The "West Memphis 3" case has gripped the country since the early '90s. That's when three teens were arrested for the sexual assault and murder of three 8-year-old boys in Arkansas.
The teenagers always maintained their innocence and after nearly 20 years behind bars — and the help of some Hollywood heavyweights like Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson — Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelly, and Jason Baldwin walked out of prison free men in August 2011.
But the case is far from over. Defense attorneys for the West Memphis 3 have all claimed Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie Branch, one of the murdered boys, should be looked at as a suspect in the case.
Attorneys for Echols said in January Hobbs' nephew told friends "my uncle Terry murdered those three little boys," Fox 16 reported at the time.
Hobbs has fought the allegations, calling them "more of a publicity stunt" than anything else. In truth nobody really knows who killed the boys.
I was recently lucky enough to attend a screening of West of Memphis, the latest documentary about the case, produced by Jackson and Fran Walsh and directed by Amy Berg.
I was only 5 years old when the case first broke and truthfully never knew much about it other than the major developments that happened in the past few years. So going into the movie, I had no opinions about the trio's guilt or the case in general.
But the documentary was so moving and presented such a gut-wrenching picture of a town torn apart by a horrific crime and six young lives — the victims' and the West Memphis 3's — forever damaged that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.
The pictures that follow are all stills from the movie and tell the essential aspects of the West Memphis 3's long journey.
West of Memphis is the story of three teenagers: Damien Echols (L), Jessie Misskelley (M), and Jason Baldwin (R). The three were convicted in 1994 of the murders of three young boys.
Source: Wikipedia
The victims were found in a creek in West Memphis, Ark. Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore, all 8 years old, were found naked and "hog tied" in the water.
Source: Sony Pictures
The community was outraged at the murders and turned on the trio. The West Memphis 3 drew so much ire because they were different and were long suspected of belonging to a Satanic cult, according to the documentary.
Source: Sony Pictures
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