Monday, December 5, 2011
West Memphis Three New documentary on West Memphis 3
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 6:04 AM
- Brian Chilson
- PRODUCERS: Lorris Davis and Damien Echols are producers of new documentary said to show evidence of potential 1993 murder suspects that police didn't pursue.
A public relations firm last night began distribution of a news release about a new documentary film, "West of Memphis," on the West Memphis Three case, this one a combined effort of the formerly condemned Damien Echols, his wife Lorri Davis and filmmakers Peter Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh.
It promises new video and information on evidence in the case, said to include information pointing to other suspects in the 1993 slayings of three West Memphis children. The three men convicted in the case were released from prison earlier this year in a plea bargain struck after the state Supreme Court ordered a wide-ranging evidentiary hearing on new information in the case.
UPDATE: The NY Times reports that this film has had some clashing interests with the "Paradise Lost" filmmakers, including over access to key figures in the case. One dispute was over Pam Hobbs, mother of Stevie Branch, one of the slain children.
PS — Nothing posted on Mara Leveritt's blog just yet, but there is a takedown of Arkansas medical examiner Frank Peretti over remarks he made in a recent newspaper interview. Peretti's remarks are not trivial. They provide context for his credibility in every future utterance he makes in any other case.
ACADEMY AWARD-WINNERS PETER JACKSON AND FRAN WALSH ANNOUNCE
A NEW DOCUMENTARY WEST OF MEMPHIS,
DIRECTED BY ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED FILMMAKER AMY BERG
PRODUCED BY DAMIEN ECHOLS AND LORRI DAVIS
“It is our hope that this film will help educate people about how badly the justice system can fail us all — but 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.” —Damien Echols, November 2011 — Wellington, New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (December 4, 2011) — WingNut Films proudly announced today the completion of WEST OF MEMPHIS - a documentary film chronicling the untold story behind one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in American history; the story of an extraordinary and desperate fight to stop the State of Arkansas from killing an innocent man.
The film has been produced by first-time filmmakers Damien Echols and Lorri Davis, in collaboration with the Academy Award-winning team of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Jackson and Walsh became involved in 2005, when they helped to re-invigorate the then stagnant case by funding a new investigation. The film has been written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Amy Berg (Deliver Us From Evil).
Starting with a searing examination of the police investigation into the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys — Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and Michael Moore in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, the film goes on to reveal hitherto unknown evidence surrounding the arrest and conviction of the other three victims of this shocking crime — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr.; all three of whom were teenagers at the time of their arrests and all three of whom spent 18 years and 17 days in prison for crimes they did not commit.
How the documentary came in to being is in itself a key part of the story of Damien Echols’ fight to save his own life; it reveals how close he and his wife Lorri Davis, along with his legal team, friends and supporters, came to losing that battle.
As Echols has stated: “September 2008 was one of my lowest points. Judge David Burnett had refused to hear any new evidence - this included new DNA testing... as if proof of our innocence was somehow irrelevant. I thought we had come to the end of the line, that there was nowhere else to go. It was at this point that Fran and Peter suggested that maybe there was another way of fighting back... that if the evidence was not going to be allowed to be heard in a court of law, it would be heard in another forum. That was when they said to me and Lorri, ‘We should make a film’.”
WEST OF MEMPHIS reveals the exhaustive research that uncovered startling new findings pointing to the innocence of Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley Jr. and includes new forensic evidence that points to other suspects that the West Memphis police chose to overlook. It was this new evidence as highlighted in the documentary that ultimately prompted the Arkansas Supreme Court to overturn previous denials of appeals and allowed for a new evidentiary hearing to proceed.
Faced with the very real prospect of a new trial being granted and in order to avoid potentially large compensation claims for wrongful imprisonment, the State of Arkansas struck a deal with the West Memphis Three, as Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley Jr. had come to be known, whereby the men agreed to enter an Alford plea; an unusual and rarely used legal maneuver through which the defendant is able to assert their innocence whilst accepting it is in their best interest to allow a guilty plea to be entered against them, in exchange for their freedom. The film follows these events and examines how the State Prosecutor’s declaration that the case is now closed, leaves three innocent men convicted of a crime they did not commit and a triple child murderer still at large.
Director Berg says, “This film represents the trial these men didn’t have. 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 defense - 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?”
Says Jackson, “Seven years ago, Fran and I began this journey with Damien and Lorri, having no idea where it would lead. We now realise, 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.”
In addition to never before seen footage about the case and the trial, WEST OF MEMPHIS includes interviews with Echols, Davis, Baldwin, Misskelley Jr. and Jackson as well as interviews with friends and families of the victims, defense lawyers, state prosecutors, local law enforcement, judges, forensic experts, journalists, surprise witnesses and prominent supporters including Eddie Vedder, Henry Rollins and Natalie Maines.
Original music for the film has been written by acclaimed songwriters and composers Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.
The film has been Executive Produced by Ken Kamins who will be leading discussions with potential distributors.
Speaking of...
-
Supreme Court grants hearing for Death Row's Timothy Howard
April 26, 2012The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered a further hearing on the DNA claim of a Death Row inmate, Timothy Howard, that state suppression of critical problems with DNA evidence prejudiced his fair trial. /more/
-
Ellington on the WM3
March 26, 2012Scott Ellington, the prosecuting attorney in the West Memphis Three hearing last year, told a Memphis TV station that he asked the defense to come up with a guilty plea offer that would allow Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelley and Jason Baldwin to go free. /more/
-
Jason Baldwin's new life in the west
March 21, 2012Great little story in Seattle Weekly today about Jason Baldwin's efforts to rebuild his life in Seattle since he, Jessie Misskelley and Damien Echols were released from prison last summer. /more/
-
West Memphis Three reward fund increased to $200,000
March 14, 2012An anonymous donor has added $100,000 to make a $200,000 reward fund for information leading to the killers of three West Memphis boys in 1993. /more/
-
Jason Baldwin, Hollywood producer
March 5, 2012Jason Baldwin and his girlfriend, Holly Ballard, are executive producers for "Devil's Knot," the movie about the West Memphis Three case to star Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon. /more/
-
West Memphis 3: How to extract a tainted confession
February 26, 2012Here's an interesting analysis from the New York Law School project on law and journalism about Jessie Misskelley's confession in the West Memphis 3 case. /more/
- More »
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
These killers were factually and morally guilty...and the AR Supreme Court blew it....This was a Hollywood scam...Read the details of the evidence the police had....THE JURY heard it...and the AR Supreme Court saw it...and judges saw it...and then HOLLYWOOD got involved...READ THE EVIDENCE here
http://wm3truth.com/the-west-memphis-three…
like
dislike
Hey November! Haven't heard from you in a while. Thought you were maybe back on your medication. I'm entertained to find that you're still as looney as ever.
OK, November, we won't reserve any seats for you!
If you think that this state's courts are liberal, you must live in another world. In the event of a retrial, the state would lose the case and a bundle of money for false imprisonment, plus derail Dustin's governorship plans and teh state new it. The agreement was just a way to save Dustion's tail and plans. I think they should have forced the state to go to court and pay out the millions the defendents could have gotten and maybe then, some of the "good ol' boys" justice system members will start depending on facts.
From any distance -- of time or geography -- it has been evident from the beginning that everyone connected with this case on the law enforcement and prosecuting side has been and is lying to protect themselves: justice be damned.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette may now be added to that sorry bunch of sordid self-serving Arkansas incompetents, if there was ever any doubt.
That "news"paper is just another shrill voice with so many others (including trolls here; including grieving family members who refuse to accept facts) claiming to "know" better and "reporting" lies as truths. A propaganda rag. Enabling, with the Chamber of Commerce, corruption not only of justice, as in this case, but of politics and economic development.
Sadly, D-G readers don't know any better. They reflexively "defend" the paper (and the state) as being "attacked" by "elite outsiders" -- as they defend any and all of Arkansas' inbred shortcomings when pointed out by whistleblowers and truth-tellers.
To "Central High" and "1957" -- shorthand to the rest of America and the world for Arkansas's backwardness, bigotry and insular Good Ol' Boy viciousness for over half a century -- may now be added "West Memphis Three" as up-to-the-minute shorthand perpetuating The Natural State's long losing battle to attain respect for education, intelligence, professionalism, opportunity and progress.
Instead, the WM3 case reinforces Arkansas's perception as somewhere no one wants to live -- no one, that is, who doesn't "fit in" with the state's apparently intractable ugliness beneath its veneer of hypocritical "hospitality."
It's hard to believe, for those who don't live outside Arkansas, how negative its image remains.
I spoke with a dear friend there just this week who was surprised when several couples from across the country -- wealthy, well-traveled, highly educated and informed -- A-List as is my friend -- couples who had flown in for a special birthday celebration -- flown in from New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, the UK, even TULSA -- a dear friend who was surprised that NONE of them had heard of Crystal Bridges or knew a thing about it. Not even Tulsa.
Natural Staters who live there seem to think that achievements like The Rock's River Market or Clinton Library, or Crystal Bridges in NWA, or the Razorbacks' SEC standing, somehow replace "1957" and the "WM3" in minds around the rest of the country and the world as code for "Arkansas."
They don't.
One wishes there were a solution.
Solutions to Arkansas's "problem" have been wished for, proposed and promised, for over 50 years.
Back when there were 48 states, Arkansas ranked 47th or 48th. Since there are 50, Arkansas ranks 49th.
The fault lies not in outsiders, whistleblowers and truth-tellers, my Razorbabies.
Funny, Norma. You cite all the things that your supposedly erudite outsiders don't know and it's somehow our ignorance that is the problem. Maybe it's their faux intellectualism.
Poor old Lorri Davis, Damien does not give a damn about her and it is so obvious. She thought she was going to take old Damien to the big city and citify him.
There apparently was money paid to participants not to cooperate with one director or another, and scenes were re-enacted and/or staged. Is this commonplace with legitimate documentaries? This is a serious question and no flames from either side on this issue, please.
Apparently, your mother wears combat boots, Randall. Is this commonplace with legitimate mothers? This is a serious question.
Got links? Or just like blogging partisan hearsay in hopes nobody notices?
More by Author
-
Razorback Coach Petrino fired for lying and relationship with staffer
Razorback football coach Bobby Petrino has been fired for not disclosing his personal relationship with a woman he hired and paid under the table with university money and for lying about circumstances of his motorcycle accident.
- Apr 10, 2012
-
Tom Petty a hit at Verizon
Kelley Bass reports that 14,138 were at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock for Tom Petty's first concert in Arkansas and "[I] have never seen a crowd as into a show as this crowd was."
- Apr 22, 2012
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: Judge orders new trial in $1 million dollar lottery ticket dispute
Proves the adage that nothing is free, nothing is simple.
- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: Surgeon general strikes deal on disturbance charges
This whole mess stinks.
- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: Yarnell's scooping again; reveals flavor list
I couldn't agree more! But the flavor I love the most is Death by Chocolate!…
- on May 25, 2012
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Slideshows
-
Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
