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morgainlafeye's review
5.0
I love this book, but it was a lot like watching something horrible happen right in front of your eyes. You wanted to look away - protect your own conscious and belief, but at the same time, I felt this strong obligation to keep watching.
I feel like there's still a lot about this case we don't know, although this book raises many questions not examined. Do wish the case could be re-opened, so the family can finally know what happened to they're children.
I feel like there's still a lot about this case we don't know, although this book raises many questions not examined. Do wish the case could be re-opened, so the family can finally know what happened to they're children.
cindytheskull's review
5.0
This book was brought to my attention after the YouTube Feed kindly told me there was a "48 hours" special in which Johnny Depp had something to say. Until that point, I hadn't heard of the West Memphis Three.
Interested in the case (as I am in many others), I immediately searched for other information regarding this story, and saw all three episodes of the HBO Documentary "Paradise Lost", which played a big role in the attention this case got over the years. I got to the book soon after.
This story is sad for so many reasons. Sadly enough, the "West Memphis Three" are the fourth, fifth and sixth victim of this case. Christopher, Michael and Stevie were the first, second and third.
I didn't have the chance to follow the case from the start, I was just five years old when the three eight year olds were killed. I was six when three innocent teenagers were put behind bars for it. But in 2011, when they were finally released, I was 24, and while I had lived my life as a free person until then, those guys had spent 18 years in prison.
This story could be a very well thought thriller. Three children have been found brutally beaten in a ditch, hogtied with their own shoelaces and completely naked. Three kids stuck in the Bible Belt are wrongly accused of their murder because they're different. Jessy is borderline mentally retarded, Jason loves listening to Heavy Metal and drawing skulls and crosses, and Damien wears black, is a Wiccan, has long black hair and has an history of mental illness.
But this story isn't fiction, and the excellent writer does not want the story to be read as fiction either. The account is thoroughly documented and full of references to the actual trial and media coverage of the case. Every single event in and out of court is told from the eyes of all those who took part to the case, from the policemen, to the private investigator, to the families of the victims and the suspects and the false witnesses.
It is impossible to believe that listening to Heavy Metal music and reading Stephen King books would make someone a murder suspect, worse even to see that it made three convicted murderers. These guys have been locked up for evidence which cannot even be described as circumstancial. Their only luck has been the extensive media coverage, including the HBO Documentary of the trial, which got them some big attention. Musicians, Actors and Journalists have taken them under their wings, and they have finally been freed.
But this story has no happy ending. Justice has not been done to the three victims, their murderer is still on the loose. And the three wrongly accused had to enter an Alford Plea to avoid them filing a law suit against the state who kept them in jail for 18 years. They've lost 18 years with their families, they've lost their youth and their health.
And still, more wrongly convicted sit in their cell waiting for someone to help them get the justice they deserve.
Interested in the case (as I am in many others), I immediately searched for other information regarding this story, and saw all three episodes of the HBO Documentary "Paradise Lost", which played a big role in the attention this case got over the years. I got to the book soon after.
This story is sad for so many reasons. Sadly enough, the "West Memphis Three" are the fourth, fifth and sixth victim of this case. Christopher, Michael and Stevie were the first, second and third.
I didn't have the chance to follow the case from the start, I was just five years old when the three eight year olds were killed. I was six when three innocent teenagers were put behind bars for it. But in 2011, when they were finally released, I was 24, and while I had lived my life as a free person until then, those guys had spent 18 years in prison.
This story could be a very well thought thriller. Three children have been found brutally beaten in a ditch, hogtied with their own shoelaces and completely naked. Three kids stuck in the Bible Belt are wrongly accused of their murder because they're different. Jessy is borderline mentally retarded, Jason loves listening to Heavy Metal and drawing skulls and crosses, and Damien wears black, is a Wiccan, has long black hair and has an history of mental illness.
But this story isn't fiction, and the excellent writer does not want the story to be read as fiction either. The account is thoroughly documented and full of references to the actual trial and media coverage of the case. Every single event in and out of court is told from the eyes of all those who took part to the case, from the policemen, to the private investigator, to the families of the victims and the suspects and the false witnesses.
It is impossible to believe that listening to Heavy Metal music and reading Stephen King books would make someone a murder suspect, worse even to see that it made three convicted murderers. These guys have been locked up for evidence which cannot even be described as circumstancial. Their only luck has been the extensive media coverage, including the HBO Documentary of the trial, which got them some big attention. Musicians, Actors and Journalists have taken them under their wings, and they have finally been freed.
But this story has no happy ending. Justice has not been done to the three victims, their murderer is still on the loose. And the three wrongly accused had to enter an Alford Plea to avoid them filing a law suit against the state who kept them in jail for 18 years. They've lost 18 years with their families, they've lost their youth and their health.
And still, more wrongly convicted sit in their cell waiting for someone to help them get the justice they deserve.
choward69's review
5.0
I found this book to be very well written and well researched. I don't know how anyone, after reading this book, could come away not feeling appalled by the conduct of the West Memphis police department, and of the prosecutors and judge trying this case. I can't say that there is absolutely no possible way that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Miskelley Jr. could have been involved in this case in any way, but I can say that there was no way they should have been convicted, Damien even sentenced to the death penalty, based on the evidence provided in this case. The police department grossly mishandled evidence, manipulated witnesses, glossed over inconsistencies, and failed to search for, or pay any heed to, any evidence that anyone other than these three teenagers had been involved in these crimes. The motive that they suggested for the killing was preposterous and almost laughable. Citing that the fact that one of the accused owned 15 black t-shirts as evidence of Satan-worship? Yes, though I believe that she tried to present in case as neutrally as possible, it is clear that Leveritt believes there was not sufficient evidence to convict the three boys. But if Leveritt is slightly biased toward the defense, it pales in comparison to how unabashedly biased Judge David Burnett was toward the prosecution. It is hard to believe that in this day and age, justice can be so severely misrepresented.