Peter Jackson, who looks like the hobbits he’s currently directing, also does some side project passion work advocating, through a documentary, for the release of the West Memphis Three. Basically, three Arkansas then-teenagers who were convicted of murdering three second graders. The convicts’ (and many of the victims’) advocates have long held that the three were wrongly convicted.
Jackson financed the film “West of Memphis,” which purports to show all of the defects in the investigation and prosecution. The film is currently screening at Sundance, and it contains some incendiary allegations, including some testimony that another guy admitted to the crimes.
The BigLaw angle, from the press release (via Deadline Hollyw0od):
Echols’ attorney, Stephen Braga of Ropes & Gray, said: “This is critical new information which reveals that the people closest to Terry Hobbs, his family members, may know much more about Terry’s involvement in the West Memphis Three case than they have ever acknowledged. If this is the Hobbs Family Secret, then what a horrific cost that secrecy has imposed on the lives of so many people – perhaps most significantly Pam Hobbs who deserves to know what really happened to Stevie on the night of the murders, as do the Byers and Moore families. With the secret now out, let’s hope that someone in the Hobbs family has the heart, the soul and the courage to come forward to tell the truth directly. In the meantime, I have given our investigative materials concerning these new witnesses – along with other related information – to District Attorney Scott Ellington for his review and action.”
See, it’s not all billion-dollar deals for BigLaw – it’s life-and-death pro bono work, too.
