FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
It’s good news week: West Memphis Three Are Free
08.21.2011
04:05 am
Topics:
Tags:


 
“They were convicted for being young, goth, Wiccan metalheads at the height of the Satanic Panic. Today they walk free.”

For those of us who have been following the plight of the “West Memphis Three,” Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, from the time we were first introduced to their victimization in the gut wrenching documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the news of their release from prison is a bitter sweet turn of events for three kids who were convicted of the crime of being different in a witch hunt that makes the American judicial system seem absolutely medieval.

If you’re not familiar with the “West Memphis Three” case, go here and catch up on it.

The “Three” are free, but the case is hardly closed. I expect there will be revelations about this obscene miscarriage of justice emerging in the very near future. Arkansas’ legal system is clearly trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug, which is hard to do when the media is all over it and with high profile supporters like Eddie Vedder and Patti Smith on the case, and I seriously doubt that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley are going to let the motherfuckers who sent them to prison off the hook. In addition to having their lives completely destroyed, it looks to me like these cats still got some major issues with having to plead guilty to be freed (who wouldn’t?) and with 18 years behind bars I’m sure they have plenty of energy to settle the karmic score. Rock on brothers!
 

 
Update 8/21: Press conference with Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley.

The fact that after 18 years on death row and in solitary confinement Echols managed to keep his sanity amazes me. Damien’s wife Lorri needs to be given a huge amount of credit for standing by and fighting for her man as does Jason’s sacrifice of his fight for exoneration so his friend could be freed.
 

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
|
08.21.2011
04:05 am
|