On December 21, 2005, Adrienne Hickson stabbed her lover during an argument. He was driven to hospital but died a few days later. Hickson was the only witness to the attack, and as might be expected she told the story best designed to save her own skin, indeed she attempted not simply to mitigate her crime but to justify it.
The forensic evidence was against her, but possibly on account of the dissing of Shawn Washington as much as her damsel-in-distress routine, the jury was unable to reach a verdict after days of deliberation. This would have led to a retrial, but she was offered an irresistible plea bargain, and was sentenced to 5 years on a lesser charge.
Adrienne Emily Hickson was born into privilege at Aiken, South Carolina, which was in the news five years earlier when Jessica Carpenter (the subject of the documentary "Home All Alone") was murdered.
In contrast to Hickson, her lover was the first of his family to go to university, where their relationship began.
This slightly unusual documentary speaks to the families of both victim and perpetrator as well as both prosecution and defence. Both were black, so it would be difficult for even Al Sharpton to make a race issue out of this case, but one truism it continues to affirm is that getting away with murder is a hell of a lot easier for a woman.
The forensic evidence was against her, but possibly on account of the dissing of Shawn Washington as much as her damsel-in-distress routine, the jury was unable to reach a verdict after days of deliberation. This would have led to a retrial, but she was offered an irresistible plea bargain, and was sentenced to 5 years on a lesser charge.
Adrienne Emily Hickson was born into privilege at Aiken, South Carolina, which was in the news five years earlier when Jessica Carpenter (the subject of the documentary "Home All Alone") was murdered.
In contrast to Hickson, her lover was the first of his family to go to university, where their relationship began.
This slightly unusual documentary speaks to the families of both victim and perpetrator as well as both prosecution and defence. Both were black, so it would be difficult for even Al Sharpton to make a race issue out of this case, but one truism it continues to affirm is that getting away with murder is a hell of a lot easier for a woman.