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Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh Financed Legal Support To Free West Memphis 3
Peter Jackson disclosed Friday that he was working with one of the West Memphis 3 toward obtaining a full pardon. “We’re doing investigative work, we’re doing forensic work,” Jackson said, for “the purpose of getting a complete pardon” for Damien Echols. Jackson disclosed that Echols was in New Zealand at a press conference to announce that the first of the director’s two movies based on The Hobbit would have its world premiere in Wellington. Jackson received an exemption from New Zealand law to allow Echols to visit. Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh have been working for several years to help free Echols, who along with Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley were released in August after serving 18 years in prison for the murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Convicted of the murders, they continued to maintain their innocence but pleaded guilty to lesser charges to gain release from prison. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, third of three documentaries about their plight, screened earlier this month at the New York Film Festival after it was recut to include their release. It is scheduled to debut on HBO in January.
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I have to say Peter Jackson’s intense interest in this case verges on the slightly creepy.
It’s great Peter’s working so hard for him, but part of me wishes he’d put all that cash and effort and time into finding who REALLY tortured and murdered those kids. Why is he more concerned about the WM3? At least they’re still alive. As a parent, I still want to see justice.
In order for them to be pardoned, the real killer (or at least evidence pointing in that direction) must be found to satisfy the state. The only way they will be cleared is if they find out who the real murderer is.
Peter Jackson is funding a continuing private investigation into the murders AND helping Damien Echols get a pardon. And I think you should direct your ire at the state of Arkansas and the West Memphis police instead of Jackson — it really is their responsibility to solve the murders.
The point is that they are still alive and deserve a chance to live a life without a murder conviction on their records. Nothing will bring those kids back.
I am glad to hear that Jackson is still putting forth so much effort to see that Damien gets his full pardon, but there are two other men that were wronged as well. Growing up just across the bridge since and from where this crime took place, has been hell. Visiting Damien’s families back then was heartbreaking, as is the fact that they are free from prison but not free from the nightmare that put them there to begin with. The state of Arkansas will never admit that they were wrong. Even when an Arkansas police officer shot and killed a 8 Year old child because he was playing with a toy gun. There excuse was they thought the bright orange and yellow toy was real. THEY WILL NOT ADMIT GUiLT EVER!!!