Free screening of ‘Texas Justice: Brandon Woodruff’ to take place Monday
A free screening of “Texas Justice: Brandon Woodruff” will take place Monday at the San Marcos Public Library.
The screening begins at 6 p.m. followed by a Q&A panel of filmmakers and experts. Monday’s event is co-sponsored by Mano Amiga, Hays County Jail Advocates, Lost River Film Fest, San Marcos Public Library and Caldwell/Hays Examiner, following the weekend of SMTX Pride events
“What do you do when a corrupt District Attorney comes after you for something you didn’t do? When you’re an innocent gay man facing prosecution in a homophobic small East Texas town?” the event screening announcement asked. “For Brandon Woodruff, results were disastrous.”
“Texas Justice: Brandon Woodruff” takes a hard-hitting look at a case in October 2005, where Texas prosecutors charged Brandon Dale Woodruff — then a 19-year-old freshman at Abilene Christian University — with murdering his parents Dennis and Norma. Unable to make the $1 million bail, he sat in Hunt County Jail for more than three years awaiting trial.
When the case finally was presented to a Greenville jury in northeast Texas, the prosecution posited during the 12-day trial that Woodruff was living a double life, based on lies, who ditched classes at ACU for gay adventures in wild Dallas. Faced with flunking out and returning home, the prosecutors argued Woodruff killed his disappointed parents for their life insurance so he would be free to pursue his gay life with carefree abandon. On March 20, 2009, the jury convicted Brandon after only five hours of deliberation, and sentenced him to a life term behind bars.
The Q&A panel will be moderated by Amy Kamp of Hays County Jail Advocates, composed of Director Scott Poggensee; Producer Richard Ray; & Cyrus Gray II, whose son Cyrus has been jailed in Hays County for over four years on a murder charge, pursued by the very same prosecutor in Woodruff's case: Hays County Assistant D.A. Ralph Guerrero.
