Misconception in the West of Memphis Documentary Essay

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The film West of Memphis explores an injustice in Arkansas. The documentary West of Memphis reveals the previously untold stories of an extraordinary and valiant battle to expose the hidden truth. Those who experienced and lived it tell the story and create the documentary West of Memphis. Due to the documentary’s exclusive access to the defense’s internal operations, it is able to present the investigation, research, and appeals process in a way that has never been seen before, exposing startling and unsettling newly discovered information about a case that is still a source of controversy in the American South.

Three young teenagers who endure torture and eventually die are the focus of the West of Memphis documentary. The theory was that they were to blame for the deaths of the three boys, age 8; which resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of three men. At the time of the trial and arrest, one of the suspects was a minor. The two other suspects had previously been adjudicated guilty of other offenses. The actions that resulted in the arrest were flawed because there was no solid proof that the three were guilty of the crime.

Unprofessionally, police officers involved in the investigation provided the public with their own views about the crime. This was the main reason why there were rumors that the boys had been sexually assaulted by the murderers prior to their deaths. They made a serious error by revealing the boys’ bodies’ state to the public after they discovered them. As a result, when the suspects were being questioned, one of them was implicated when he revealed to the police how the boys had been tortured, which appeared to be a confession. Since word of the boy’s condition had spread throughout the town, the suspect was only relaying to the police what he had heard from other people.

References

Berg, A. J. and McMillin, B. (2012). West of Memphis. [Film]. Sony Pictures Classics. Web.

Spohn, C., Hemmens, C., & McCann, W. S. (2019). Courts: A text/reader. Sage.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Misconception in the West of Memphis Documentary." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/misconception-in-the-west-of-memphis-documentary/.

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IvyPanda. "Misconception in the West of Memphis Documentary." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/misconception-in-the-west-of-memphis-documentary/.

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