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I believe I've just finished watching one of the most powerful documentaries I've ever seen and it was done by someone whom I would least expect... Sean Penn.  Although Penn didn't write the script, he was largely involved, including narrating the piece.

I'm no Sean Penn fan.  Usually, when I hear his name, I immediately look elsewhere for my entertainment.  But since I'm a self-proclaimed documentary junkie and he impressed me in Milk, I decided to watch this piece that came out in 2008.

The documentary is called Witch Hunt.  It is about a large group of people who were wrongly convicted of molesting their own children in Bakersfield, CA, in the 1980's.  Although the movie focused largely on the victims - and rightfully so - it also portrayed the power hungry district attorney who clearly was out to make a name for himself by grabbing headlines any way he could.

The film moved me to think.  I've always trusted in America's criminal justice system.  When I hear of child molestation cases, I'm just as appalled and upset as anyone else.  When we cover those types of cases as news stories, we often have to refuse or delete very nasty website comments from readers who immediately proclaim the defendant's guilt.  And, for the most part, that sentiment was exactly what happened in these cases detailed in Witch Hunt.  The defendants were convicted in the court of public opinion from the day they were arrested.

The documentary caused me to take a step back and wonder if it could ever happen where I live.  As the saying goes, one bad apple doesn't mean the whole tree is rotten, but here's something I cannot fathom even more-so than all of those wrongful prosecutions which ruined dozens of lives, including the innocent children who were coerced into testifying against their own parents.  The DA involved, Ed Jagels, is still the DA in Kern County, California.  He has been elected and re-elected seven times since 1983, running unopposed all but one time.

I don't want to detail the whole movie here for you because I want you to go out and watch it for yourself and be as moved as I was.  After you watch it, let me know what you thought.  Witch Hunt is available on Netflix.