|
Free
the West Memphis 3: A Benefit for Truth & Justice
Aces
& Eights/Koch
Scheduled
for release Tuesday, Oct. 10.
A detailed
account of the West Memphis Three case is available at the
website www.
wm3.org, along with police reports, appeals updates,
the addresses of relevant politicians and judges, etc.
Reporting
by Mara Leveritt and other Arkansas Times writers
can be found at www.arktimes.
com/archives.
htm#wtich. Leveritt is currently at work on a book about
the case.
The
HBO documentaries are Paradise Lost and
Paradise Lost: Revelations. Paradise Lost:
Revelations is slated for a theatrical run in Portland
in December.
Documentarians
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky also directed
the acclaimed film Brother's Keeper, an investigation
of a suspicious death in rural New York.
Police
officials and prosecutors involved with the case have repeatedly
told reporters that they stand by their work and their belief
in the guilt of the young men they
convicted.
|
|
Here are some facts that most everyone can agree on about
West Memphis, Arkansas:
The ninth-largest city in the state lies directly across
the Mississippi from its better-known neighbor, Memphis,
Tenn. West Memphis relies on transportation and agriculture.
On May 5, 1993, someone murdered three little boys in West
Memphis. It's not worth describing exactly how it was done
here; let it suffice to say that the act was executed with
a barbarity that exponentially multiplied the city's shock.
At this point, interpretations of some of the key realities
of West Memphis split like foul lines on a baseball diamond.
There's the official view: The three 8-year-olds were killed
by a troika of Satan-worshiping juvenile delinquents led
by Damien Echols. Along with Jason Baldwin and
Jessie Misskelley, Echols committed the crime in
honor of his Dark Master, furthering a pursuit of the Left-Hand
Path he'd discovered through books by Stephen King,
heavy-metal music and some dabblings in "magick."
Police arrived at this conclusion by questioning the mentally
retarded Misskelley for 12 hours without a lawyer present
and without recording most of the discussion. Misskelley
ultimately offered a carefully guided confession to the
crime. Despite rampant inconsistencies in Misskelley's testimony,
the irregular interrogation and a lack of physical evidence,
prosecutors convicted the three. In Echols' case, prosecutors
cited the accused's enthusiasm for rock music, books by
authors like Anne Rice and King and occult religion
in a successful effort to secure a death sentence.
And then there's the opinion of many others: That Echols,
Baldwin and Misskelley, whom supporters have dubbed the
West Memphis Three, were framed by small-town cops steeped
in prejudice and desperate for a solution to a truly horrific
crime. That belief, fueled by a years-long investigation
by an Arkansas journalist and two widely seen HBO documentaries,
has pushed a growing contingent of rock-scene luminaries
and entertainers to agitate for the trio's release.
Free the West Memphis 3: A Benefit for Truth &
Justice gathers songs by Steve Earle, Rocket
From the Crypt, Tom Waits and others in an effort to
raise money for the campaign to spring the Three.
"You can't look at this thing as a music fan and not realize
that music had a lot to do with why these guys got the shaft,"
says Danny Bland, longtime manager of Seattle rock
nasty boys the Supersuckers, who contribute a pair
of tracks. "They are music fans, and we can't just leave
them there."
The disc is sure to catch the attention of a lot of alt-rock
fans. John Doe comes through with a typically hardbitten
track; ex-Clash mouthpiece Joe Strummer teams
with the Long Beach Dub All-Stars; Zeke, Nashville
Pussy and the Murder City Devils contribute their
respective hard-rockin' schticks. The highlights are Waits's
performance, ramshackle and beautiful as ever, Earle's hyper-creepy
"The Truth," and a classic example of Killing Joke's
eerie edge-of-New-Wave gloom.
Mara Leveritt, a contributing editor for the weekly
Arkansas Times who has investigated the case for
years, says the rock-scene solidarity couldn't be more appropriate.
"The most telling remark about the role that music and
pop culture played in the case came during the closing arguments,"
Leveritt says in her gentle, methodical Southern drawl.
"The prosecutor said, 'Is there anything wrong with wearing
black? No. Is there anything wrong with heavy metal, in
and of itself? No. But put it all together, and look within
Damien Echols, and you see that there's no soul there.'
I think that statements like that clearly had an effect."
Bland seems realistic about the potential a CD comp has
for affecting the hard fact that Echols still awaits execution
while Misskelley and Baldwin also sit behind bars. Still,
he insists that what he and a mounting army of others believe
to be the truth will win out.
"The best we can do in this situation is just make sure
that the authorities in Arkansas don't get away with anything,
that whatever happens is publicized, that people know about
it," Bland says. "Tom Waits said something about this case.
He said, the worst two things you can be in our justice
system are poor and different, and these guys were both."
|
