My-Two-Cent

I know it's an old show and the producers assumed these guys were guilty but the fact is all three of the guys were/are innocent which was proven through DNA testing in 2024 and I wonder if the actual murderer drove a VW Bug as the FBI claimed that that's the kind of vehicle that hit her.

Here's a story about the wrongful convicted, the real killer and the misfortune that follows this case when it comes to justice or the lack of there of or ever being for the family...

Below by Simon J. Levien Jan. 22, 2025 Two brothers who were convicted in the 1991 rape and murder of a tourist in Hawaii filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday claiming that the police had framed them and then bungled an investigation that could have brought the true killer to justice.

Albert Schweitzer, who goes by his middle name Ian, served 23 years in prison for a life sentence before newly discovered DNA evidence cleared his name and he was freed in 2023.

His brother, Shawn Schweitzer, took a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping in 2000 and spent one year in prison. After Ian's convictions were overturned and he was released in 2023, Shawn Schweitzer made a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and his conviction was soon vacated.

The brothers argued in the new lawsuit that they "had nothing to do with the crime." The evidence suggested that an unknown man may have been responsible.

Dana Ireland, a 23-year-old white woman, was biking in a remote area of the Big Island when she was raped and murdered. Investigators grasped for clues for years before indicting the Schweitzers. The brothers, who are part Native Hawaiian and were 20 and 16 at the time of the murder, alleged in the lawsuit that they were targeted after the police were "under immense pressure to solve the high-profile murder." In 2023, Kenneth L. Lawson, co-director of the Hawai'i Innocence Project, which represented Mr. Schweitzer in his criminal trial along with the Innocence Project, told The Times that the case's racial dynamic fueled the news media's interest in the investigation and put added pressure on the authorities to secure convictions.

The lawsuit, filed in the U. S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, argued that, long after the Schweitzers' arrest and prosecution, the police also failed to pursue a promising lead last year.

Albert Lauro Jr., a 57-year-old man who lived near where Ms. Ireland's body was found, killed himself after police took a DNA sample from him in 2024. The lawsuit claims that the police knew that the DNA evidence had linked Mr. Lauro to the crime scene, but that they never attempted to arrest him.

"It's just an atrocity, what's happened to these two young men," William Harrison, a lawyer representing the Schweitzers, said. "Not one shred of evidence pointed to the direction of our clients." The brothers named the local police and investigators as defendants in the suit.

A spokeswoman for the police department of Hawaii County said the department would defend itself against the lawsuit's claims, but declined to comment further. A spokesman for the county government, which is also named in the suit, did not respond to a request for comment.

"Plaintiffs now seek justice for the harm that Defendants have caused and redress for the violation of their constitutional rights and the terrible hardship that they have endured and continue to suffer," the lawsuit read.

In a separate civil suit, their lawyer said, the brothers are seeking compensation from the state, $50,000 per year incarcerated, for wrongful convictions.

The third person convicted in the murder was Frank Pauline Jr., who was in prison in 1994 for an unrelated crime when he told police he was with Ian and Shawn Schweitzer when they allegedly hit Ms. Ireland with their car and then allegedly sexually assaulted her.

Mr. Pauline's account changed over the years while police interviewed him, and he recanted his testimony in 1996. Still, the Schweitzer brothers were indicted in 1997 on charges of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. Mr. Pauline was also convicted and given a life sentence. He was killed in prison in 2015.

Let me start by saying I like the format of the show and how it lays the crime line down and unfolds it to it's predictable end of revealing the killer but it really cheapens the show when the narrator drops the killers name then show a picture of the actor who's playing or acting the part of said killer then will show pictures of the actors in group photos with other actors and have the narrator say something about the victim and her friends.. They've gone far enough as to blur out other actors in group photos of the actor who's playing the evil murderer. In this latest season they've used this same actor in back to back episodes and in one he's passed off as a 17 year old kid but this "kid" was 17 yrs old 17 years ago. If the show isn't using real images because the victims families refuse it then they shouldn't even attempt to make that episode or at LEAST make it known that when the dramatic reveal is shown your usually NOT seeing the actual murderer instead they're showing you an actor who's probably going to be involved in several different murders in several different states at several different moments in time in the coming season. Truth be told there are podcast that put in more production value then some of these so-called true crime TV shows..

I don't understand all of the negative reviews because I rather enjoyed this one.. I'm guessing maybe there wasn't enough CGI spent on it or maybe it's because The Rock wasn't in it or maybe it's that COVID blip I thought we'd see many years in the future of the dumbing down of humanity but unfortunately it's already showing it's ugly face and people just either aren't smart enough to understand what they're seeing or maybe it's just that our attention span has regressed so much that all anyone wants to see are bad comedies or these so-called "unscripted" shows that are already helping humanity lose a few IQ points.. The problem is films Hollywood keeps pumping out turds like Jurassic World: Dominion which grossed over $1 billion dollars worldwide and did it all while sporting a IMDb score of 5.6 and I couldn't get through but about 15 minutes of that junk and I like Pratt and Howard.. In the end I thought the writing was good and Bautista killed it, the only problem was the Andrew character was unlikable and overacted his part but everyone else was solid..