In November 1983, three Baltimore. MD teens are brought in for questioning related to a murder at one of the local schools in the area. 36 years later, those same men, Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins, and Andrew Stewart, walked out of the courthouse as free men after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of DeWitt Duckett and sentenced to life in prison.
Documentarian Dawn Porter, in collaboration with author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, looks into the case and the developments that led to their release in When a Witness Recants. The film follows the Harlem Park 3 (Chestnut, Watkins, and Stewart) and the primary witness, Ron Bishop.
I was initially drawn to this movie by the still image on the Sundance website, which features an illustrated recreation of two of the three men in the back of a cop car, leading me to think a large portion of the movie would be animated. There were some incredible illustrations of various scenes throughout the movie, but they were used sparingly and could have elevated it beyond documentary conventionality.
The first 75 minutes of the movie follow a pretty traditional true-crime structure, hitting the typical beats of having each subject explain their side of things and exploring the timeline from the murder to sentencing. This was admittedly overly conventional, but it laid a solid groundwork for the case and those involved. This buildup pays off in some powerful moments in the last half hour.
While it’s illuminating and emotional to listen to the main three throughout the film, Ron Bishop is far and away the most fascinating subject. I spent the whole time trying to get into his head and dig into his motivations. Was he actually sorry for what he did, or was he just trying to come out looking like the hero of the story? The team behind this documentary found a difference-maker in Bishop, creating a solid secondary story to follow alongside the more traditional wrongful conviction narrative.
Bishop is compelling throughout, but really takes center stage during a planned “reunion” of sorts with the three men he put in jail. He has the opportunity to speak his side of the story to them, and it’s an absolutely jaw-dropping scene. I could feel my chest tightening as he looked each of them in the eyes and couldn’t wait to see how they might respond. This scene is a showstopper, and makes this way more special than most documentaries following this subject matter.
While When a Witness Recants is far from an unheard of story, it’s no less heartwrenching than the mainstays of the genre like The Thin Blue Line (1988). Stewart, in particular, has some emotional moments with his family, and we are offered more time with him and his loved ones than with Chestnut and Watkins. His mom is featured prominently throughout and provides touching memories from back when the investigation was initially happening, and how wrong it was.
Is a documentary like this pointing out the wrong in the world enough, though? What’s the point of all this if nothing changes? The tales of wrongful conviction could be told in this medium for hundreds of years, and we wouldn’t run into any repeat stories. This doesn’t just start in appeals courts or trial courts. It’s clear that policing and even detectives, who had never met the suspects in this specific case, are more interested in using their power to meet quotas and get results than in keeping communities safe and enacting truthful justice. Movies like this not only tug at the heartstrings but also strive to make you mad about the state of our justice system, which starts at the very lowest level. This was the first film I saw at Sundance, and I left infuriated. We all should be.
When a Witness Recants is a powerful story about one of the more inexplicable trials in Baltimore history and the eventual exoneration of the men involved. While it doesn’t break form as often as one might want, its story is still important and brings us the intriguing witness Ron Bishop, whose motivations behind finally coming forward with the truth provide a lot of narrative momentum in the film’s latter half. If there’s one lesson we can take from Bishop and everyone involved in this case, it’s that we have to do better. This system does not work completely outside of a vacuum, and we must do what we can to reform it and help those affected by its faults.
‘When a Witness Recants’ is expected to come to streaming on HBO Max in 2026.
Review Courtesy of Cameron K. Ritter
Feature Image Courtesy of Sundance Institute | artwork by Dawud Anyabwile