DEVIL’S KNOT EXPOSES JUDICIAL BIAS IN CONVICTING THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE
The documentaries Paradise Lost (1996) and West of Memphis (2012) now compete with Devil’s Knot, a feature film about the plight of the three teenagers convicted of murdering three pre-teens in 1993 in a town across the river from Memphis. The film begins with some character development of one of the boys, whose mother Pam Hobbs (played by Reese Witherspoon) becomes very emotional when her son is missing and later found dead. The police in town had been tracking a group of Satanists, expecting weird crimes, so they pounce on the deaths of the boys as an act of Satanic terrorism, and the prosecution waxes eloquent on the subject in court to persuade a jury in 1994 to convict three teenage delinquents after they confess due to police interrogation bullying despite later retractions. Police negligence also involves a failure to round up actual Satanists, a bloodied man who apparently came from the area where the murder took place, and failure to use DNA evidence that may have implicated Pam’s husband (Alessandro Nivola). Instead of incompetent prosecution, as in the case of Trevon Zimmerman, the weak defense is unable to overcome Judge David Burnett (Bruce Greenwood), who believes that Arkansas law imposes no standards on what constitutes an “expert.” Accordingly, someone testifies as an “expert” on Satanism, and the jury swallows the bullshit. At the end of the film, directed by Political Film Society awardwinner Atom Egoyan (for Araral in 2002), one of numerous titles reveals that the three were released on appeal in 2011 under the so-called Alfred Defense (a pattern of negligence by investigators, prosecutors, and defense counsels) but remain convicted felons. Throughout the film, an investigator for the prosecution, Ron Lax (Colin Firth), appears to be the only one interested in finding the truth. Not mentioned is the fact that there is still no ongoing investigation to determine the real murderer(s). But stay tuned: Although there is no film yet about Alfred Trenkler, who has yet to prevail in his case, yet another feature film, West Memphis Three, is now in production! Misconduct by police, the prosecution, and the judge, as demonstrated clearly in the film, prompt the Political Film Society to nominate Devil’s Knot as best film of 2014 on the need to respect human rights. MH