By When the West Memphis Three were released from prison last year, I watched their live press conference in happy disbelief. I’d been aware of their case my entire adult life thanks to the first Paradise Lost documentary, and finally after 18 years in prison and a plea deal, they were free men. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory premiered last night on HBO. I missed it but hope to catch it later along with West of Memphis, a new documentary on the case that’s premiering at Sundance.
Produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Amy Berg, West of Memphis focuses on a DNA and forensics investigation of the murders in Robin Hood Hills. This investigation began in 2004 and was funded by Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh. Jackson told Entertainment Weekly:
There are three standing convictions for triple child murder against Damien [Echols], Jason [Baldwin], and Jesse [Misskelley Jr.]. They are unjust. And there is also a person who killed these three children. Cases like this have to be taken through to the very end because it’s only by doing that that it can be prevented from happening in other places.
In our gallery, we have a poster for West of Memphis. It was designed and illustrated by Jock, who you may know from his comics work on 2000 AD, The Losers, and Scott Snyder’s run on Detective Comics.
[Via Entertainment Weekly]