| Brief Description: | A powerful documentary--the debut film by William Friedkin (French
Connection, To Live and Die in L.A.)--The People vs Paul Crump is an
impassioned plea for mercy and justice, based on the true story of
Paul Crump--a man who is still in Illinois prison. In 1953, five young
black men robbed a food plant in the Chicago Stockyards. Their getaway
went awry, one security guard was shot to death, and five employees
were severely beaten. Within a week, all five were arrested. The fifth
man, Paul Crump, then 22, was sentenced to die in the electric chair.
He is sentenced to life in prison, and was at the brink of execution
some 15 times between 1953 and 1962. William Friedkin met Paul Crump
in jail, and so believed in his innocence, his record of
rehabilitation as a model prisoner and his worth as a human being,
that he made this artistic tour-de-force which is an impassioned plea
for Crump's return to society. |
