A 14-year-old's murder inside a Baltimore school hallway in 1983 sent three teenage classmates to prison for a crime they did not commit, and the documentary retracing that miscarriage of justice is coming to Columbus for its Ohio premiere. When a Witness Recants screens October 23 at the Wexner Center for the Arts, with director Dawn Porter attending a question-and-answer session after the film.
The 112-minute HBO Documentary Film, directed by Dawn Porter, examines what its own promotional materials describe as the lasting effects of a profound miscarriage of justice, according to Columbus Underground. The film centers on false testimony that led to the imprisonment of three teenagers, who each spent 36 years in prison after being convicted and sentenced to life. Porter has directed other acclaimed documentaries, including John Lewis: Good Trouble, Luther: Never Too Much, and Gideon's Army.
The case at the heart of the film began on November 18, 1983, when 14-year-old student DeWitt Duckett was fatally shot in a hallway at Harlem Park Junior High School over his Georgetown Starter jacket — the first murder recorded in Baltimore City Public Schools history, according to Wikipedia. Alfred Chestnut, Andrew Stewart, and Ransom Watkins, all 16-year-old high school students at the time, were arrested on Thanksgiving Day in 1983 in connection with the killing.
A Wrongful Conviction Two Decades in the Unraveling
Chestnut, Stewart, and Watkins were not exonerated until November 25, 2019, after serving a combined 108 years behind bars — the longest total term served by wrongfully convicted co-defendants in U.S. history, per Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP. The breakthrough came when Chestnut filed a public records request with prosecutors, unearthing police reports showing that multiple witnesses had originally identified a different 18-year-old suspect seen running from the school in the victim's jacket, the Prison Legal News reports. That alternate suspect died in 2002, years before the trio was finally freed.
The documentary's investigative narrative draws on a 2021 New Yorker article by journalist Jennifer Gonnerman, which re-examined how coerced youth testimonies led to the three life sentences, according to Flowers Keller LLP. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who grew up in West Baltimore, served as executive producer on the film; he has remembered learning in 1983 that a 14-year-old boy was murdered in the corridor of his Baltimore middle school as a defining event of his childhood. When a Witness Recants made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2026, in the Premieres section.
The Public Price of Police Misconduct
The financial reckoning that followed the exonerations was substantial. Maryland's Board of Public Works approved $8.7 million in state administrative compensation for the three men in March 2020, with payouts computed based on average Maryland household income figures for each year served, per Prison Legal News. Then in October 2023, the Baltimore City Board of Estimates approved a historic $48 million settlement for Chestnut, Stewart, and Watkins to resolve federal civil litigation alleging police misconduct and evidence fabrication — the largest wrongful conviction settlement in Baltimore history, according to CBS News. Hoodline previously cited that $48 million payout as context for a separate Baltimore wrongful conviction case involving an $11 million proposed settlement.
Beyond the legal history, the film explores collateral damage to the community, the wrongly accused, and young witnesses pressured to betray them, per Columbus Underground's event listing. Graphic novel-style animated recreations created by Dawud Anyabwile appear throughout the film, interwoven with archival material. RogerEbert.com described the film as a harrowing investigative piece that moves with the sure-footedness of the truth stepping out into the light.
Ohio Premiere Details and Ticket Information
The screening runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on October 23 at the Wexner Center for the Arts, located at 1871 N. High St. in Columbus. Advance ticket sales began August 22 for members, while tickets became available to the general public on September 4. Prices are $8 for members, $9 for adults 55 and over, $12 for the general public, and $6 for students.
The Ohio premiere is part of Unorthodocs 2026, the Wexner Center's 10th annual creative nonfiction filmmaking festival running October 22 through 26. Wexner Center film programmers have noted that independent documentary distribution faces severe industry bottlenecks, pointing out that only two of the 12 feature documentaries featured in their 2025 festival secured a national release — a reality that underscores why university arts centers and documentary festivals remain vital venues for nonfiction cinema. Hoodline previously noted the film's inclusion in Harlem Week's Black cinema lineup earlier this year.
The production features an original score by composer Osei Essed, cinematography by Bryan Gentry, and editing by Jessica Congdon for HBO Documentary Films, according to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. For Columbus audiences, the October screening offers a rare chance to hear directly from Porter about a case that reshaped how Maryland and Baltimore officials have had to reckon with decades of wrongful imprisonment.
