EXHIBIT A-IOI - West Memphis Three Case - Document Archive
EXHIBIT A-IOI - West Memphis Three Case - Document Archive
EXHIBIT A-IOI - West Memphis Three Case - Document Archive
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<strong>Case</strong> 4:09-cv-00008-BSM <strong>Document</strong> 30-5 Filed 07/17/2009 Page 36 of 297<br />
"··lexisNexis"<br />
SECTION: EYE; Pg. 5<br />
LENGTH: 866 words<br />
Copyright 1996 San Jose Mercury News<br />
All Rights Reserved<br />
San Jose Mercury News (California)<br />
DECEMBER 6, 1996 Friday MORNING FINAL EDITION<br />
HEADLINE: WHEN INNOCENCE DIES A CAPTIVATING TRUE TALE OF LIVES LOST, LIVES WASTED<br />
BYLINE: STEPHEN WHITTY, Mercury News Film Writer<br />
BODY:<br />
IT IS an unspeakable crime<br />
and yet, tragically, it is not unimaginable.<br />
We have seen it too often on our front pages and late-night news for it to be that. A child disappears. A search is<br />
mounted. And when the hunt ends, it is because the police have found what no parent ever wants to see.<br />
That grimly familiar story was played out in triplicate in <strong>West</strong> <strong>Memphis</strong>, Ark., in 1993, when the corpses ofthree<br />
missing 8-year-old boys were found by the banks ofa muddy creek. The children had been bludgeoned and drowned.<br />
One had been sexually mutilated.<br />
The crimes shocked the tiny town. When police and prosecutors triumphantly announced a month later that they<br />
had filed murder charges against three suspects, they were greeted with applause.<br />
But then, suggests "Paradise Lost," another crime began.<br />
"Paradise Lost: the Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," was directed by the terrific "Brother's Keeper" team ofJoe<br />
Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. And it just may be the best documentary ofthe year.<br />
It is certainly one ofthe most chilling. Because "Paradise Lost" is willing to look at other nightmares beyond the<br />
horrors ofthe crime itself It's willing to examine the spectacle ofa justice system more interested in closure than killers.<br />
It's willing to indict a small town's fear ofthe unknown and its horror ofnon-conformity.<br />
In many ways, that's the theme underlying the film. <strong>West</strong> <strong>Memphis</strong>, Ark., was a close-knit, conservative, homogenous<br />
community. Because these murders didn't reflect the town's image ofitself, people seemed incapable ofbelieving<br />
the murderers would. Trying to make the facts fit, the police looked for suspects who didn't.<br />
They found them in three teenage boys. That the teens had never been in serious trouble before and had families<br />
who vouched for them didn't matter. The boys wore black T-shirts and listened to heavy metal; one boy was even called<br />
Darnien, like that kid in "The Omen," and spent his spare time doodling pentagrams.<br />
Obviously, they were members of a satanic cult, officials declared. After all, who else but a Satanist could have<br />
done such a thing?<br />
The stories ofother crimes prove that plenty ofpeople can, however. And slowly "Paradise Lost" begins to hint that<br />
someone else may have been at work here, as well.<br />
Berlinger and Sinofsky build their case carefully. We learn that, although the police knew a bloody stranger had<br />
been seen in town on the night ofthe murders, they never pursued the lead. We hear the suspects' parents trying to undo<br />
the demonization oftheir children ("Johnny Cash wears black, doesn't he?" one father protests weakly). And we see
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