Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2012) is a true-crime documentary you can watch online on iFILM. Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky close out a story they filmed for nearly two decades: the case of the West Memphis Three.

In 1993, three young boys were found dead in an Arkansas town. Suspicion landed fast on three local teenagers — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. One was sent to death row, the other two locked away for life. This third chapter walks through what changed years later: DNA testing that placed none of the convicted men at the scene, a wave of support from musicians and actors including Johnny Depp, and the odd legal deal that finally set the three free.

It's the capstone of a trilogy the directors began shooting at the time of the arrests — a rare instance of a camera tracking a single case in real time for twenty years. The film was up for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. Worth your time if you follow wrongful convictions and stories of how the system can crush the innocent. Stream Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2012) online on iFILM.