West Of Memphis

Synopsis: In 1994, the so-called West Memphis Three, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jnr and Jason Baldwin, were arrested and convicted of the murder of three children. Doubts about their convictions surfaced and have been the subject of several books and documentaries since.

I haven't seen Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofky's Paradise Lost documentary trilogy about the West Memphis murders, but over the years I've gotten the gist of the matter. Three kids into heavy metal were arrested because they were a bit weird, then accused of being in a cult and ritually killing three boys. But the evidence was dodgy, the prosecution behaved corruptly, etc, etc. More and more it became obvious these boys didn't do it. Aiming to be the final word on the subject, West Of Memphis is a new exploration of this seemingly incontrovertible miscarriage of justice.

Beginning with the initial arrest and trial of the three, the choice of footage from the trial and commentary around it sets up the uncomfortable feeling that maybe these boys actually did do it. It's a smart technique, as it creates some empathy for the people who to this day refuse to admit they may have been wrong as more and more evidence piles up making it clear these boys had nothing to do with the crime. Berg's documentary goes beyond this however and examines other suspects in the case, settling on the father of one of the boys. They go hell for leather on him and although the evidence appears to be damning, I take points off for the fact that whilst busily pointing out that the boys were convicted on the basis of hearsay and bought testimonies they throw up hearsay evidence on their choice of culprit as some kind of validation of their theory. Given that there's a whole host of other less contentious evidence, to offer a couple of guys who say they heard someone say something once as damning evidence is an unpleasant wrinkle in this investigation.

Nobody is going to come out of this film feeling very good though. Regardless of the issues with how the film presents its evidence, the fact remains that three teenagers were convicted of a crime they didn't commit, and the killer walks free to this day. But worse, West Of Memphis shows how the political nature of the US Justice system conspires to ensure these kinds of things will happen. Judges and prosecutors are elected officials and if they don't deliver the results their voters expect, they'll be voted out of office. The final judgment resolving the case proves to be more about face-saving and avoiding a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit than it is about justice for the victims, both the murdered children and the three boys who have already lost 18 years of their lives.

I'm not entirely sure whether this film really needed to be made given the pre-existing Berlinger and Sinofky trilogy, but it'll take up less of your time if you want a potted history of the case.

 

 

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