Christopher Shawn Rech
Christopher Shawn Rech is an American film and television director and producer, known for the 2014 Showtime documentary, A Murder in the Park.
Personal life[edit]
Rech was born on June 13, 1965, in Independence, Missouri, United States. The biological son of Franklin Delano Richardson and Joyce (Conner) Hernandez. Rech was adopted at six weeks old by Gene and Helga (Friesleben) Rech, a banker and homemaker, who relocated to Cleveland, Ohio shortly thereafter.
In 1986, at the age of 21, Rech began a year-long search for his biological family, eventually locating his birth mother in South Boston, Virginia, and his birth father in Richmond, Virginia. The search, and the relationships that followed are the subject of Rech's upcoming documentary "Being Born."
Rech has one son, Jahmaal, 1993.
Work[edit]
Rech is a lifelong entrepreneur, having started a sign and award business while still in high school. He later developed various software for business management, membership directories, and K-12 test prep.
In 2007, he took a job as writer, and later editor of Suites Magazine, a small apartment industry trade journal in Ohio.[1]
In 2009, together with Ralph McGreevy and Cleveland Police Sergeant David Rutt, Rech created a local crime television program called "Warrant Unit." The program featured unsolved homicides and urged viewers to call in tips to help detectives close open cases. It aired on CBS - WOIO to solid ratings and quickly started gleaning tips to solve cases. The show was later re-branded "Crime Stoppers Case Files" and moved to WKYC, Cleveland's NBC affiliate. The program's success led to other top 20 markets wanting similar programs, so Rech created versions for Miami (with Crime Stoppers Director Richard Masten, on CBS4/MY33), Los Angeles (with news reporter Joy Benedict, on CBS KCAL-9), and Chicago (with local activist Lisette Guillen and Attorney Andrew Hale on WPWR - The CW 50). The Chicago incarnation of program, Case Files Chicago, has continued under show runners Marc Wilkinson and Andrew K. Smith. In October 2017, the show was nominated for an Emmy Award by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chicago/Midwest Chapter in "Outstanding Achievement for Public Affairs/Current Affairs Programming - Series"[2] and was renewed for a sixth season.
In 2012, Andrew Hale, a Chicago attorney who both hosted and sponsored that city's Crime Stoppers program, told Rech about the wrongful conviction of Alstory Simon, imprisoned in Chicago's Anthony Porter debacle - a 1982 murder of teenage sweethearts in a Chicago park for which Anthony Porter was sentenced to death. Student journalists, a professor and private investigator hired by Northwestern University re-investigated the case and determined that Porter, just days from his execution, did not commit the murder. Instead they constructed a case against Alstory Simon using what the Cook County State's Attorney later called "disturbing tactics," even securing Simon's false confession. Rech partnered with Brandon Kimber and Hale to create the 2014 documentary A Murder in the Park. Simon's attorneys credit the film's investigation and pressure with gaining Simon's release.[3]
The film was presented theatrically to critical acclaim, then aired on Showtime/The Movie Channel and is set for Netflix in April 2017. Time named it to its list of "The 15 most incredible true crime stories ever told."[4]
Rech has since begun work on several wrongful conviction and over-sentencing films, and also plans to address the subjects of entrapment, sentencing disparity and prison reform. These include the 2018 documentary White Boy about Richard Wershe Jr., who was known by the nickname "White Boy Rick" and was also the subject of the 2018 film White Boy Rick.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Suites Magazine – Northeast Ohio Apartment Association". Noaamembers.com. Retrieved 2016-12-18.
- ↑ "2017 Nominations Here! | NATAS Chicago". chicagoemmyonline.org. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
- ↑ Shawn Rech (2015-06-26). "'A Murder in the Park': The Innocence Project That Wasn't". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2016-12-18.
- ↑ Eliza Berman (2016-01-05). "Making a Murderer and Other True Crime Documentaries". Time.com. Retrieved 2016-12-18.
This article "Christopher Shawn Rech" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Christopher Shawn Rech. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
