Who Killed Garrett Phillips? (2019)

In October 2011, in Potsdam, New York, 12-year-old Garrett Phillips is found strangled to death in his home. The investigation into his murder quickly finds a suspect in Nick Hillary, Garrett’s mother Tandy’s ex-boyfriend. Here’s an important detail: Nick is black, and Potsdam is a predominantly white town.

This two-part HBO documentary by Liz Garbus features interviews with Nick, with Garrett’s family members, with Tandy’s friends, members of the various legal teams involved in the case, two district attorneys, and the journalists that followed the investigation from the very beginning.

It’s as much a look into a horrific crime that shook a community as it is into the flaws in a criminal justice system that wants to put a suspect behind bars, whether they’re guilty or not, more than it wants to solve a murder.