"They Won't Forget"

            The film, They Won’t Forget, revolves around the investigation and trial that took place soon after the murder of young Mary Clay. The movie highlights the issue of the press versus the criminal justice system. Although these are two separate entities, oftentimes, the lines between the two are blurred through media manipulation, prejudice, rumors, and self-serving equivocations.

            On Confederate Memorial Day, the students are dismissed early from school to celebrate with the rest of town. Mary Clay returns back to school after being dismissed to retrieve an item she left behind. She never made it out alive.

Earlier in the film, the district attorney mentions his desire to become the next governor, but since he does not come from a long line of important family members, it is hard to acquire social and political mobility. 

Once Clay’s body is initially found, the authorities immediately suspect that it is the janitor. It is not explicitly stated, but it appears that this claim was racially motivated. It seemed as if they figured it would be easier to pin the murder on the lowly, African-American janitor.

The district attorney saw this murder investigation as a way to obtain a higher status in the eyes of the public and potentially become a hero. He thought that if he were to be the one to solve the crime and convict an unlikely or unsuspecting murderer, then he would gain the admiration of the people.

            For this reason, the district attorney arrested and charged Mary Clay’s teacher, Robert Hale, with the murder. There was little evidence to support this, but the district attorney was determined to make his mark on the town.

The case received major attention, not only by the small town, but by the rest of the United States as well. The entire country was talking about the murder of Mary Clay. It plagued news outlets everywhere. It even got to the point where a detective from New York came down south to investigate the case for himself.

This caused a lot of controversy in the small southern town, as the southerners grew skeptical of the northerners and the press got out of control. At one point, the judge even had to remind the court that the case was about whether the professor killed Mary Clay, not if the north hates the south or the south hates the north. Evidence is not rumors or idle talk. 

When it came down to the jury’s decision, they received an anonymous note that stated “vote guilty if you feel like living." The jurors ultimately found the defendant guilty of first degree murder. 

 

Following this, Hale was put on a train and sent away to prison. While on his travels, he was abducted by a group of men who proceeded to kill him in an act of vengeance. 

            At the very end of the movie, the district attorney and his colleague question if they really think Robert Hale murdered Mary Clay, proving that they themselves were not even positive about their own conviction. 

The district attorney did all of this for his image, and now because of him, a potentially innocent man is dead and a deranged murder is on the loose.

“They Won’t Forget” shows the extreme influence that the press and media hold over the public. The printed words full of rumors and biases are able to dictate the fate of man. This reveals to viewers that media manipulation is real and that everything is not always as it seems.