New Zealand filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson says his West of Memphis documentary shows how a fragile US justice system can be derailed.
The maker of Lord of the Rings has spoken at the documentary's first screening at Utah's Sundance Festival even though he is also working on The Hobbit film project in New Zealand.
Sir Peter and his wife, Fran Walsh, produced the documentary, which is directed by American filmmaker Amy Berg.
It examines the case of the West Memphis Three, who spent 18 years in jail for the ritual murders of three eight-year-old boys in the 1990s before their release.
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr are now widely believed to have been wrongly convicted.
"Obviously you hope the film is going to have lessons for the justice system. It shows how fragile it is, it shows that it doesn't need much to derail it," Sir Peter said in a transcript posted on the festival's website.
"Is it that the system is wrong, or is it that at times we get the wrong people within the system who are supposed to be doing a good job?"
Sir Peter and Walsh became involved after watching the Paradise Lost documentary on the case in 2005.
From their home base in New Zealand, they got in touch with Lorri Davis, who had met and married Echols while he was on death row and was leading the fight to free the men, the Washington Post reported.
"I was bullied and regarded as little bit of an oddball myself," Sir Jackson told Reuters. "And I see that happening to somebody else, so I just want to help them."
Sir Peter and Walsh financed their own investigation. The documentary points the finger at the stepfather of one of the victims, causing US media to ask if new evidence will open a closed case.
NZN