Nicole Cohen

The violence and inhumanity of Chris' crimes are unspeakable, and this documentary made every effort to humanize him. They showed footage of him being kind to his kids, they played videos of his dead wife talking about how wonderful is, they offered him a voice in every possible way. On top of that, law enforcement, the community, Shanann's family, and everyone in court treated him with nothing but respect and calmness. This dynamic was a major part of his story and legal process. People need to talk about all of this only being possible because Chris is a white man. If a Black man were in the same position, who would care to make a humanizing documentary about him? Would law enforcement not immediately suspect his involvement in the murders? Would they address him as "sir" and make only polite requests? Certainly, the death penalty would be more strongly considered. Undoubtedly, there wouldn't be a book made from his letters written from prison, which exists for Chris and offers explanations for his actions. We should all be angry about the racist representation of people of color in the justice system that rarely seems to find justice for victims but rather serves in every way to pose white people as anything but criminals. This documentary is completely unnecessary, and it perpetuates a long and deeply entrenched history of minimizing white crime to an anomalous and sensational story. If our society claims to care about dismantling systemic racism, we need to stop supporting dramatized stories like this and start fighting for egregiously mistreated Black and Brown incarcerated folks to find justice. Also, irrelevant to all of the above, but Shanann was clearly involved in a pyramid scheme. Just had to mention that too.