West of Memphis

 I have a thing for injustice. It stirs in me a kind of rage that scares me. But more than that, it knocks the air out of my lung. Two questions haunt me: 1) how can people let this happen, and let it get this far; 2) how can the victims - the wrongfully accused, the innocents - accept it and not let the sheer weight of it all destroy them. One of my favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption. I love it because I cannot fathom the fortitude Andy Dufresne displays; the calmness, the quiet strenght that can be misconstrude for resignation; and then taking the ultimate revenge-claiming his own freedom, and by doing so, destroying the very people who so unjustly erected a prison around him. Last night, I watched West of Memphis, the 2012 documentary from Amy Berg about the infamous case of the West Memphis three. I have spoken about them in here before; how their cause struck me to my core. In 1993, three teenagers were arrested and sentenced for the murder of three 8-year old boys in small town Arkansas. The teenagers were handpicked by the police on grounds that the murder was part of a satanic ritual. All were sentenced to life in prison; the said leader of the pack, Damien Echols, was sentenced to die. He was 18 at the time. To say the investigation and trial were shady is an understatement; no physical evidence tying the teens to the crime scene, no eye witness. Just three outcasts, and whole bunch of assumptions- and lies. How this came to be, how the American justice system came to charge these young men is flabbergasting in itself. But what's even more imcomprehensible, is that as the years passed and new evidence came forward exonerating them, no one from the original trial, be it the judge or the prosecutor or the state's attorney general came forward and said: we fucked up. It took nearly 20 years and a plethora of courage, patience and outside help from a handful of supporters to help shed light on this aberration. This is what West of Memphis wants to document: the injustice, the supporters, the detractors and the one, possible true suspect. I couldn't sleep very well last night; in fact, i'm still very much haunted by it. The movie is long, nearly 2:30. But it's one of the best exemple of humanity I ever did see: how man is a proud creature, too proud to own up to his mistake; how rage can make people do the unimaginable; how despite it all, some people will not give up and will do the right thing; how love, love can blossom in such circomstances. And it gives me hope. Little known fact about the case: then 16-year Jason Baldwin, one of the accused, was asked to strike a deal: if he told the court that Damien Echols was the leader of the cult and had orchestrated the whole thing, his sentence would be reduced - he could even be freed. His answer: "I cannot do this because that would be a lie. And my mama raised me better than that". And so rather than throw his friend under a bus to save his own life, J. Baldwin would spend the next 18 years in a prison cell for a crime he didn't commit. And just like that, your faith in humanity can be restored. xox