November 8, 2002
9:00 PM -- Friday
114 min

Language: English
Year and Country of Production: USA 2002
Director: Peter Kinoy and Pamela Yates

A startling, no-holds-barred new documentary that takes a behind the scenes of the San Francisco Public Defenders office as it allows the audience to step inside holding cells, courtrooms, police stations and even into the inner sanctum of lawyer-client confidentiality while following two high-profile murder cases.

It is a constitutional right for all citizens to have a lawyer (under legal circumstances) when accused of a crime. Studies show, however, that 90 percent of all people in San Francisco accused of crimes cannot afford private lawyers and are assigned public defenders, and the Public Defender's Office and its 80 attorneys handle over 19,000 cases per year. "Presumed Guilty" explores what really goes on between defense attorneys and the accused in the inner sanctum of lawyer-client confidentiality while following two high-profile murder cases.

Filmed and produced over three years by Pamela Yates and Peter Kinoy, this film breaks new ground by giving an unprecedented view of these attorneys who wrestle with situations such as misdemeanor charges of being under the influence to highly publicized murder trials. In "Presumed Guilty," the cases unfold through the eyes of the public defenders themselves: what they see, the audience sees; what they hear, the audience hears. Most uniquely, the audience gets to understand what drives these complex and combative lawyers' thinking as they struggle through daunting moral dilemmas and even their own personal demons.