Exonerate the WM3 Official Blog

KATV Interview with Baldwin & Echols #wm3

KATV: Exclusive Baldwin & Echols Interview

KATV's Heather Crawford sat down for an exclusive interview with Damien and Jason in NYC after the premiere of Paradise Lost 3. Click the banner to view after it airs on October 30, 31 and November 1.

'Hobbit' director talks of pardon quest for Damien Echols #wm3

Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 8:31 AM

Movie director Peter Jackson, in New Zealand to film "The Hobbit," brought Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three with him and that occasioned some questioning at a news conference there. He particularly was pressed on whether he'd gone through normal channels to get a waiver of a rule that would normally prevent a convicted murderer from entering the country.

Jackson told reporters he was working on a full pardon for Echols, released after a negotiated guilty plea. He also "clarified" that Echols would not have a role in "The Hobbit," news that had caused some unhappiness among those who believe Echols is guilty of the murder of three West Memphis children. Though he pleaded guilty, he did so under an unusual procedure that allowed him to assert his innocence in return for release for time served in the 1993 deaths. He had been condemned to die. His co-defendants Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. were serving life sentences when released.

Pardon for Damien Echols? It's unwise to ever say never in the WM3 case. But if Jackson thinks a pardon could be forthcoming from Gov. Mike Beebe or any likely Arkansas successor, I don't think much of his odds.

From Arkansas Times online.

Peter Jackson Says He’ll Help One of the #WM3 Seek a Pardon

By DAVE ITZKOFF

At a news conference on Friday in New Zealand Peter Jackson, the director of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and a coming two-part film adaptation of “The Hobbit,” said he was working with one of the recently released Arkansas men known as the West Memphis Three to help get him exonerated of the crimes for which the three spent nearly 20 years in prison.

Speaking from the “Hobbit” set in Waikato and accompanied by the New Zealand prime minister, John Key, Mr. Jackson said he had received an exemption from New Zealand law that would allow a visit by Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three convicts, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Jackson said at the news conference that Mr. Echols, now 36, was not working on his “Hobbit” movies. “There are all sorts of emotive headlines about ‘Damien Echols, killer,’ coming to New Zealand,” Mr. Jackson said, according to The A.P., “but the reality is that Damien Echols is an innocent man who has spent 18 years incarcerated in a tiny cell.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Jackson gets 'killer' into NZ #wm3

By Andrew Koubaridis

5:30 AM Wednesday Oct 26, 2011

A man convicted in the United States of murdering three 8-year-old boys has been allowed into New Zealand - after film-maker Sir Peter Jackson approached Immigration on his behalf.

Damien Echols served 18 years in jail and was on death row until he was released from an Arkansas jail in August after he and two others agreed to change their pleas to guilty.

New tests in 2007 from the crime scene proved negative for the trio's DNA and showed others were present when the three Cub Scouts were murdered.

The controversial case divided the state of Arkansas and attracted the attention of a number of celebrities, including Sir Peter, who were drawn to the case after a documentary suggested the men were innocent.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

11/11/11: Paradise Lost 3 Purgatory Lone Star Int'l Film Festival

One of the last theatrical showings of PL3 before its January broadcast date will be at the Lone Star International Film Festival. Producer Jonathan Silberberg will be in the house too! This may be a private event though it's on their calendar, please click here to enquire about tickets.

Jessie's Alford Plea at Last! #wm3

Due to the efforts of our favorite journalist Mara Leveritt (all I got was stonewalled), here is the Alford Plea that Jessie signed off on. Please note the addendum that allows him to associate with Damien and Jason for publicity purposes. Previously they were allowed to be in each other's proximity but not Jessie's without the court's express permission.

Before you download the plea, please take a moment or two to read Mara's tribute to the unsung heroes of this case, the only people that aren't busting their arms off patting themselves on the back for getting DJJ out-- supporters from all over the world...

Two months of freedom! WM3 Supporters, here’s my tribute to YOU!

Download Misskelley Alford

11/05/11: Clear The West Memphis Three Benefit

On the 19th August 2011 after 18 years of imprisonment, The West Memphis Three were finally released! Despite how wonderful this news is, the legal tangle leading to their release is very far from ideal and therefore the guys will undoubtedly still be needing our assistance to rebuild their stolen lives and importantly, clear their names once and for all!*

Come along and join us for a night of great music and fun in aid of  The WM3 Freedom Fund.

Bands and DJ's confirmed so far are :
Terrathorn
ASBO Retards
XVLTR (Fifteen Litre)
Attack Ships!
Savage Goat

DJ Cybermonk
DJ Lost
DJ Heathen
...... with more to come!!

Tickets are £5 each and are available from Punker Bunker ( Sydney St, Brighton) or personally from Morticia Misanthrope or Tim Weinberg. We will be adding an online box office asap.

And if all that wasnt enough reason to come along, Deviant! Rock club @ Belushi's will be allowing anyone with a WM3 Benefit hand stamp or ticket stub in for the super reasonable entry fee of only £2.

*A small percentage of any profits will also be dontated to assist those wrongfully convicted still suffering on death row

Please visit the facebook 'Clear the WM3 Benefit' here.

Tickets for: A Conversation with Joe...

Get your tickets to this sneak peek screening of PL3 soon - it premieres on Monday Oct 17. You can get them online here: doc-u-oct-17.eventbrite.com

A Conversation with Joe Berlinger at Cinefamily Oct 17th, Los Angeles

Catch a sneak peek of Paradie Lost 3: Purgatory at Cinefamily in Los Angeles Monday, October 17. . Joe Berlinger will be making an appearance so it's a 'can't miss' opportunity to see this amazing documentary.

via www.documentary.org

A Death-Row Love Story - NYTimes.com

“Damien, I can’t say that I believe in ‘God,’ but something has brought you into my life,” Davis wrote. “As daunting as that is to me sometimes, I know it is a good thing...”

Full story here:  www.nytimes.com

IDA's DocU: A Conversation with Joe Berlinger & PL3 Sneak Preview!

OCTOBER 17, 2011  7:00pm

Doc U presents a conversation with filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Crude, Brother’s Keeper, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) followed by a special preview screening of HBO Documentary Films’ Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the third documentary Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky have produced for HBO over the past two decades covering the trials, convictions and incarceration of the West Memphis 3. With the trio’s release in August, Berlinger and Paradise Lost 3 have received international attention for what Variety has described as a “masterwork of explanatory journalism, advocacy and perseverance” and “destined to rank as one of the major achievements in American documentary.” Eddie Schmidt, the International Documentary Association’s Board President and an Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, will lead you through a behind-the-scenes discussion with Berlinger about the making of the Paradise Lost films, the power of documentary films to affect change, as well as an update on Berlinger’s own legal struggles with Chevron around his 2009 film Crude. 

TO PURCHASE TICKETS, CLICK HERE. Please visit the PL3 facebook page here.

611 N Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, 90036 / 323-655-2510

Joe Berlinger will make a second appearance at THE DOC FILMMAKER TAKING ON POWER at the Paley Center for Media NY on October 20th at 6:30pm. To purchase tickets, click here.

 

Jessie's Gets the Hands on the Clock

At long last... He walked out of the circuit court at 1pm, 08.19.11. Inked by Lalo at Sacred Tattoo NYC

Damien Jason Bruce Joe Q&A #wm3

Jessie's in the balcony, not feeling like a Q&A right now...

WM3 bringing down the house @NYFF!

Jason Previews His PL3 Premiere Tie! #wm3

Damien's New Tattoo - Wind Over Heaven #wm3

#WM3 Press Conference at HBO

Jason just got his driver's permit! Jessie left stage, felt overwhelmed...

West Memphis Three Will Attend New York FF #wm3

by David Itzkoff

After gaining their freedom following a nearly two-decade ordeal, the Arkansas men known as the West Memphis Three are planning to attend a premiere screening in New York for the latest entry in a documentary series that has helped keep their case in the public eye for more than 15 years. The three men, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were freed from prison in August after having been convicted in 1994 of the murders of three 8-year-old boys, are expected to be at the New York Film Festival on Monday evening for a screening of the film “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” a non-fiction feature directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the Film Society of Lincoln Center said.

Over the course of the three “Paradise Lost” films — the first was released in 1996 — Mr. Berlinger and Mr. Sinofsky have chronicled the case of the West Memphis Three, who were teenagers at the time of their convictions, and raised questions about the handling of their trials and the evidence and testimony presented in them. Though the new documentary was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, the version shown at the New York Film Festival will include an updated ending with footage shot at the Aug. 19 hearing where, under a deal with Arkansas prosecutors, the three men pleaded guilty to the murders but were set free. Mr. Echols, who was on death row, and Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Misskelley, who were serving life sentences, continue to maintain their innocence.

Read the full NY Times story here.

Jessie Misskelley in the Big Apple #wm3

  

photo by Jonathan Silberberg/@radicalmedia  Like Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory on facebook!

'Paradise Lost' director Joe Berlinger sought justice for three young men convicted of child murder

Born and raised in Westchester and a lifelong New Yorker, documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (r.) traveled to West Memphis, Ark., 18 years ago to document one story, and came back with another. The result was 1996's "Paradise Lost; The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," a follow-up, 2000's "Paradise Lost 2; Revelations," and now "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory," which will debut at the New York Film Festival Oct. 10 before screening on HBO in January.

The films involve the case of three young men — Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin — convicted in 1994 of the murders of three children a year earlier. Echols was sentenced to death; the other two received life sentences. But from the beginning, there were questions about the case, as prosecutors partly depicted it all as heavy metal music's demonic influence.

Last month, after a decade and a half of appeals and work from legal rights advocates, supporters and celebrities to re-examine evidence, the "West Memphis Three" were released following a deal with prosecutors. Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin plan to attend the showing at the NYFF.

"Paradise Lost" wasn't intended to be about innocent men in a legal nightmare, right?

"No. The film came out in 1996, just as the Internet was becoming a thing, which allowed there to be an Internet-based support group, which is what brought in people like Johnny Depp, Peter Jackson, Eddie Vedder. And while the celebrities who've rallied to the cause to free these guys get attention, it's really the acts of tens of thousands of people who found each other that helped propel it.

Read the full NY Daily News story here.

Please visit the official Paradise Lost 3 facebook page here.

Paradise Lost 3 Purgatory Trailer

Check out the new trailer with more new footage included.  The film will be premiering in New York Oct 10 at the New York Film Festival and will have a limited theatrical run in select cities. Coming to HBO in January 2012. For more on HBO Documentary Films, visit http://itsh.bo/j61msh.

via www.dailymotion.com

Jason Baldwin celebrates with Sting and his buddies

Exclusive: Sting’s 60th birthday party at the Beacon Theater was a four hour celebration of the rock star’s career and songs with his own band and almost a dozen famous musicians performing his music. They included Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Herbie Hancock, Lady Gaga. Branford Marsalis, will.i.am, Mary J. Blige, Chris Botti, Jimmy Nail, and Met Opera star Bryn Terfel. The latter opened the second act of the show with a rendition of “Roxanne” certain to become part of pop history–it was hilarious and serious at the same time, and showed how Sting’s punkiest new wave music has resonance in many forms.

via www.showbiz411.com