--- description: When I learned the West Memphis Three would be released after their 18 years and 78 days of wrongful imprisonment, I considered changing the title of my new film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. It's the... title: The West Memphis Three image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # The West Memphis Three by [Joe Berlinger](/author/joe-berlinger/) Sep 5, 2011 4:00 AM CUT by [Joe Berlinger](/author/joe-berlinger/) Sep 5, 2011 4:00 AM CUT When I learned the West Memphis Three would be released after their 18 years and 78 days of wrongful imprisonment, I considered changing the title of my new film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. It’s the third in a series that co-director Bruce Sinofsky and I have made for HBO about the case. We set out in 1993 expecting to find a story about wicked teenagers who tied up and murdered three young boys. Instead, we witnessed wild talk of sexual abuse and Satanic rituals, and a flawed case involving dubious confessions, a jailhouse snitch and nonexistent physical evidence. The purported ringleader, Damien Echols, was sentenced to death, while Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley got life sentences. After new DNA tests, the men walked free on Aug. 19\. But they technically remain convicts who have not been officially cleared or pardoned–a seemingly transparent attempt by the state to avoid lawsuits and political fallout. No compensation for their lost youth, no prosecutorial accountability. Worse, the real killer walks free. We don’t have to change the title after all: Purgatory is spot on. Berlinger is an Emmy- and Peabody-winning documentary director and producer ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6640219/the-west-memphis-three/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6640219/the-west-memphis-three/"},"headline":"The West Memphis Three","datePublished":"2011-09-05T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T05:58:42.514Z","description":"When I learned the West Memphis Three would be released after their 18 years and 78 days of wrongful imprisonment, I considered changing the title of my new film, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. It's the...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6640219/the-west-memphis-three/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Berlinger","url":"https://time.com/author/joe-berlinger/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6640219/the-west-memphis-three/","name":"The West Memphis Three"}}]}] ```