Innocence Blog

Paradise Lost, Oscar Contender

Posted: February 24, 2012 12:00 pm

Joe Berlinger’s third film about the West Memphis 3, Paradise Lost: Purgatory, is poised to take center stage at Sunday’s Academy Awards, with a favored nomination in the Best Documentary Feature category.
 
Dubbed the West Memphis 3 by the media, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in 1994 of killing three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Echols was sentenced to death, Baldwin received life without parole and Misskelley was sentenced to 40 years.
 
Paradise Lost: Purgatory is a further investigation into the case of the three then-teenagers who spent nearly 20 years in prison before being released after new evidence indicated their innocence.
 
The Innocence Project wishes Paradise Lost: Purgatory good luck Sunday night so that more people will learn about this terrible injustice.