Film Review: FORGIVING JOHNNY
by Karen Pecota

Ben Proudfoot, USA 2023

In the latest short documentary FORGIVING JOHNNY, renowned filmmaker Ben Proudfoot introduces the audience to attorney, Noah Cox with a question, "Is there anything you need to be forgiven for?" Taken aback by the question, he pauses and slowly acknowledges that something happened when he was twelve or thirteen ears old that still haunts him.

For the moment, Cox aborts the recollection of his past, and then explains the latest steps the state of California is taking to address incarcerated individuals who are mentally incapable of the harsh adjustments to prison life.

Every month about 10,000 developmentally disabled people are sent to prison in the United States. Most are represented by public defenders (overburdened attorneys provided by the state). In 2021, California opened a complex legal pathway to appeal for treatment instead of prison time. The following case Cox is assigned is one of the first attempts to do so.

The Los Angeles public county defender’s office is the oldest and biggest public defender’s office in the world, representing 200,000 cases a year. Every day there is a new case. The stakes are high to do a good job in every case; the job is enormously overwhelming.

Cox works in the neo-cognitive disorder unit with clients who function intellectually and emotionally at about a fourth-grade level. He admits that it's difficult to find grace for his clients in a jaded justice system that is inadequate to meet the needs of such incarcerated individuals.

In June of 2020, Johnny Reyes is arrested on three counts. Cox is given Reyes's case to defend. Cox's research of Reyes's past sheds light on his actions to perpetuate a life of crime, but one of the biggest discoveries was an unforgivable crime Reyes committed to his sister and her husband who graciously took him off the street and raised him as their own.

Aware of California's newly installed program called a DIVERSION (due to one's disabilities one could serve time outside of the prison walls with strict monitoring until all tasks ordered by the judge were completed), Cox made application for Reyes. Understanding that in order for it to work, his brother-in-law would have to be willing to forgive Reyes for the atrocity committed against his family. Cox knew it was a long shot.

Proudfoot showcases public defender Cox and his difficulties defending Johnny Reyes in order to have a chance for a new life in FORGIVING JOHNNY. Proudfoot ends his emotionally gripping narrative with a revelation from Cox’s own life by serving Reyes's case: Forgiveness is the grace one needs to be truly free.