Sir Peter Jackson's production company, WingNut Films, announced today that it has completed a new documentary about the West Memphis Three. The film is produced by Damien Echols - one of the trio originally found guilty of the murder of three children in 1993 and who earlier this year had their convictions overturned.
The new documentary, West of Memphis, is directed by Amy Berg (Deliver Us From Evil) and features original music from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Echols' wife Lorri Davis co-produced the feature, in collaboration with Sir Peter and his production partner Fran Walsh
The West Memphis Three are Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. The three men were teenagers when they were arrested for the murders of Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and Michael Moore in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993.
The convictions were extremely controversial, with supporters of the convicted men claiming that prosecutors failed to articulate a strong motive for the crimes. Earlier this year, efforts to overturn the convictions intensified after new evidence showed no traces of DNA from the men at the crime scene. Evidence also showed that another person may have been there.
Sir Peter and Walsh helped fund the men's legal defence. Today's announcement comes after Sir Peter told 3 News in October he was working with Echols after bringing him to New Zealand.
“Seven years ago, Fran and I began this journey with Damien and Lorri, having no idea where it would lead," says Sir Peter.
“We now realize that journey is not over, that even though these men have been released from prison, they are not free. Our hope is that continuing evidence testing and further investigation will lead to the unmasking of the killer of these children and that one day Damien, Jason and Jessie will be exonerated.”
“It is our hope that this film will help educate people about how badly the justice system can fail us all,” says Damien Echols.
“Beyond that, we want to show that in the face of such horror, in the face of resounding grief and pain, you cannot give up … you must never give up.”
“This film represents the trial these men didn’t have,” says director Berg.
“With the support of Damien and Lorri, along with unprecedented access to those closest to the case, we were able to make a film that shows the inner workings of the defence - the investigation, research, and appeals process, in a way that has never been shown before. This film began as a study about innocence; but I feel it goes beyond that now – it asks the question, what value do we, as a society, place on the truth?”
The WingNut Films announcement calls the West Memphis Three case “one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in American history”.
It says West of Memphis features never before seen footage about the case and the trial, interviews with Echols, Davis, Baldwin, Miskelley and Sir Peter as well as interviews with friends and families of the victims, defence lawyers, state prosecutors, local law enforcement, judges, forensic experts, journalists, surprise witnesses and prominent supporters including Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins and Natalie Maines.
The story of the West Memphis Three has already been the subject of notable documentaries from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, 1996’s Paradise Lost, a 2000 sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations and Paradise Lost: Purgatory, which is scheduled to be released in the US in January next year.
3 News