Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

You want to know what I really like about HBO? Allot of it is their documentaries. They have some of the best topics especially in their America Undercover line. Now I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the Taxi Cab Confessions but to each their own.

One documentary that was made by HBO was shot in 1993 titled Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills. The film follows the murder of three children in West Memphis Arkansas and the 3 teenagers accused of their murder. What the film crew realized while they were making the movie is that the three accused Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, who would become known as the West Memphis 3 were convicted based on circumstantial evidence and mostly prejudice due to the fact that they wore black clothes, listened to bands like Metallica, as well as they had read Stephen King books.

Now this documentary did what documentaries are supposed to do. They are supposed to make you think and a good documentary is supposed to make you angry. This documentary did both of those for me.
Paradise Lost told me the story of a modern day witch hunt. Just the fact that you could be not just accused of murder but also convicted of the crime based on the fact that you wear black and are a little different. It makes be thank my lucky stars that my Father’s business transferred him to Texas where I was raised and not Arkansas.

In 2000 a sequel was made titled Paradise Lost: Revelations that follows the reaction to the original film.

Well into 2007 new DNA evidence was uncovered and Filmmakers Joe Berlinger Bruce Sinofsky began shooting the next installment of the West Memphis 3. The new evidence was so strong that John Mark Byers, adoptive father of murder victim Christopher Byers, Who was long outspoken about the guilt of the WM3 changed his position as well as victim Stevie Branch’s Mother Pamela Hobbs.

In August of last year The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered that the WM3 be granted a retrial 18 years later allowing all of the new evidence. However in a surprise move the WM3 were offered a Alford plea bargain where they still plead their innocence but they change their plea to guilty and they are sentenced to time served.
Now There are a lot of angry people on this decision, most namely the three men wrongly convicted of the crime that they did not commit as well as their families as well as the families of the victims.

Now you ask ,Why was this plea bargain made?

It is simple The state of Arkansas did this in order to avoid a new trial because if there were to be a retrial and the WM3 were found to be innocent then there would be many of civil trials that would follow. There would be suites from the WM3 as well as the families and the cost should go well into the millions.

Not to mention the fact that the killer of the children walks the streets.
Now let’s talk about the flick.

I definitely want to recommend the other two flicks to all of you but the truth is that it really isn’t that much of a necessity. The flick goes back to the beginning and shows the case and the evidence that was not brought to the trial. It is different from the first as now it is all done in hindsight which is always 20/20.

We are then shown the people involved in the case and where they are now. The most interesting person here in my opinion in Mark Byers ,because he is featured prominently in the previous documentaries loudly claiming the guilt of the WM3. He even goes as far as to argue with the other supporters. Byers is also a suspect in the murder of not just his son but in the death of his wife who had passed since the original film and is shown submitting to a polygraph that he passes.

Well in the decade since Revelations, Byers has done a complete 180 and is now a strong supporter of the “Free the WM3” movement. His attention and anger is focused on the new suspect in the case as well as the West Memphis Police Department for locking up the wrong people.

I have to give credit to Byers for looking at the facts and then admitting that he was wrong and even receiving a letter from Echols. Now the flick spends a lot of time following Terry Hobbs who is named as a suspect and then sues the Dixie Chicks for Defamation after she mentions him as a suspect.

The imagery at the end of the documentary is highly moving as we are shown images of the three being released and returning to their families and it is shot and edited for great storytelling.

This is how to make a documentary.

I not only recommend checking out this documentary, This Film even received a Oscar nomination which was highly deserved.