A little break from Italian cinema.
Paradise lost: the child murders at robin hood hills
Weird to think it's approaching the 25th anniversary of the trial. Essentially documentary film maker Joe Berlinger began to shoot a documentary on the trial of three teenagers accused of murdering three eight year old boys. Pretty soon it's clear that the prosecution has very little evidence of motive or anything linking the the three teens to the victims. I stead they build a case based around the occult, arguing the killings were a ritual sacrifice. The main thrust of the prosecutions arguments being based on a dubious confession from Jessie Misskelley Jr, a teen with an IQ of 73 who was interrogated for twelve hours with only 45 minutes actually being recorded. The rest is based on Damien Echols experimentation with the Wiccan belief system.
The film doesn't take stance on whats happening, rather it looks at everyone involved including the victims families, the suspects and their families and the court processes and invites the audience to make up their own conclusions based on what they see. Essentially its not good, the teens appear to have been arrested for not fitting in. Wearing metallica T-shirts in the heart of a deeply christian community. The rise of 'satanic panic' doesn't help either. Numerous snake oil salesman were approaching local law enforcement at the time offering guides on satanism and the prosecution even brings one of them in as an expert witness in spite of his PHD essentially being bought through mail order.
Paradise lost 2: Revelations
The original documentary stirred up so much controversy that six years later, Joe Berlinger returns to the community to look at the appeals process for the west Memphis three. This raises questions about inadequate defence, with defendants rarely having money to present an adequate defence. It also looks at some of the glaring holes in the Prosecutions evidence, especially the initial forensic examinations. The defence has raised more money thanks to the public outrage at the initial trial and other expert witnesses are brought in who poke holes in almost all of it. We also see that in spite of this the state is highly reluctant to admit it may have got it wrong. Especially the judge who was preparing to stand for public office.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
18 years after the initial conviction, new DNA Evidence comes to light that casts further doubt on the convictions. Essentially there is no DNA connecting the three teens to the murders whatsoever. Itself highly unusual. The one piece of DNA identified seemingly linking one of the victims stepfather to the crime scene. A man it turns out has a past history of violence. We also learn that the alleged sexual mutilation of one of the boys along with the knife marks are in fact the result of animals biting and scratching at the bodies. Eventually under growing public pressure, including John Mark Byers, stepfather to one of the boys who was featured prominently in the previous documentary and was even considered a possible suspect. Having been ruled out it was clear at the time that Byers was gripped by a powerful rage against the three who he could not forgive so his change of heart is especially potent.
West of Memphis
A documentary from Peter Jackson's Wingnut films. Jackson and Fran Walsh had contributed considerable time and money to the west memphis three's defence and appeals after Jackson had seen Paradise lost. This documentary is a condensed timeline of the trial, appeals and acquittal looking much closer than Paradise lost did at the forensics and how expert witnesses brought in essentially ripped the prosecutions case to shreds. Even more controversially there is strong evidence that the discovery of a key piece of evidence was staged for the press and the prosecution were aware that it could not have possibly been the murder weapon. This one is on Netflix and worth checking out. Essentially it gives you everything you need to know about the case. However if you ever have a day to kill its worth having Marathon of the whole lot.
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