Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Never has a documentary possessed a title of incorruptible, divine accuracy. We've reached a point in time where the West Memphis Three case was in limbo, or purgatory if you will. There was nothing to really say, and making another documentary would inevitably recap what we already know. The case wasn't moving very fast at all, and the numerous appeals requested by the three were never met by Judge Burnett.

The murders of three second graders, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, in May 1993 was horrific and shocked the entire quiet community of West Memphis, Arkansas. It was proved that belief in Satanism was occurring, and the town was hellbent and frustrated to find the heartless brutes responsible for such a heinous, unforgivable crime. Jessie Misskelley Jr. was arrested and interrogated for over twelve hours with no parent or attorney present in the room. Possessing an IQ of only 72 made it very clear that the response we were going to get would be shaky and murky. Only the last forty-five minutes or so were recorded on tape and went on long enough to show Misskelley had contradicted himself on when the murders took place.

During the confession, Misskelley claimed to be involved with Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, two other West Memphis teenagers. Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley were all arrested, tried, and sentenced to life in prison and Echols was placed on death row. However, years after their conviction new evidence came forth - bite marks on one of the victim's heads. The three took bite impressions, none of them matching the bite marks on the boy's forehead.

After being denied numerous appeals in the state of Tennessee, the men finally applied for a hearing with the new evidence in the Arkansas Supreme Court. A new hearing would be set for December 2011. Though unexpectedly, in August 2011, the prosecutors and the defense lawyers negotiated a plea that would let the men be released from prison if they pleaded guilty but could maintain their innocence. They accept and now are free on the streets after serving 18 years and 78 days.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory spends about forty-five minutes recapping the events that occurred in the first two documentaries, then works around the details developed in present day. We get well conducted interviews with all three men again, and we see how greatly their personalities and attitudes have changed towards the world around them. Jason Baldwin, who didn't speak all that much in the first two films, says some of the most compelling lines in Purgatory. One of them being "Our trial was guilty until proved innocent." Just sends a shiver up your spine.

I've been saying all along that the trial of the three boys seemed to act more on impulse and personality traits of the boys rather than hardcore, indisputable evidence from the crime scene.In Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, the film danced around the fact that Christopher Byers' stepfather, John Mark Byers, might've had something to do with the murders. He is eerie in appearance, outspoken, and very suspicious on camera. Not to mention, he changes his story multiple times on his whereabouts and his false teeth during the time of the murders.

To make a dirty sea even gloomier, Purgatory offers another option that Terry Hobbs, Stevie Branch's stepfather, could've be involved in the murders. His hair was found on one of the shoestrings used to hogtie one of the boys up, and his story, like Byers', changes drastically throughout the film. It's shocking, scary, and sometimes seemingly incorruptible in presentation.

The more I watched of each film the more I grew sympathetic and fond of the three accused. They seem like intelligent people stuck in a merciless and unfair situation. Echols, my favorite of the three, is intelligent yet eclectic - a good trait in many adolescents. Sadly, it got him in a boatload of trouble. More trouble than one could possibly imagine.

This marks the possible end to what could very well be some of the greatest, deepest, most personal and up close documentaries ever captured on film. Paradise Lost isn't only focusing on a largely unfair case, but it is showing the dangers and horrors of a biased system during a serious trial. Not to mention, when finally released they are still baring an essence of guilt. That is not right. Justice did not prevail for these poor kids. They're free, sure, but are they fully innocent? That's another question.

Starring: Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin. Directed by: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.

The filmmakers return to update the case of the West Memphis Three. In 1993, three boys Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were murdered in the woods. In 1994, three older boys Damien Wayne Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were convicted for those crimes. The first half of this movie basically recaps the first two documentaries. John Mark Byers, stepfather of Christopher Byers, makes peace with Echols and is now convinced of their innocence. In turn, Echols apologizes for accusing John. For me, the most damning is the accusation against the jury foreman Kent Arnold. There is new DNA evidence against Terry Hobbs, Steve Branch's stepfather, but it's not that convincing for me. The Three is able to win a legal victory and after their judge moved on as a State Senator, the guys finally accepted an Alford plea essentially guilty but maintaining their innocence.

Is this justice? It's hard to say. The most obvious problem for the justice system and this movie as a drama is that nobody is in prison for the boys' murders. For a documentary, that's always the limitation. The real world doesn't always have a neat happy ending. They are able to point the finger at Terry Hobbs but the second movie pointed the finger at Byers. There is nothing done against the various people who did harm against justice in this case. It is able to wrap up the odyssey of the West Memphis Three but justice for the murders may never be done.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)

Excellent use of first person video archives to bring the viewer up to date regarding the crime, it's casualties, and developments. Smashing use of new video interviews, study of involvement and final results of the entire episode surrounding the three accused in this criminal case. The documentary is well put together. Video and sound are excellent.

This is a true historical document that shows a "Crime in America" from start to bitter end. My twenty six year as a law enforcement officer of which twenty were as a death investigator give me a unique opinion of case facts.

It was a genuinely interesting experience for me to look at this documentary from an outside perspective using no real explored physical evidence or deduction.

It intrigued me to follow the case through media coverage, photographic and video graphic statements, as well as personal thoughts, assumptions, and fabrications. This was absolutely what could be expected for the information available to the general public. I have never had to look at information in this manner of privacy and what is available for the average citizen.

Back in 1996, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky set out to make a documentary for HBO on the West Memphis 3 – three teenage kids that were accessed of murdering three 8-year-old boys and sentenced to life imprisonment with one of the teenagers been given the death penalty.

The documentary focused on the questionable evidence and lack of thorough police investigative work that lead to their incarceration and hit such chords with the American public that soon celebrities such as Johnny Depp were championing the cause in an attempt to get the three boys a new trial.

Four years later, Berlinger and Sinofsky followed-up their story with Paradise Lost: Revelations which was a more biased account of the teenager's innocence and used new information and footage to help promote their cause.

Fifteen years later, Berlinger and Sinofsky finish the trilogy with Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory that takes one final look at the teenagers that have grown into 30-year-old adults in prison for a crime that lacked the forensic evidence to convict if put on trial today.

Paradise Lost 3 opens in 1994 and we get the hard-to-watch actual crime scene footage of the three naked 8-year-old boys who were left hogtied with shoelaces in a small wooded area known as Robin Hood Hills.

With pressure from the media and the increasing tension amongst residents of the town, authorities soon charged teenagers Jason Baldwin, Jessie Miskelly and Damien Echols with murder and sentenced two of them (Baldwin, Miskelly) to life in prison without parole and Echols with the death penalty. The case was built upon their association with each other and loose allegations that the three were part of a satanic cult thanks to their preferred dark clothing and various graffiti and doodles of skeletons that were part of the group dynamic.

Although not as engrossing as 1996's Paradise Lost, Purgatory again presents its case of innocence by interviewing or taping experts in their fields discuss the case and with a 2007 re-examining of the evidence by authoritative members of their fields (DNA, forensics etc). Scattered interviews from 1994 through 2010 help assert that justice may not have been done and that stubborn individuals who had involvement in the case provided the judicial roadblocks to impede any progress.

Paradise Lost 3 spends a bit more time in an assumption of another potential murderer of the three boys and they are fueled by celebrities Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder and even a member of the Dixie Chicks in their attempts to have new evidence presented and justice served.

Paradise Lost 3 wrapped filming in August 2011 – three days later, the Memphis 3 were released from prison on a lesser charge that does not clear their innocence. Berlinger and Sinofsky informed the sold out crowd at the Toronto International Film Festival that we will be the first and the last to see this theatrical version as a new ending has since transpired (which drew a loud applause from the agreeing audience).

One of the real tragedies of the now trilogy of Paradise Lost films is watching three teenage boys age while in prison. They have missed out on an entire life's worth of experiences (one did get married while incarcerated to a female fan) and we can only hope that a follow-up film 10 years from now shows us how the three were able to assimilate back into society and become everything that they should and could have been had they not been wrongly accused.

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A powerful, if frustrating, conclusion to the Paradise Lost films which chronicle the extremely questionable conviction of 3 high school aged young men for the horrible murder of three little boys. Despite the fact that the case against the three was absurdly weak, seeming to be based as much on the idea that they acted 'strange', or listened to heavy metal music as in any hard evidence (the strongest 'evidence' being a recanted confession given by one of the young men with an IQ of 72, who was questioned without council for 12 hours, and with no recording or transcripts of what went on in the first 11 hours. And even then, the confession was full of factual mistakes).

This third film picks up with the men having been in prison for 15 years, and finally moving towards possible exoneration under pressure on the Arkansas justice system from across the country and even the world. Mostly the film focuses on the uncovering of yet another possible 'real' killer (although the 2nd film also did so and pointed convincingly at the wrong man, showing just how hard it is to ever fully know the truth). It also shows the lengths to which those involved in the first trial, especially the judge, put their own reputation and their inability to admit error, or even questions, above a search for true justice.

The film has it's flaws; it spends a lot of time re-capping the story, and never seems to acknowledge how confusing the issue of guilt is, as the 2nd film showed in seeming to point at the wrong man for being 'weird', just as the trial did with the 3. Also the dramatic conclusion feels tacked on and incomplete – not the fault of the filmmakers, as much as of timing. The film was essentially done when the directors had to race to Memphis to film a climax that ended up more like an epilogue than it should.

But this is an important document of just how easily the legal system can fail when prejudice and self-interest come into play – as they will continue to do as long as we are human and frail creatures.