Vinny didn't really do anything
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — My Cousin Vinny
StakkaDakka — 10 years ago(November 01, 2015 01:05 AM)
The reason the defendants got off was because the real perpetrators got themselves arrested in possession of the murder weapon. Ballistics would match the bullet from the crime scene with that gun, unequivocally exonerating the defendants,regardless of the quality of Vinny's lawyer abilities.
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JosephASpadaro — 10 years ago(November 07, 2015 11:45 AM)
Yes, but the real perpetrators were found in another state or another jurisdiction.
Police did not connect all the dots, that those two who were arrested in another jurisdiction were involved in the instant case.
I believe it was Vinny (Pesci) who connected all the dots. -
skeetchtvs — 10 years ago(November 09, 2015 08:32 AM)
That is correct, right before Vinny goes to get Lisa to testify he hands the police officer a piece of paper and asks him to check on this. That is when the cop comes back and says they found the other car.
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JosephASpadaro — 10 years ago(November 09, 2015 09:49 AM)
Yes. And, actually, that scene always surprised me.
When Vinny makes the request, the Sheriff basically says: "No way, that's not my job! I'm not doing that!" pretty defiantly.
Then, Vinny says "Please, I only have three minutes." (or whatever), and the Sheriff does a complete 180 and obliges the request.
Also: that actor was perfect in that role of sheriff. He looked and acted like a typical Southern redneck sheriff. Pot belly and all. -
crysjumar — 10 years ago(November 24, 2015 10:58 AM)
With his trademark mustache
http://pyxurz.blogspot.com/2011/09/national-lampoons-animal-house-page-2.html
Take your pinche color-coordinated sponsored chingada and take a flying fck -
Brad-158 — 10 years ago(November 28, 2015 12:15 AM)
Joseph: "Yes. And, actually, that scene always surprised me. When Vinny makes the request, the Sheriff basically says: "No way, that's not my job! I'm not doing that!" pretty defiantly. Then, Vinny says "Please, I only have three minutes." (or whatever), and the Sheriff does a complete 180 and obliges the request."
I think there's a couple things going on with that-
One, Sheriff Farley is genuinely curious about what kind of information he will get if he does put a trace on a 1963 Pontiac Tempest.
Also, the Sheriff has no personal animosity toward the defendants Bill and Stan (or Vinny for that matter.) He wants whoever killed that clerk to be caught and convicted. Now if it turns out to indeed be Bill and Stan, fine, throw 'em in prison. BUT, if the evidence proves that they had nothing to do with the murder, then the trial with Bill and Stan is a waste of time, and he wants the actual killers to pay.
~Brad -
JosephASpadaro — 10 years ago(November 28, 2015 01:46 PM)
I think there's a couple things going on with that-
One, Sheriff Farley is genuinely curious about what kind of information he will get if he does put a trace on a 1963 Pontiac Tempest.
Also, the Sheriff has no personal animosity toward the defendants Bill and Stan (or Vinny for that matter.) He wants whoever killed that clerk to be caught and convicted. Now if it turns out to indeed be Bill and Stan, fine, throw 'em in prison. BUT, if the evidence proves that they had nothing to do with the murder, then the trial with Bill and Stan is a waste of time, and he wants the actual killers to pay.
You make some good points.
However:
(1) The Sheriff does a
very quick
turn-around. One second he says, "Forget it, I am not helping you, that's not my job!" And, literally two seconds later, he goes along with the request.
(2) Throughout most of the film/trial, the Sheriff clearly sides with the prosecutor. Throughout, he looks upon Vinny with scorn and contempt. A few times, he giggles and laughs at Vinny. You could clearly tell that he was on the "side" of the prosecutor. Not necessarily on the "side" of finding the real killers.
In other words, once he "thought" that they had the correct killers, he was pretty much closed-minded.
For some reason, he became open-minded (or maybe, just curious) when Vinny made that last-minute plea for help. -
JosephASpadaro — 10 years ago(November 28, 2015 01:59 PM)
Also:
The Sheriff did seem to have personal contempt for Vinny.
When Vinny was flailing all over court and falling on his face a few times, the Sheriff clearly was enjoying Vinny's mis-steps. The Sheriff was highly amused and was gloating over Vinny's failures in court (along with his "boss", the prosecutor).
This was (likely) personal contempt for Vinny based mostly on the fact that he was an "outsider", from New York.
They (the Sheriff and the prosecutor) did not like Vinny from Day 1, mostly because he was an "outsider" from New York, who was trying to step on the toes of Southern justice. It had nothing to do with the fact that the Sheriff and the prosecutor were yearning for "real justice" and to find the "real killer".
Also, for the above reasons, the Sheriff and the prosecutor were highly biased against the two boys (the suspects). They were also outsiders, from New York, who thought they could run through this backwoods redneck town, do as they pleased, and get away with murder (in the closed-minded and biased view of the Southern folks, including the Sheriff and the prosecutor).
So, yes, there was indeed personal animosity.
And, of course, the Judge didn't help matters much. He "fed into" (and encouraged) the Sheriff's and the prosecutor's disdain for Vinny. -
franzkabuki — 9 years ago(September 24, 2016 02:03 PM)
"There was indeed personal animosity".
Indeed - especially considering that at one point he took it upon himself to blatantly lie in court by testifying that the defendant had stated "I shot the clerk". Funny nobody mentions that.
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan -
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Heidi_Smiles — 10 years ago(January 12, 2016 06:47 PM)
I think the explanation is pretty simple:
Vinny approaches him with some note, saying "Please trace this." His immediate reaction is, "No, that's not my job."
When Vinny pleads, "I only have three minutes," Farley makes the decision to just look at the note. That's reasonable. Vinny scampers out of the room.
Farley sees that the note says "1963 Pontiac Tempest," which is surprising because that has not come up in the trial AT ALL. He's thinking, "WTF is up with this? Did Vinny figure something out?" and he wants to know what the deal is with the Pontiac. That's when he comes out and says, "Tell me why." At which point, Vinny would have said something like, "I think this is our suspect."
Farley DOES want to catch the real killers. He may or may not have had personal issues with Vinny, but there's no reason to think that he has any interest in convicting the wrong guys for murder. It's just that he thought he DID have the right guys. When he realizes that they were wrong, he wants to fix it.
Pobre de Dios que no sale en revistas, que no es modelo ni artista, o de familia real -