DVD review: Crime docs win a positive verdict

In 1994, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. — teenagers who came to be known as the West Memphis Three — were convicted of murdering three little boys in a Satanic ritual. There were a lot of things wrong with their trial, and in 1996 filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky stirred up public interest with “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Woods” — the first of this set's three features. Despite the subsequent activism by their supporters, it was 17 years before the boys-now-men were released. Along the way, Berlinger and Sinofsky made two follow-ups — subtitled “Revelations” and “Purgatory” — in 2000 and 2011.

By Andy Klein

December 3, 2012