WEST OF MEMPHIS: VOICES FOR JUSTICE - Various Artists

Liner Note Author: Adam Block .Photographers: Doug Pettibone; Jeff Dailey; Olivia Fougeriol.West of Memphis is a documentary film written and directed by Amy Berg, and produced by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and others, which follows the heavy hands of misplaced justice after the murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993. Three teenagers were arrested and convicted of the murders in a controversial trial that featured, among other twists of dubious police work, forced confessions, vague witnesses, concocted stories of satanic rituals, and the astounding introduction of heavy metal music as a crime motivator. All three of the teens were sent to prison, and one of them, Damien Echols, was placed on death row. The film chronicles efforts to free Echols from the row, after DNA and other surfacing evidence cleared all three of any crime. Eventually Echols and the other two were allowed to leave prison (and death row) in the summer of 2012 after 18 years of incarc