West of Memphis

West of Memphis

2012. USA. Directed by Amy Berg. West of Memphis chronicles a terrible miscarriage of justice. In 1994, three teenagers (Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jesse Miskelley) were wrongfully convicted of the brutal slaying of three eight-year-old boys (Christopher Byers, Steven Branch, and Michael Moore) in West Memphis, Arkansas. Sensing that the charges against the teenagers were prejudiced, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky brought the story to the public eye in their landmark Paradise Lost documentary trilogy. Yet in spite of mounting evidence that disputed their guilt, the teenagers continued to languish in jail for 18 years. In 2005, filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh developed the idea for a feature-length documentary with director Amy Berg, producer Lorri Davis, and Echols. West of Memphis carefully details the full story, focusing on the new evidence, including DNA testing and a key new suspect. This film reveals how the justice system can fail innocent people through a confluence of factors such as poverty, human error, and politically motivated decision-making. Print courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.