'Frontline' uncovers tale of injustice

In the years since DNA testing became an integral part of criminal justice, we've learned many sad tales of people put in prison for crimes they did not commit. But I doubt you will ever hear of a case as heartbreaking as the one told in this week's edition of "Frontline" (9 p.m. Thursday on KCPT, Channel 19, and Topeka's KTWU). In 1985 a convicted felon named Frank Lee Smith was charged with the brutal rape and killing of an 8-year-old girl in a rundown part of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Less than 90 days before his scheduled execution, however, Smith was assigned a new defense team, which soon uncovered serious problems with his case: a paucity of evidence, unreliable testimony and the discovery that a serial rapist who looked a lot like Smith was living mere blocks from the crime scene. Other revelations favorable to Smith would come out in the next 15 years. And yet the Broward County district attorney's office dug in its heels, stonewalling the defense, denying Smith even the DNA test that would've exonerated him. "Frontline" producer Ofra Bikel has done remarkable work here. It came too late for Smith but not too late for us to realize that all too often our system is better equipped to deny justice than grant it. Other highlights: The latest HBO "America Undercover" documentary sounds like something torn from the tabloids: OVARIAN CANCER KILLED THIS MAN. Indeed, that's how the New York Post headlined its review of "Southern Comfort," airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. This latest winner from HBO's docs shop gets its title from the annual Deep South conference for "transgendered" people. It's where filmmaker Kate Davis met 52-year-old Robert Eads, the female who surgically became a male but fatefully decided against removing "his" ovaries. "It's kind of a cruel joke," Eads says in the film, "that the last part of me that's female is killing me." In the last year of his life, Eads receives final visits from family, strikes up a romance with a male-turned-female and attends one last Southern Comfort get-together. This film takes us into Eads' world, which is brightened by a small but intimate community of friends, most of whom are also transgendered. Davis understands that for most viewers, her film will be at least partly voyeuristic. She doesn't shy away from inquiring into very personal details of her subjects' lives. Neither does she linger on them, not wanting to distract us from the larger message of "Southern Comfort": that changing gender is a physically, emotionally and socially dangerous decision. Comedy is hard. So the folks at TV's funny channel have been trying to work in some stress-relieving leisure activities. First there was "Let's Bowl," a goofy hybrid of tenpins and "Judge Judy." Then last week, a golfing show, "The Sweet Spot," featured Bill Murray and his brothers poking fun at the sport (and the genre of TV golf programs). Oh, how long must we wait for "Frank DeCaro's Fishing Expedition"? "Let's Bowl" returns for a second season this week, once again originating from the Twin Cities, with lots of Minnesota humor ladled on. On this week's episode (at 7 tonight on Comedy Central), a husband and wife take to the lanes to decide if he'll get a vasectomy. "Amargosa," Todd Robinson's exquisite video portrait of Marta Becket, began airing on the Sundance Channel last month. It airs again at 3 p.m. Saturday and 6:05 p.m. April 18 on Sundance. The film tells the remarkable story of this New York expatriate who reinvented herself in her unlikely adopted home of Death Valley Junction, Calif. (population 10). Passing through the near-ghost town in the 1960s, Becket spotted an abandoned old opera house. The idea of a temple of high culture in the heart of borax country intrigued her. She stayed and turned it into a desert tableau for her original dance routines. Robinson captures Becket's milieu in all its whimsical grandeur. More than that, he humanizes it, showing us that the quirky free spirit at work here is also a brilliant author of performance art. To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com.