TREETOP
A Dramatic Feature Film Currently in Pre-Production
TREETOP is the true story of an epic fight for justice, and how that battle created a lasting bond between two men: AARON “TREETOP” TURNER, an imposing man who has drifted north from North Carolina to post-war Philadelphia to make his mark in Negro League baseball, and ED ROME, an Ivy-educated young lawyer who is assigned to a case he will pursue pro bono for the next 12 years. Not a courtoom drama, but rather the saga of a friendship – replete with detective-like searches for alibi-providing evidence that all point to the wrong day, perjured testimony and at least one racist judge.
Not a stranger to minor scrapes with the law, Turner is framed for a double murder that he did not commit. Over the next dozen years, he is convicted five times – and sentenced to death four times. Struggling against a judge who says “The only thing wrong with this case is that the police didn’t arrest him one day, try on the second and hang him on the third.” Rome manages a series of appeals that go all the way to the United States Supreme Court. And on the day Rome goes to the Supreme Court, he struggles mightily as well not to scratch a body riddled by poison ivy.
After five trials and five appeals, the State of Pennsylvania finally drops the case and frees Turner. As he walks down the steps of the courthouse one last time, a bystander asks him what he thinks of the justice system. “I’m living proof that it works,” he says. He continues to the sidewalk where Rome is waiting. For a moment they stand still, then quietly shake hands. Rome has won a new understanding of the endurance and strength of a man and a vision of how, no matter how slow and cumbersome, the wheels of justice do turn. For Treetop, the rewards have been simpler – he has regained his freedom. After a moment in the late afternoon sun, they turn and separate. For the first time in their friendship, they are both going home.