By George Jared
Friday, February 5, 2010
JONESBORO — The story of three 8-year-old boys killed during an apparent
satanic ritual in West Memphis on May 5, 1993, was a subject too tempting to
pass up for award-winning filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.
The bodies of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers were found
in a ditch, and according to police, the deaths were the result of an occult
ritual. A month later three teens — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie
Misskelley Jr. — were arrested and charged with the murders.
As Berlinger and Sinofsky delved into the case, filming the families of the
accused and the victims, it became apparent to them the men charged with the
crime couldn’t have done it, and satanism wasn’t at the root of the crime.
Now almost two decades later, Berlinger and Sinofsky are in Northeast
Arkansas again, filming a third installment of their acclaimed “Paradise
Lost” series.
“These are men, who 17 years later are still rotting in prison,” Berlinger
said. Sinofsky later added, “Damien hasn’t seen sunlight in seven years.”
Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were convicted in 1994 of the killings.
“I can’t believe this case is still going on,” Berlinger said from the
inside of the Craighead County Courthouse last week.
The idea for a film about the killings came from an article in The New York
Times, Sinofsky said. Berlinger and Sinofsky traveled to NEA.
At first the filmmakers believed the accused were guilty.
“I remember being in court during one court hearing, and Damien craned his
head around and looked back at the audience, and it sent shivers down my
spine,” Sinofsky said.
But the case lacked any DNA or forensic evidence tying the teens to the
crime, Berlinger said. A error-riddled confession by Misskelley wasn’t
convincing, either, Berlinger and Sinofsky said.
The circumstantial case made against Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley was that
Echols practiced wiccan religion, they wore black shirts and listened to
hard rock music, the filmmakers said.
Berlinger and Sinofsky were further convinced of the teens’ innocence after
meeting Echols in jail. They described him as intelligent and not capable of
committing this heinous crime.
Dealing with the victims’ families was extremely emotional, Sinofsky said.
Moore’s parents, Dana and Todd Moore, initially refused to participate in
the documentary, but eventually they acquiesced.
Jostling between the families of the accused and the victims was hard,
Berlinger and Sinofsky said. On the first day of Misskelley’s trial, the
victims’ families sat on one side of the courtroom, and the accused’s
families sat on the other side.
“They watched us wondering which side we’d sit on,” Sinofsky said.
The filmmakers set up a camera near the jury box, they said. The intensity
from both families was palpable as the trials unfolded, Sinofsky said. Once
the testimony was complete, everyone seemed to relax, he said. “It was
really strange,” he added.
After the trials and convictions the film “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders
at Robin Hood Hills” premiered in 1996.
“Without a doubt it was the most emotional film we ever made,” Sinofsky
said.
It started an international furor.
Support groups for the so-called West Memphis Three formed, and money for
new trials was raised. The film was not an advocacy piece for the convicted,
but many who watched were shocked by the lack of evidence, Berlinger said.
Berlinger and Sinofsky won Emmy and Peabody awards for “Paradise Lost,” and
both expected the West Memphis Three to be released on appeal.
When it became apparent the men might not be released, the duo traveled
again to NEA to direct and produce “Paradise Lost II: Revelations.”
A key figure in the first film, Byers’ stepfather John Mark Byers, was a
focal point of the second film. An imposing figure who stands 6-foot- 6,
Byers was described by Sinofsky as “one of the most interesting figures in
film history.”
For years many West Memphis Three supporters thought Byers, who had a
history of drug abuse and other run-ins with the law, was the culprit. In
the second film, John Mark Byers explains why he removed all of his teeth
after it was revealed that some of the wounds on the victims could have been
human bite marks.
John Mark Byers also agreed to take a polygraph test in the film, and
explained how his wife, Melissa Byers, died under suspicious circumstances
two years after the death of her son. His sermonizing on several topics and
his repeated run-ins with Echols and supporters at post-conviction relief
hearings rounded the movie out.
The third film is proving much harder to put together, Berlinger said.
Several attorneys and witnesses have refused to do on-camera interviews due
to a “phantom” gag order imposed by Judge David Burnett during Baldwin and
Misskelley’s Rule 37 hearings last year.
Burnett has repeatedly denied issuing a gag order, and the Craighead County
Circuit Clerk’s office confirmed no documents relating to a gag order have
ever been filed in the case. Burnett has said in past interviews that he
told attorneys for the convicted “he didn’t want the case played out in the
newspapers and the media.”
Attorneys for Baldwin and Misskelley also won’t let their clients appear on
camera, and that has been frustrating, Berlinger and Sinofsky said.
Despite the problems, the filmmakers traveled to Jonesboro the last week in
January to interview John Mark Byers and a local newspaper reporter. They
also planned to meet with Branch’s mother Pamela Hobbs.
More trips are planned for the spring. The focus of the third film is to
outline the lives of the key figures in the case years later, Berlinger
said.
The filmmakers agree that of the three convicted Echols is the most
compelling. Charming and intelligent, the alleged ring leader of the cult
killing has drawn the most attention from West Memphis Three supporters.
“His death would be shameful,” Sinofsky said.
Based on the East Coast, Berlinger and Sinofsky reveled being back in
Jonesboro and were amused the case is still ongoing.
Recent DNA testing and witnesses coming forth with different versions of
events from May 5, 1993, have vindicated Berlinger and Sinofsky’s belief in
the West Memphis Three’s innocence, they said — so much so that Hobbs and
John Mark Byers also think the men didn’t kill their sons.
But even as the third film gets under way, the filmmakers’ thoughts are
always with the boys who died and the teens who have been jailed.
“We always wanted the killer or killers to be found,” Sinofsky said. “The
real killers.”
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