Last night I watched Paradise Lost 2: Revelations on HBO. It was a followup to the powerful documentary that covered the case of three teenage kids who were convicted of the murder of three 8 year old boys about 7 years ago. After watching the second installment and parts of the first installment, I’m left with a truly disturbing portrait of the criminal justice system in small town America. The three teenagers were convicted (one is sentenced to death) based upon a coerced confession given by a 16 year old boy with an IQ of 72 (after 12 hours of questioning without his lawyer present) and the fact that they liked to wear black. For updated information, check out this Web site about the “West Memphis Three“. (By the way, I really appreciate the fact that HBO continues to fund high quality documentaries. They alone are worth HBO’s monthly fee.)
Last night I watched Paradise Lost 2: Revelations on HBO. It was a followup to the powerful documentary that covered the case of three teenage kids who were convicted of the murder of three 8 year old boys about 7 years ago. After watching the second installment and parts of the first installment, I’m left with a truly disturbing portrait of the criminal justice system in small town America. The three teenagers were convicted (one is sentenced to death) based upon a coerced confession given by a 16 year old boy with an IQ of 72 (after 12 hours of questioning without his lawyer present) and the fact that they liked to wear black. For updated information, check out this Web site about the “West Memphis Three“. (By the way, I really appreciate the fact that HBO continues to fund high quality documentaries. They alone are worth HBO’s monthly fee.)
Commentary
Previous post
Next post