It has taken a world wide movement to move the wheels of justice in the right direction, but after 18 years in prison for a crime they did not commit, the West Memphis 3 -- Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelly -- have been released.
The chronicling of their ordeal over the years by filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky in the HBO documentaries series, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000), brought global attention to the West Memphis Three's wrongful conviction for the 1993 murder of three boys, and helped to spur a worldwide movement to set them free.
As the documentaries reveal, it's difficult to assume that the West Memphis 3 were ever presumed innocent, as is supposedly required by our criminal justice system.
Now, Berlinger and Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Pergatory, the third and final documentary in their series, is set to have its theatrical premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival's 2011 documentaries program (September 8 to 18, 2011), and have its broadcast debut on HBO in January 2012.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory traces the entire West Memphis 3 story, beginning in 1994 with the arrests of Baldwin, Echols and Misskelly -- then in their teens -- and continuing through the explosion of support among celebrities -- notably, filmmaker Peter Jackson has funded their defense -- and concerned citizens worldwide to free them, the discovery of new evidence and concluding with their long-awaited release.
While celebrating the West memphis 3's release and waiting to see the final Paradise Lost documentary, let's not forget that there are countless other wrongfully convicted victims of corrupt criminal justice systems around the world -- and there are other excellent documentaries to raise awareness about them. For example, Presumed Guilty, the gripping Emmy-nominated documentary presented by PBS' POV, tells the story of Antonio, a 20-year-old Mexican laborer whose dreams of being a good family man and starting a career as a rap artist were annihilated when he was arrested for the murder of a man he'd never even seen and convicted of the crime without one shred of evidence to indicate his involvement. In taking us Antonio's case and cause, two crusading young Mexican attorneys, Roberto Hernandez and Layda Negrete, along with filmmaker Geoffrey Smith, set about making Presumed Guilty to raise awareness about the victimization of this young aspiring musician by Mexico's thoroughly corrupt legal system.
Antonio's case is neither as sensationally dramatic nor as well known as that of the West Memphis 3, but it is every bit as egregious a miscarriage of justice, and the finely crafted documentary is a powerful shout out for judicial reform. Read my full review.
There are still a lot of injustices to be made known, and a lot of work for documentary filmmakers. Support them!
Comments
Your comments are absolutely true. What’s disturbing is that so few Americans realize the weakness of our justice system. Besides the documentaries you mentioned, we could point to Capturing the Friedmans and the stories about the Duke LaCrosse players. We could also point to the Amanda Knox case in Italy. What all these cases show is that our system depends on the prosecutorial ego and the defendants’ access to funds to pay top attorneys.
We need to educate jurors, who often don’t understand what they’re evaluating and who haven’t been taught how to assess evidence. I have a friend with a PhD in science who says, “If the police arrested him, they would have had to have probable cause.”
If it was “a crime they did not commit,” why then did they plead guilty? Why did they all admit to it (two before they were even convicted, one multiple times after his conviction)?
Oh, and another thing, if you’d bother to read any of the case files you’d know that none of the defendants were convicted of rape (wrongfully or otherwise), nor did the medical evidence conclusively indicate the three young victims were in fact raped.
Your piece lacks objectivity, much like the work of Berlinger and Sinofsky. Swill merchants – the lot of ya!
The only admission prior to conviction was by Jessie who was interrogated for many many hours with no counsel or parent present & was a minor with a low IQ. A very minimal amount of that interrogation was even recorded. As far as why they agreed to the Alford plea which was requiring a guilty plea is because they have been in jail for 18 yrs for something there was no real evidence to prove them of & have been fighting for so long to be freed it was their only way out. Why would they be released and given this deal if they knew they were guilty? They wouldn’t. The state had them be offered a deal under the Alford plea so that they couldn’t be held responsible and/or sued for false imprisonment.
Echols admitted (boasted about) his involvement to others, as did Baldwin. Jessie confessed multiple times, both before and after his conviction. The details of all of his confessions bear remarkable similarities.
I have seen so many comments that read “If it was “a crime they did not commit,” why then did they plead guilty?” I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to comprehend – they were forced to do so – if they wanted their much deserved freedom, they had no choice but to plead guilty. The only so-called confession was Miskelley who has the IQ of 67. It was botched from the beginning. I would definitely look at the step-father and his buddy.
One always has a choice. They chose to plead guilty. What does Jessie’s IQ have to do with his confession?
No, echols and bladwin never boasted about the killings before or after. Two people came in and lied in front of a court saying they heard them admitting to it. Both of them proven to be lies. People wanting to help in the witch hunt and the other a teenage criminal who was diagnosed as a chronic liar. The Teen counciler called right before the kid testified against Baldwin and said “i did somethin really stupid, this kid is going to say he heard Jason say he did it and he’s lying and it’s all my fault”. NOONE ever bragged about it, there were proven alabis for both moments “the softball game” and “the jailcell”. Redneck witch hunt lies. Learn your Shit
Dude, you need to watch the documentary “paradise lost” to understand the full story behind this Truther. His IQ has alot to do with it. He was mildly retarded. he was scared and a kid, he thought in his mind at the time if he jsut admitted it the cops would let him go home to his parents. He wasn’t smart enough to comprehend the actual situation. Watch the documentary “paradise Lost” you’ll change your mind.
I’ve seen the documentary – more than once. It lacks objectivity. One of the filmakers has admitted as much:
“I totally acknowledge that this film is very subjective. Hopefully what the film is doing, and why I feel OK about the subjectivity, is that we’re going for a higher emotional truth.” – Joel Berlinger, interview with Salon.com, March 6, 1997.
You should read the case files.
Jessie was (is) dumb, but he is not retarded.
Truther,
I read the case files, written by people who were on a witch hunt from the get go, and I’ve read just about every scrap I could ever find about the case. I have never seen or read a single shred that said anything about Damien or Baldwin bragging about murdering anybody.
There will always be people in the world who will create their own set of facts, I believe you are one of them.
Given the circumstances, it would have been difficult for me to “plead” guilty to a crime I didn’t commit. But freedom can be a powerful motivator.
If you’ve seen the documentary and read the case files, then you’d be aware that Jason NEVER admitted guilt. And the only time you’ll ever hear about Damien admitting guilt is thorugh the testimony of a “witness” who has since recanted.
I think all documentaries (no matter who produces them) are subjective. It’s next to impossible to be completely objective. At least in this one, you KNOW the angle of the producer. They believe Damien, Jason and Jessie are innocent.
There is just too much missing in this case to not think the Alford plea is a horrible blow to receiving any actual justice. These boys (now men) should never have been placed in jail. There was no physical evidence.
Oh, and Jessie’s “consistent” confessions? Have you actually listened to them? There’s audio online of the confession. He’s being led. He says “And then I left” at least 4 times and the officer asks “what happened then?” and more story comes out. He was naive and hoping he’d be home soon.
This case was really poorly handled. Will there ever be justice for Chris, Steve and Michael?
Well, Identity, then it appears that you have not read “just about every scrap about the case.” Jason admitted his involvement to a fellow inmate while he was incarcerated. The inmate was Michael Carson who testified at the Echols/Baldwin trial.
Jessie confessed to police before being charged (and yes, I have listened to the recording). He also confessed at least two more times after he was convicted, once to his own attorney and once with his attorney present. In each instance his attorney advised (begged) him not to do it.
Truther, until you can provide proof that you know what you are talking about, I will continue to believe what you are spouting is junk and total heresay. You weren’t in the cell with this alleged inmate and Jason. Much like the prosecutors, you just want to be right. I believe you simply like a good debate. If none of the rest of the readers feed into his garbage, maybe he will go away and troll somewhere else.
A) Michael Carson was not an “alleged” inmate. He was indeed incarcerated at the Craighead County Detention Center in August/September 1993, during the same period that Jason Baldwin was also incarcerated there.
B) Michael and Jason were never cellmates.
C) Facts are facts, whether I “want” them to be or not.
D) You just like a good debate and to ruffle feathers. I happen to believe the “facts” as you keep referring to are your facts, nothing recorded. If all of this information is true, I will stand corrected. However, until then, I will let you live in your fantasy world making up drivel.
Truther-
Read all about your supposed admissions here:
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/memphis/question_8.html
Facts are facts.
This article is just another example of the horrible journalism surrounding the WM3 saga. There are so many misleading statements and omissions in here & other pieces that it’s hard to keep track. The most glaring is the failure to mention that Misskelley confessed AGAIN after he was convicted in a court-sanctioned interview with his counsel present & pleading with him not to talk. How come none of the WM3 supporters ever mention this when they rail against the system and the “coerced” “false” confession? And while most articles poke at the prosecution’s case & say “they knew they would lose in a re-trial,” remember it was the DEFENSE that suggested the Alford plea — the reason? They knew that there was a decent chance they would be convicted AGAIN. Why else would they give up on a perfect opportunity to PROVE their innocence in a re-trial that was more fair after years of innocence propoganda, in less than a year from now? That’s what they’ve been after for years, and they give up when they are on the cusp of a new trial? Yeah, right.
Instead of doing the mindless thing of lining up behind the WM3 superheros of justice, do a little independent thinking.
the story is tragic this is so sad how come they were releasted the should be behind bars????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????