Population Zero Page #3

Synopsis: In April 2009 three young men were killed in a remote part of Yellowstone National Park. Authorities Never Found the Murderer. He Found Them. Only hours after three young men were gunned down in cold blood, Dwayne Nelson walked into a ranger station miles away and confessed to the crime. Despite his detailed confession, Dwayne Nelson was allowed to go free because of a loophole in the American Constitution. Award Winning Canadian Documentarian Julian T. Pinder (Trouble in the Peace, Land, Jesus Town) travels to Yellowstone in a cinematic and compelling chase for truth behind a crime that should have rocked the nation. How did the United States Constitution, the supreme law of the United States of America, let a guilty man go free? In his hunt for answers Pinder breaks the first rule of documentary film making by allowing himself to become a subject in the story; risking his life and others when he finds evidence that could re-open the case of the Yellowstone Murders years later. In Pin
Production: FaceFilm
  1 win & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
6.1
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
NOT RATED
Year:
2016
84 min
325 Views


I don't recall.

I don't recall.

We started throwing around...

It was an idea that...

Looked more and more

interesting the more

we looked at it.

And we started to run with it.

But you don't recall

who came up with the one--

I don't recall.

I find that impossible

to believe.

- You find that

impossible to believe?

- Yeah.

Look, uh...

It was the basis of

your entire--

I was told that you were

coming in here

to talk to me

about practicing law

in Cheyenne.

Well, this is part of it.

Not specific elements

about specific cases. Okay?

You want that stuff?

If you want it,

you can go down to the Court,

there are Court records,

you can take a look

at all that stuff.

Okay? It's all there for you.

- Okay.

- All right? Are we good here?

Can we just back up a little?

'Cause I'm good.

I'm good. All right?

Thank you very much.

I appreciate you coming by,

I really do.

Thank you. Thank you.

I went

to the Courthouse,

but was denied access

to the records.

I was told the documents

had been sealed,

but they couldn't tell me why.

Investigating the loophole,

however,

was much easier.

The Constitution is

the Supreme law

for every citizen living

in the United States.

But the Constitution

that protects us

also let a murderer go free.

Article three, Section two

of the Constitution...

This, however, does not clarify

where the jury

should come from.

So the sixth amendment

was written,

requiring that

the jury must be...

So based on the Constitution,

any person charged with murder

must be tried

before a local jury

that comes from

the State and District

in which the crime took place.

Yellowstone National Park,

established back in 1872,

recognized as the first

National Park in the world.

It is predominantly situated

in the north-west corner

of Wyoming.

But approximately nine

percent of Yellowstone

overflows north into Montana,

and west into Idaho.

The strip of the Park

located in Idaho

is where the law and

civil rights collide.

Yellowstone Park is not

governed by State law.

It is ruled under Federal law.

So any crime committed

in the Park

must be tried

at the Courthouse

in Mammoth Hot Springs.

Or in Cheyenne at

the Federal District Court.

So what does this all mean?

The jurors must be drawn

from this small strip of land

of approximately

50 square miles.

There is only one problem.

No one lives here.

You cannot select a jury of 12

from an area that has

a population of zero.

Hello, sir.

Can I ask you a question?

Sorry to interrupt you.

I know you're in the middle

of your meal there.

But, uh...

You or anyone from your herd

happen to have

been in the region

where there's, uh,

a supposed

constitutional loophole,

near the Idaho side?

No?

Or any of your family

or associates?

Nothing?

Deutsch? Speak Deutsch?

It's just right up here.

So if these maps are right,

I think this is pretty much

the line here.

So somewhere around here...

Is the loophole in

the Constitution.

And somewhere around here

is the no loophole

in the Constitution.

So the boundary is

kind of right there.

Most people,

when they hear about it,

they focus on the simple

matters of the case.

They...

Broad strokes.

The murders, the hole

in the Constitution.

And understandably so.

I mean, these are

the boldest parts of the case.

But you can't,

and you really shouldn't

miss the kind of

mind boggling things

that happened from the murders

up until the Court hearing.

All right?

Number one.

Dwayne turns himself in

voluntarily almost immediately.

Number two...

He confesses,

within his rights,

without representation

or legal counsel.

Number three...

He refuses

to plead insanity.

Number four, he refuses to move

the trial.

Now if you add all

those four things up,

and he goes away

for a triple homicide,

you can say, "fine."

But he didn't.

He got away with it.

And not because he

had a fair trial,

or there was reasonable

doubt raised.

But that there was

a hole in the Constitution.

An overlap.

Now you consider those

four things again.

Without them,

he goes away for

a very, very long time.

So you're suggesting that

Dwayne knew exactly

what he was doing?

That's exactly what

I'm suggesting.

Of course, the only person

that's gonna know

the answer to that

is Dwayne.

Why haven't there been

further investigations

into this?

Well, this whole thing was

swept under the rug.

It's an embarrassment.

A hole in the Constitution!

No, I think the right people

leaned in the right places

to make sure that this

all went away

before it became

a National uproar.

So the Government basically

helped a guilty man go free,

is what you're saying?

No. I'm saying

Dwayne helped himself.

This cover up

is just a happy consequence

for him.

When you dig

into Dwayne's past,

you're gonna find a broken,

shattered man.

I don't know.

I watched his interrogation,

his confession.

Was that a man on the edge,

or a man in complete control?

The only person who really

knows what happened that day

is Dwayne.

I decided to head

out to Williston, North Dakota,

to see what the people of

Dwayne's hometown had to say.

Have you heard of

the Yellowstone murders

and Dwayne Nelson?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

You have.

Can I just ask you a quick

question about them?

- Oh, no.

- No?

We really don't wanna

answer any questions.

Okay. Thanks very much anyway.

No, I'm really not interested.

No? Okay, well, thank you.

Sorry, not right now.

I really must run.

- Okay. Thank you.

- Sorry.

Ever heard of Dwayne Nelson

and the Yellowstone murders?

Uh, yeah. Sir, I don't

wanna talk about that.

Can you just answer

just maybe on... no?

F***!

People in town were

reluctant to speak at all.

But those closest to Dwayne

before the murders

welcomed us with open arms.

- Hi, Rachel?

- Hi. Yeah.

How are you? Julian.

- Julian? Hi.

- Yeah.

This is Adam.

Right.

Come on in.

I'll take your coat.

Okay. Thank you very much.

So you knew Dwayne?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

- Dwayne and Carol. Yeah.

- Okay.

- They were like family.

- Were they?

- Lovely couple.

- Okay.

After graduating

high school late,

Dwayne married his sweetheart,

Carol Harson, at the age of 23.

She met Dwayne...

Actually we were

in the car together.

And we were going to, uh...

To the bar and...

It was winter

and the car got stuck.

And, um...

I was driving, and she was

out trying to push the car,

and Dwayne came by

and he was sort of like

a knight in shining armor.

I wasn't too sure

about him at first.

He, uh...

He was really quiet.

Like really quiet.

And smart.

But he, uh...

He just was...

He wasn't what I thought

Carol would go for.

He was a great family man.

Him and Carol, they were...

They were close, and...

You know, I...

He's the kind of guy

that you'd wanna

emulate, I guess,

is a good word to use.

You probably had it

growing up, too, that buddy,

you know, that you could

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Jeff Staranchuk

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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