> 00:38:24,851 And here it was David Harris' pistol... 476 00:38:25,019 --> 00:38:29,178 David Harris' automobile that picked up Randall Adams. 477 00:38:29,390 --> 00:38:31,492 Didn't he think it was a little odd... 478 00:38:31,592 --> 00:38:35,729 that all the utensils for committing this so-called murder... 479 00:38:35,829 --> 00:38:39,733 were furnished by David Harris who got off scot-free... 480 00:38:39,833 --> 00:38:42,603 and was being a witness for the prosecution? 481 00:38:42,703 --> 00:38:47,397 And all he said was, "We don't feel that way in Vidor, Texas. 482 00:38:47,708 --> 00:38:49,610 <i>"Our people just are not that...</i> 483 00:38:49,710 --> 00:38:54,142 "We're not that keen on ruining a young man's life." 484 00:38:57,117 --> 00:39:00,321 I tried to introduce the crime spree theory. 485 00:39:00,421 --> 00:39:03,920 The theory that David Harris was on this series of crimes... 486 00:39:04,024 --> 00:39:06,827 both before and after the killing of the policeman. 487 00:39:06,927 --> 00:39:09,789 That he would be the person who had... 488 00:39:09,930 --> 00:39:13,361 the heart filled with malice most apt to commit a murder. 489 00:39:13,767 --> 00:39:17,562 <i>But the judge would not allow me to introduce any of those crimes.</i> 490 00:39:18,872 --> 00:39:21,233 <i>They'd had a 28-year-old man.</i> 491 00:39:21,775 --> 00:39:25,012 The only alternative would be prosecuting a 16-year-old... 492 00:39:25,112 --> 00:39:28,249 that could not be given the death penalty under Texas law... 493 00:39:28,349 --> 00:39:30,574 where our 28-year-old man could. 494 00:39:32,519 --> 00:39:35,889 That's always been the predominant motive, in my opinion... 495 00:39:35,989 --> 00:39:39,215 for having a death penalty case against Randall Adams. 496 00:39:39,526 --> 00:39:42,162 Not that they had him so dead to rights. 497 00:39:42,262 --> 00:39:44,396 But just that he was a convenient age. 498 00:39:49,203 --> 00:39:51,639 <i>The judge is supposed to have said...</i> 499 00:39:51,739 --> 00:39:55,500 That Don Metcalfe is supposed to have said... 500 00:39:55,743 --> 00:39:59,113 to Jeanette White, Dennis White's wife... 501 00:39:59,213 --> 00:40:02,041 "What do you care? He's only a drifter." 502 00:40:05,853 --> 00:40:07,254 I grew up in a family... 503 00:40:07,354 --> 00:40:10,785 where I was taught a great respect for law enforcement. 504 00:40:11,191 --> 00:40:14,595 I became acutely aware of the dangers... 505 00:40:14,695 --> 00:40:18,365 that police officers go through, law enforcement officials go through... 506 00:40:18,465 --> 00:40:23,102 that I think much of the public is not really sensitive to. 507 00:40:24,638 --> 00:40:26,273 <i>My father was an FBI man.</i> 508