電影人視角下的一起美國冤案

MANITOWOC, Wis. —— In the tourism office here, where workers are accustomed to cheery inquiries about Manitowoc County’s best jogging paths and beach views, the questions have suddenly turned dark: How could you possibly promote tourism in such a corrupt town? Why would anyone visit here?

威斯康星州馬尼託瓦克縣——這裏旅遊局的工作人員早已習慣了各種興致勃勃的查詢：哪裏是馬尼託瓦克最好的慢跑小路？哪裏又是最美的沙灘？但是近來這些詢問卻忽然變成了令人壓抑的質問：如此腐敗的一個小鎮，你們怎麼還可能想吸引遊客來旅遊？怎麼會有人想到這裏來遊玩？

Fury — by telephone, email and on social media — has also flooded the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department, the Manitowoc City Police Department, Manitowoc City Hall and pretty much anywhere else with the name Manitowoc attached to it.

馬尼託瓦克縣警局、馬尼託瓦克市警察局、馬尼託瓦克市政廳，以及所有帶有馬尼託瓦克這個字樣的部門，都被憤怒的電話、電子郵件和社交媒體評論所淹沒。

Even the Manitowoc County Historical Society’s executive director, Amy Meyer, has taken to answering the phones so that volunteers — better prepared for gentler inquiries about the region’s history of shipbuilding and its claims to creating the ice cream sundae — do not have to hear “all that yelling, cussing and swearing.” A recent post on the historical society’s Facebook page read, “Too bad your history includes ruining two innocent peoples’ lives.”

馬尼託瓦克縣歷史協會的志願者們本來準備好回答的，是該地區的造船史，或者聖代冰淇凌究竟是否是他們發明的這一類問題。爲了不讓他們聽到所有那些“叫嚷、咒罵和髒話”，歷史協會執行董事艾米·邁耶(Amy Meyer)只好親自上陣接聽電話。最近，在歷史協會的Facebook網頁上甚至貼出了這樣一個帖子，說：“你們的歷史糟透了，你們毀掉了兩個無辜之人的生活。”

The release last month of a Netflix documentary series, “Making a Murderer,” about a decade-old murder case, has upended this county of about 80,000 along Lake Michigan.

上個月，Netflix播放了一個系列紀錄片《製造謀殺犯》(Making a Murderer)，講述了一個10年前的謀殺案。它徹底攪亂了這個密西根湖邊縣城裏8萬人的生活。

Ten years ago, when I first came here, Steven Avery, the county resident now at the center of 10 Netflix episodes over more than 10 hours, had been arrested on suspicion of murder a few days before.

這個10集紀錄片總長達10個多小時。主人公是本縣居民史蒂芬·艾佛裏(Steven Avery)。10年前，我第一次來到這裏時，艾佛裏先生剛在幾天之前因爲涉嫌謀殺被逮捕。

Mr. Avery’s past was what drew me to Manitowoc in November 2005: For months, he had been held up in Wisconsin as a symbol of everything wrong with the justice system, having served 18 years in prison for a sexual assault that DNA evidence later linked to a different man.

那是2005年11月，我正是爲了艾佛裏先生的事而來。他曾經因爲一樁性侵案蹲了18年的監獄，但是新的DNA證據表明案犯另有其人。那幾個月裏，在威斯康星州他簡直成了司法系統所有過失的代名詞。

After Mr. Avery was released in the sexual assault, and as he was pursuing a $36 million lawsuit against the county officials who had wrongly sent him to prison, he was charged in the murder of Teresa Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer who had come to take pictures at his family’s auto salvage yard for Auto Trader magazine.

艾佛裏先生從性侵案獲釋之後，開始追訴縣政府官員誤判的責任，提出了3600萬美元的補償要求。恰當此時，25歲的攝影師特雷莎·海爾巴赫(Teresa Halbach)來到他的廢車場爲汽車貿易雜誌《Auto Trader》拍照，卻被人殺害。艾佛裏先生因此再次以謀殺罪遭到起訴。

Back then, as I drove to the county seat and along the stark, rural stretches closer to the salvage yard, I found a close-knit community in mourning over a young woman’s death and an array of Avery supporters stunned by the turn of events.

那時，我沿着廢車場附近荒涼的鄉間小路驅車前往縣城，在那裏等着我的是一個人際交往十分密切的社區。人們都沉浸在那個年輕女士之死的悲痛之中，而那些支持艾佛裏先生的人則爲事件的突然轉折而大感震驚。

A pair of graduate student filmmakers in New York read the article I wrote and devoted the next decade to what became the Netflix series. In the end, Mr. Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, 16 at the time of Ms. Halbach’s death, were convicted in the killing — an outcome that some who watched the series were convinced was one more example of the justice system’s failure.

兩個在紐約學習攝影的研究生看到了我的報道之後，花了10年的時間，製作了這個Netflix系列紀錄片。艾佛裏先生和他當時16歲的侄子布蘭頓·達西(Brendan Dassey)，最終在這個謀殺案中被判定爲有罪。對於一些看過這個Netflix紀錄片的人來說，這個結局再一次證明了我們這個司法體系的失敗。

Here, many of the people who had watched the case play out in real time with intensive local news media coverage largely considered it settled. But with a far broader audience now ravenously consuming the filmmakers’ take and raising pointed questions about whether those convicted were guilty, and whether the local authorities planted evidence and mishandled the investigation, a barrage of social media posts and calls is forcing Manitowoc to look back.

當時，當地媒體對這個案子作了詳盡的報道，因此，許多居民親歷了此案從頭至尾的過程。對他們來說，這個案子已經塵埃落定了。然而，電影人的視角引起了更爲廣泛的觀衆對此案的熱切關注。他們提出了許多尖銳的問題：這些被定罪之人是否真的有罪？當地權威機構是否有製造假證或者調查處理不當之嫌？洶涌而來的社交媒體及電話評論迫使馬尼託瓦克縣重新審視這個案件。

“We lived through this 10 years ago,” Jason Ring, the president of the Manitowoc Area Visitor and Convention Bureau, said from a counter covered in maps and brochures.

“10年以前我們就親身經歷了這個案子。”馬尼託瓦克地區旅遊會展局局長傑森·林(Jason Ring)站在鋪滿地圖和旅遊手冊的櫃檯之後說道。

“We made our judgment, and the trial came to an end, and locally most people were in support of that,” Mr. Ring said. “Now it’s back — by no choosing or no doing of anyone in this community.”

“我們已經做了判決，這案子已經結了。本地多數居民對案件結果也沒有什麼爭議。”林先生說，“現在，由不得我們，這個案件卻又重新被翻出來了。”

“So that’s the first point of injustice,” he added. “That we have to live through it again.”

“我們不得不再次經歷一遍這件事情，”他接着說，“這就是頭一點不公平的地方。”

In downtown Manitowoc, the county seat, the talkative, curious people I had come upon a decade earlier were no longer surprised — or the least bit pleased — to see yet another reporter. Many avoided any talk about “Making a Murderer,” or simply spotted my notebook and walked away. The mayor declined to be interviewed. Business owners refused to discuss it: One said she had read online about a call for a protest in the town, and she was worried about safety.

10年前，在馬尼託瓦克市中心，縣政府所在地，我遇到的人對我的出現都充滿好奇，很願意和我交談。而今，我只不過是接踵而來的衆多記者之一。人們對我的到來毫不驚奇，且大感不快。很多人根本不願意談論《製造謀殺犯》，更有甚者，有人一看到我的手提電腦就轉身走開。市長謝絕了我的採訪。商戶們拒絕討論這個話題。一個商人告訴我，她在網上看到有人提議在市中心舉行示威抗議，她對自己的安全表示擔憂。

“Look, we lived this whole thing like a juror,” Suszanne Fox, who lives not far from here, told me as she ate a burger at the Fat Seagull. “He was guilty as sin.”

“你看，我們幾乎和陪審團成員一樣，從頭到尾經歷了這個案子的審判。”住在附近的蘇珊娜·福克斯(Suszanne Fox)在肥海鷗餐館一邊吃漢堡一邊對我說， “他絕對是有罪的。”

Many viewers of “Making a Murderer” do not agree. Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions asking President Obama to pardon Mr. Avery and Mr. Dassey, to which the White House has responded that the president cannot issue pardons in state cases. And Gov. Scott Walker has long pledged to issue no pardons while in office.

看過《製造謀殺犯》的許多觀衆卻不會同意這個說法。成百上千的觀衆在給奧巴馬總統申請赦免艾佛裏先生和達西先生的請願書上籤了名。白宮回答說：因爲這是州立案件而非聯邦案件，總統無權赦免。而州長斯科特·瓦克爾(Scott Walker)則早已宣佈，只要他在州長辦公室一天，就不會簽發赦免令。

The series left viewers with unrelenting questions: Did Mr. Avery’s civil lawsuit for his wrongful sexual assault conviction motivate the Manitowoc County authorities to plant evidence against him in the second case, for murder? How was it that an old sample of Mr. Avery’s blood, which was found in the victim’s car, appeared to be tampered with while in the care of the authorities? Should Mr. Dassey, at his young age and with a limited intellect, have been questioned alone by investigators? Was his appointed lawyer working against his cause?

這套系列片給觀衆留下了一些無法釋懷的問題：艾佛裏先生對馬尼託瓦克縣提出了性侵案錯判的民事訴訟，這是否引起了縣當局在之後的謀殺案中製造假證的動機？由檢方保管的在受害人汽車中找到的艾佛裏先生的血樣，爲什麼似乎被人動了手腳？達西先生當年年幼並且智力有問題，在律師不在場的情況下，被調查方單獨詢問是否合理？官方指派給達西先生的律師，是否完全沒有代表他的利益？

But Ken Kratz, who prosecuted the cases against Mr. Avery and Mr. Dassey, said the series was one-sided and omitted significant pieces of evidence, including DNA from Mr. Avery on the latch under the hood of Ms. Halbach’s Toyota RAV4, found in the Averys’ auto salvage yard.

這個案子的公訴人肯·克拉茲(Ken Kratz)認爲，這個系列片是片面的，它漏掉了許多重要的證據，其中之一是哈爾巴赫女士的豐田RAV4車蓋掛鉤上的艾佛裏先生的DNA。這個豐田車當時是在艾佛裏廢車場找到的。

“It’s not a documentary at all; it’s an advocacy piece,” Mr. Kratz said in a telephone interview from New York, where he said he was being put up at the Waldorf Astoria while taking part in television newsmagazine interviews in the wake of the Netflix series.

“這根本不是什麼紀錄片；它是一個宣傳片。”克拉茲在一個電話訪談中這樣說道。他說在這個Netflix系列片上映之後，他被安排在紐約華爾道夫酒店(Waldorf Astoria)，接受各種電視雜誌的訪談。

Since the trial, Mr. Kratz went into private practice after a text messaging scandal in 2010 and a prescription drug addiction in which, he said, he “pretty much lost everything.” His business line now rings endlessly. “I guess it’s a concerted effort to shut down my office,” he said.

自那個案件以後，克拉茲先生於2010年捲入一場手機短信醜聞。後來，又因對處方藥成癮，用他自己的話說，他“幾乎失去了一切”.他不再擔任公職，而是開辦了自己的私人事務所。現在，他的業務電話整天響個不停。他說：“看來他們是合起夥來想讓我關張呀。”

Sheriff Robert C. Hermann of Manitowoc County, who was the undersheriff at the time of the Avery case, said his office had gotten emails and voice mail messages calling the department corrupt.

馬尼託瓦克縣警長羅伯特·C·赫爾曼(Robert C. Hermann)在艾佛裏案時是副警長。他說他的辦公室收到了一些電子郵件和電話留言，指責警局的腐敗。

“It’s not how Manitowoc wants to be put on the map,” Sheriff Hermann said. He said he had few regrets, though he wished, given all he knows now, that only officials from a nearby sheriff’s office, without Manitowoc’s perceived conflicts, had held any role in the investigation.

“我不希望公衆這樣看待馬尼託瓦克。”赫爾曼警長說。他認爲他們並沒有做錯什麼。儘管現在看來，當時這個案件如果全部交給在公衆眼中沒有利害關係的隔壁警局來調查就好了。

The filmmakers, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, say they believe their series accurately portrayed the essential arguments the prosecutors made. The point, they said in a telephone interview, was to look at the Manitowoc cases as a window into the American justice system.

導演勞拉·裏恰爾迪(Laura Ricciardi)和莫伊拉·德莫(Moira Demos)相信她們的片子準確傳達了公訴方的基本論證。在電話訪談中她們表示，本片的目的是通過馬尼託瓦克案件這個窗口來審視美國的司法系統。

“We have empathy for Manitowoc because we know that people have been reaching out in unkind ways and posting things about the city and the county,” Ms. Ricciardi said. “That’s an unfortunate response, because we have always wanted the series to be constructive, not destructive.”

“我們能體會馬尼託瓦克人的心情，我們知道他們受到了一些不友好的對待，在網上也收到了一些對他們縣市的攻擊。” 裏恰爾迪女士說，“這真是很遺憾，我們本意是希望這套系列片帶來的反應是建設性的，而非破壞性的。”

Mr. Avery, now 53, and Mr. Dassey, now 26, have not seen the series, their lawyers said. Prisoners do not get Netflix. But as Mr. Dassey awaits a federal court decision on claims that his confession was coerced and that he had a right to a lawyer who would mount a defense, Netflix viewers have barraged him with letters of support, said his lawyer, Laura Nirider of the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern University.

據律師說，現年53歲的艾佛裏先生和26歲的達西先生沒有看過這套紀錄片。監獄犯人是看不到Netflix的。達西先生提出了一項申述，聲稱他的自首是被逼迫的，他當時有權讓律師在場。他目前正在等待聯邦法院對這一申訴的判決。達西先生的律師勞拉·尼裏德爾(Laura Nirider)說，他收到了大批來自Netflix觀衆的支持信件。尼裏德爾目前在西北大學(Northwestern University)青年冤案中心工作(Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth)。

“He is incredibly hopeful for the first time that when people hear the name Brendan Dassey, they don’t think of a murderer, they think of someone who has been wronged,” she said.

“他有生以來頭一次充滿了無限的希望，相信當人們聽到布蘭頓·達西這個名字時，想到的不再是一個謀殺犯，而是一個被冤枉的人。”她說。

And a new lawyer, Kathleen T. Zellner, well known for taking on wrongful conviction cases, has since signed on to handle Mr. Avery’s next legal step.

艾佛裏先生也新請了一名律師凱瑟琳·T·澤爾納(Kathleen T. Zellner)，來處理他的下一步法律事務。澤爾納女士以處理冤案申訴而聞名。

At the auto salvage yard, along dead-end Avery Road, tiny, jittery dogs watch from a green trailer where Dolores Avery, Mr. Avery’s mother, says she is too tired for more interviews. Years ago, I sat with her, her husband and a brother in the living room here as they insisted that Mr. Avery was being railroaded for a second time.

在艾佛里路盡頭的廢車場裏，一羣小狗在綠色的拖車裏不安地張望。艾佛裏先生的母親多洛雷斯·艾佛裏(Dolores Avery)表示，她已經無力再做更多訪談了。多年前，我曾經和她、她的丈夫和一個兄弟一起坐在客廳裏，那時他們堅稱，艾佛裏先生再次受到了不公平的審判。

Standing in her doorway this month, Ms. Avery, a constant presence in the series, said she hoped people now saw “the crooked things the county has done” to her family.

現在，在紀錄片中多次出現的艾佛裏女士站在自家門廊，表示她希望大家終於能看到這個縣對她家人所做的“一切不公”。

But all the renewed talk, the calls for interviews from around the world? “I’m too old for this,” she said. “It’s too much.”

但是，對於舊話重提以及追逐而來的全球記者的採訪要求，她又有什麼感覺呢？她說：“我實在是太老了。受不了這些了。”

Recently, tourists have been spotted on the property, with its row after row of forgotten, snow-topped cars, stopping in front of the yellow and black Avery’s Auto Salvage & 24 Hour Towing sign to snap selfies.

近來，在她家地盤上時常能見到一些旅遊者。他們在那些成排的、白雪覆蓋的廢棄汽車前流連，在黃黑相間的“艾佛裏廢車場，24小時拖車”的標誌前駐足自拍。