They don't hesitate in getting to work in this documentary. Right off the bat they show the drowned and sexually mutilated bodies of three, eight year old boys. At first I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was a recreation or the real thing since its cheap looking footage of a few sheriffs deputies pulling the children out of a shallow and muddy creek bed.
The documentary doesn't so much follow the story of the little boys, although it should. No instead it focuses on the media frenzy and trial of three older teens who are accused of committing the crime. The film highlights the vast differences that occur when going from a major metropolitan area such as Chicago to West Memphis TN, a backwards little hick town. Two of the teens who are accused like to wear black and listen to Metallica, so in effect in this town it means they must be Satan worshippers. The Children's murder was motivated by that and that of course they did it, just look how weird they are. In a city, or anywhere that isn't filled with bigots and hillbillies for that matter, wouldn't think twice about the way these kids are dressed.
Before I delve more into the trail I'd like to focus on the parents of the murdered children. They keep saying they are good and caring Christian people, but as soon as they finish saying that they talk about how they are glad these other children are going to get raped in prison, and how they are going to shoot them. There is even a part where a few of the fathers show off the guns they are going to do it with. Now don't get me wrong, I feel for them, they lost their children in a horrible kind of way, but what they are talking about is simple revenge. They admit several times that no matter what happens it wont bring their children back, and then back peddle and wish the worst things on these other children.
Now the case against the teens is weak, in fact its just not strong enough for a trial. They have some fibers found near the boys that match fibers from clothes in the defendants home, not things they were wearing on the day, or even clothes they own. I'm a firm believer in science and this forensics wasn't bad, but they even admit there is a chance that the fibers weren't even from those clothes.
The best evidence they have is the confession of one of the three teens who was there. He has an IQ of 72, and barely understood most of what was asked of him. They interrogated him for 2 hours alone, with no recording, or note taking, and only when they were going to get the confession out of him did they turn on the tape recorder. They could have said so many things to him off the record to coerce a confession from him. Now that's not to say that the confession isn't real and true, but there are many inconsistencies. He claims the murders happened at noon, the children wouldn't even be out of school till 3. When in fact the murders were at night. He claims that they murdered the children at the creek in the woods. There wasn't a drop of blood anywhere, and the children were bled out.
Most of the confession the cops are leading him, and he is simply agreeing with them and repeating what they say. Next is the bull shit motive, and they simply chalk it up to witchcraft. The teens worship Satan and needed to sacrifice the children, makes sense right?
They bring in many experts in the trial to say it was because of Satan that they did this, and the "experts" have less educational background on the subject than I do. The problem comes down to simple physics and forensics. The children were killed somewhere else and brought there and the evidence seems to point more to one of the fathers than a couple of local goths.
Its a terrible miscarriage of justice, and the boys don't even really get to defend themselves all that much, on cross examination they are lambasted for owning a book with a Pinnacle star on the front, and for writing their names in dead alphabets. Now I cant say for sure that they didn't do it, they certainly could have, but they were not the most likely killers in this story. I don't think they did it, not based on that evidence.
It was a strong and gut wrenching documentary, be warned that for a few minutes you do see the children's bodies and its graphic and heart breaking. There is a sequel that I now have to watch to find out what happens after this one ends. Overall 7/10 stars.
Directors: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
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