INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FEATURING PROFESSOR GROOME PREMIERES IN UNITED STATES
March 2019 — “The Trial of Ratko Mladic,” a 90-minute documentary featuring Professor Dermot Groome, made its U.S. premiere on Thursday, March 14, 2019, at the Dodd Center for Human Rights at University of Connecticut School of Law. It was broadcast nationally on Tuesday, March 19 at 9 p.m. EST on FRONTLINE—PBS’ flagship investigative journalism series that explores and illuminates the critical issues of our times from business and health to social issues, politics and war.
The documentary captures the essence of “The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladic,” a five-year war crimes trial led by Groome against the Army of Republika Srpska Commander Ratko Mladic, one of the most infamous figures of the Balkan wars in the 1990s. Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted on November 22, 2017 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys; for leading the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo, in which thousands were killed; and for the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from large areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Groome led the prosecution of the case once Mladic, who was a fugitive for 16 years, was arrested in May 2011.
“Two well-known and well-respected documentary filmmakers Henry Singer and Rob Miller approached the tribunal with a proposal to follow the case and produce a documentary that would give viewers an inside look at the work of the different participants in the case: prosecution, defense and victims/witnesses,” said Groome. “Henry and Rob faced the impossible task of distilling several years of one of the largest international prosecutions in history—one with nearly 600 witnesses, thousands of hours of court proceedings and almost 10,000 exhibits—into a 90-minute film.”
Groome, who appears in a number of scenes throughout the film, including presenting the opening statement, conducting staff meetings, and working at the site of a mass grave in Tomasica, Bosnia, was initially reluctant to participate, but agreed to do so after believing the filmmakers fully appreciated the sensitivities of all witnesses—both prosecution and defense—and would educate the public about the important responsibilities and work of international prosecutors.
Thomas J. Parsons, Ph.D., adjunct professor at Penn State Eberly College of Science who directs Forensics Sciences for the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), provided testimony during the trial as an expert witness for the prosecution, in which he explained the methodology ICMP used to analyze the remains found in mass graves that were revealed through aerial imagery provided by the U.S. and others.
“Dr. Parsons gave evidence that helped establish the identity of the victims of the Srebrenica massacres,” said Groome. “His work was not only an important contribution to the evidence in the case, but also gave the families of the victims the ability to bury their loved ones with dignity.”
Third-year Dickinson Law student Olivia Phillips, like other Dickinson Law students before her, had an opportunity to work on the case as part of Dickinson Law’s International Justice Program, an internship opportunity overseen by Groome. Phillips helped draft the response brief in the appeal filed by Mladic’s lawyers.
In addition to its premiere at the IDFA, the film will be screened at a number of U.S. and international law schools in the coming months. It most recently was shown in Oslo at Human Rights/Wrongs 2019, an international film festival designed to draw attention to important films related to human rights. Plans are underway to screen the film at Penn State this year.
Groome has extensive prosecutorial, investigative and international experience. Prior to joining the Dickinson Law faculty, he spent more than 11 years as a senior prosecutor at the ICTY, where his work included a senior role in the Bosnian indictment against Slobodan Milošević, and the prosecution of Milan Lukić and Jovica Stanišić, the head of the State Security Service in Serbia. Groome is the author of the Handbook of Human Rights Investigation (2001, 2011), has appeared as an expert before the Human Rights Council and is a member of an expert group advising State Parties to the International Criminal Court. He most recently is tackling the problem of crimes against child soldiers and calling for a reconceptualization of how we approach the problem. He began his legal career as a prosecutor in Manhattan where he was a member of the Sex Crimes Unit. He supervises the Law School’s Center for International Trial Advocacy and International Justice Program at The Hague, Netherlands.
Professor Dermot Groome is a Professor of Law and the Harvey A. Feldman Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law. Much of his teaching, scholarship, and service focus on emerging areas of human rights and international criminal law and draw upon his deep expertise and experiences. After starting his career in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office where he was a member of the Sex Crimes Unit and after working in Jamaica, W.I. on issues of community development, human rights, and children’s rights, Professor Groome worked in Cambodia. While in Cambodia, he served as a Legal Advisor to the International Human Rights Law Group, helped lead an investigation into a 1997 attack on peaceful protestors and drafted a report for the UN Security Council, helped the Cambodia Defender’s Project and Legal Aid of Cambodia investigate deaths in police custody, worked on issues related to the incarceration of children, and wrote a draft juvenile criminal procedure code. Professor Groome subsequently spent over 11 years as a senior war crimes prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He investigated and drafted the first genocide indictment against a sitting head of state, Slobodan Milošević, and was the Senior Trial Attorney for the Bosnia indictment. In total, Groome led the prosecution of five international criminal trials including the case against Ratko Mladić, who was convicted of genocide for the murder of over 7,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. He led eight large complex international investigations of senior military, political, and police officials. Groome’s cases all included crimes of sexual violence against women, men, and children. He was instrumental in the development of Joint Criminal Enterprise, a theory of criminal responsibility often used to assess the culpability of senior officials for the crimes committed by their subordinates. Two documentaries have been made about Professor Groome’s cases: The Trial of Ratko Mladić (PBS/Frontline 2019) and Crimes Before the ICTY: Višegrad (UN TV 2017).
In 2014, Professor Groome was a member of a panel of experts that issued a report on the effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The report included over 190 recommendations for improving the ICC.
Professor Groome draws upon this expertise. His scholarship includes chapters about human rights in books published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, as well as articles published in U.S. law journals. He is the author of the Handbook of Human Rights Investigation (2nd ed. 2011), which the Humanitarian Law Center considers a “cornerstone text” in human rights and which Amnesty International has referred to as “an invaluable tool for those committed to documenting human rights abuses,” and which U.S. Aid translated into Arabic for human rights advocates in Iraq and Syria. Professor Groome’s current research agenda focuses on the Right to Truth and Right to Know, and how these rights should be expanded to allow the families of disappeared persons to access information in the possession of international organizations. Groome is also exploring changes to international law that would offer more protection for children during armed conflicts by preserving their civilian status vis-à-vis those who unlawfully conscript them.
In addition to teaching Criminal Law, International Criminal Law, and Human Rights, Groome oversees the International Justice Program, which offers Dickinson Law students an opportunity to pursue advanced international study and gain legal experience during a semester in The Hague working in one of the international courts. In 2017 and 2018, Groome, Professor of Law Gary S. Gildin, and Dickinson Law students developed a first-of-its-kind international trial advocacy program using courtrooms at the ICC. Professor Groome also advises governments and victims groups with matters pending before the ICC and international human rights bodies. He is the recipient of several awards, including the New York State Bar Association’s Elihu Root/Henry L. Stimpson Award for Public Service.