West of Memphis (opens in Cleveland Friday March 8th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[WEST OF MEMPHIS opens in Cleveland Friday March 8th exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Pamela Zoslov

It's sobering to think of how many people, in the short history of the United States, have been jailed, stoned or burned because someone imagined them guilty of witchcraft or Satanism.This peculiar form of judicial persecution isn't confined to 17th-century Salem; it recurs with alarming regularity, with the 1980s hysteria over ritual sex abuse (imaginary, it turns out) in day care centers that led to people being sentenced to life in prison based on wild tales coaxed out of small children, and in the celebrated case of the West Memphis Three, a trio of teenagers from the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas who were convicted of the 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys found hog-tied, mutilated and drowned in a creek. The murders, which shocked the community, were quickly attributed to "cult" practices, because the boys' bodies were found naked with signs of sexual mutilation.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (now available on home video)

[PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY is now available on home video.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

I've been interested in the case of the West Memphis 3 since I first watched Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS on HBO back when it first aired in 1996. For those unfamiliar with the details, three 8 year old boys were brutally murdered in the woods of West Memphis, Arkansas. The police investigation quickly focused on 3 teenage boys viewed as outsiders and troublemakers in the community: Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelly, and Jason Baldwin. There was no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony to tie these three to the crimes, only a confession from Miskelly. Miskelly, 16 at the time and with an IQ of 72, was questioned for 12 hours by police with no parent or attorney present. He quickly recanted his confession, claiming coercion by the police.