If you are not familiar with this agonizing -- yet simultaneously fascinating -- case, I encourage you to learn about it. It is the perfect tragedy. In 1993, three 8-year-old boys were found dead in a secluded area of West Memphis, Ark. With no physical evidence and a very suspect confession, three teenage boys were found guilty of the murders in a trial that was the stuff of bad television.
The teenagers became known as the West Memphis Three. They are now free. With a new trial about to start -- featuring new evidence to be introduced by the defense, earlier witnesses recanting testimony and new witnesses with new information set to testify -- suddenly the prosecution seemed uninterested in doing battle again. Interestingly, Echols, who was on death row after having been found guilty of murdering three people, now was seen fit to leave his cage and go free. Someone blinked. It wasn't Echols.
I bring all of this up because this case seemed to be embraced by a lot of bands, musicians and young people all over the world. In the West Memphis Three, a lot of people saw themselves. Heavy-metal albums found in their rooms, antisocial behavior -- the very stuff of youth -- were used in court. In lieu of any physical evidence placing them at the crime scene, this "evidence" supposedly showed that these three were definitely the ones who did it.
In a real court of law, this would have been laughed out of the courtroom.
I found out about the case more than a decade ago. I read about it online and it seemed to me that justice had not been served. After seeing a documentary on the case, Paradise Lost, with Metallica providing the soundtrack, I decided I was angry enough to get involved...
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