HBO's Paradise Lost was a documentary released in 1996 that followed the trials of three teenage boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, who were convicted of the brutal murder of three eight-year old boys in 1993. The filmmakers, Joe Berlinger and Joe Sinofsky, spent 79 days over a 10-month period in Arkansas interviewing the families of the victims, the accused teens, the police, lawyers, and everyone else involved in the case. What initially set out to be a straightforward documentary, however, turned into a probing look at how this investigation was being conducted, and a growing certainty on the part of the filmmakers that these three teenagers were actually innocent.
The details of the case would take too long to go into here, but the gist of it is that the West Memphis Police Department became convinced that the murders were part of a Satanic ritual. And their suspicions immediately fell on 18-year old Damien Echols, a kid who wore black, professed to be Wiccan, liked listening to heavy metal music, and must therefore be a Satanist. The police brought in another suspect, 17-year old Jessie Misskelley for questioning, and by the end of a 12-hour interrogation (only 45 minutes of which were taped), Misskelley confessed to being present at the crime scene and helping Echols and his friend, the 16-year old Jason Baldwin, murder the three boys. This led to the arrest of all three boys, and subsequent trials and convictions that were all documented by the Paradise Lost crew. Throughout the trial, the boys maintained they were innocent and serious doubt was thrown on the validity of Misskelley's confession. Miskelley had an IQ of 72, was alone during his interrogation and claims he didn't understand his Miranda rights, and the tape of his confession clearly shows him getting the details of the crime wrong but gradually being led by the police to change his story so that his details would fit the facts. Most startling of all was the vitriol that Echols faced simply due to his different appearance and behavior and everyone's utter certainty that he must be a devil-worshipping murderer. The three teens were convicted in 1994, with Baldwin and Miskelley receiving sentences of life imprisonment and Echols receiving the death penalty.
When Paradise Lost was released, it incited a lot of discussion and a growing concern that these boys had been misrepresented and wrongfully convicted. Aside from Misskelley's "confession," there was no definite evidence linking them to the crime and they largely seemed to have been convicted on the basis of irrational fears of people who wore black and listened to Metallica. The trio became known as the West Memphis Three and a website was started to inform the public and get donations for a fund to help the defense find experts to examine the evidence and appeal the court's decision. So in 2000, the sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, was released on HBO, which detailed the growing Free the West Memphis Three movement and the involvement of forensic experts and criminal profilers who were adamant that these three boys could not have commited a crime of this magnitude. They didn't think there was anything Satanic about the crime scene and there was increasing suspicion placed on the stepfather of one of the boys, who appeared to be unstable and could quite possibly have been the one to commit the murders in the first place. You really have to watch these documentaries to see the twists and turns that the case takes, and at one point, the film crew find themselves in possession of a knife that they have to turn in as evidence that could possibly be linked to the case. The whole thing has the tone of a compelling murder mystery that would make great fiction but is unfortunately highly tragic fact.
Last night I watched Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the final installment in the saga of the West Memphis Three. It was released on HBO just a few weeks ago, almost 12 years after the last installment, and was initially meant to revisit the case and new evidence that had come to light. In 2007, new DNA evidence was found that could not be linked to the West Memphis Three and therefore further supported the idea that they were not involved in these murders. Some of the DNA actually matched another family member of one of the murdered boys, who was also found to be lying about when he had last seen the boys, which goes to show that even decades after a crime, investigative work can still turn up new leads. The documentary followed the lawyers' attempts to get the Arkansas Supreme Court to admit this new DNA evidence and grant a re-trial for the three boys (now men) with further allegations of juror misconduct and evidence that the initial trial in 1994 was deeply flawed. All this time, Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley have undergone numerous failed appeals and have spent 18 years in prison. That is 18 years more than they ever expected when they were first arrested and were certain that no one could imprison them for a crime they did not commit.
It is startling to see the evolution of these documentaries, both thematically and cinematically, but most importantly, the evolution in the characters that make up this real-life tragedy. The West Memphis Three started out as three bewildered teenagers and have now grown into 30-something men, who have spent more time in prison than they ever spent as free men. Damien Echols had a newborn son when he went to prison; his son is now the same age as his father was when he was arrested. And yet, all three men are remarkably calm, resigned to their current fate, but staunchly declaring their innocence and grateful for all of the help from the West Memphis Three groups who have been fighting for years to find new evidence and find new experts to convince the state of Arkansas to overturn these wrongful convictions.
The truly great moment of Paradise Lost 3 is the epilogue. The movie was meant to be released in the fall of 2011, but was pushed back to 2012 when the filmmakers had to rush down to Arkansas for a circuit court hearing that was abruptly called to discuss the case on August 19, 2011. On that day, the defense lawyers worked out a deal with the state, allowing the West Memphis Three to enter Alford pleas. The Alford plea is a bizarre legal maneuver that allowed the men to declare that they were innocent of the crime, but still plead guilty to lesser charges and be set free since they had already served 18 year sentences. In one very emotional moment, Jason Baldwin declares that he didn't want to take this plea because it was unjust to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit. But he accepted the plea because Damien was still on death row and could not afford to lose any more appeals or be found guilty in a re-trial.
So the West Memphis Three are now free men, thanks in part to a series of documentaries that never stopped looking for the truth and thousands of people across the globe who supported them and funded the defense team so that new evidence could be brought to light. The story is bittersweet - by entering Alford pleas, justice hasn't really been done, because these men are still considered guilty of the crime and the real killer hasn't been found. But as Damien Echols says upon his release, he can now work outside of the prison to continue the investigation. The story is by no means over.
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