Director Peter Jackson took a break from filming The Hobbit to produce a documentary, West of Memphis, with the aim of helping to exonerate the “West Memphis Three.” The three—Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr. were convicted of murdering three 8-year-old boys in 1993 in West Memphis, Ark. The three were released in August after they entered an “Alford plea,” which means they can go free and maintain their innocence, but have a guilty plea entered against them. Peter Jackson and partner Fran Walsh have been working since 2005 to overturn “one of the most famous miscarriages of justice in American history.”
