Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [220]
377. A headline in theWall Street Journal noted: “Documentary Raises Questions About Teens’ Guilt but Strays Into Support-Group Babble.” But most critics seemed most taken up by the extensive footage of Byers. One wrote that Byers’s numerous orations left the impression “of a very bad actor imitating grief.” Others called him “strange” and “obsessed.” Another wrote that Byers seemed “to be playacting, as if dramatizing his psychic turmoil will make it more real to the public (and to him).” Still another reflected, “He’s starring in his own horror movie, and not only does he understand this fact, he seems to thrive on it.” Howard Rosenberg, of theLos Angeles Times, took a more cautious view. In a review published in March 2000, Rosenberg noted that Byers was paid an “honorarium” for participating inRevelations —a fact that the writer said made him, in effect, “a paid performer” and tainted the film’s credibility.
378. Matt Zoller Seitz, March 12, 2000.
379. From an article headlined “Sequel Rekindles Doubts in Triple Murder Case” by Cathy Frye and Kenneth Heard, February 20, 2000.
380. “So one day,” Berlinger recalled, “I was sitting in my underwear after a very long day and I flipped on the television. It was January 2000, and Roger Ebert was doing his annual show at the end of the year, where he sat down with Bill Clinton, and Clinton was saying that his top pick of the year wasThe Hurricane [Norman Jewison’s 1999 film starring Denzel Washington about the controversial murder conviction of prizefighter Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter]. Clinton was saying all these things about what a great film it was, and I was flabbergasted. I kept thinking, ‘Hey, fella, you should see a film about what’s gone on in your own state.’”
381. Bland’s piece appeared in an issue of theRocket, one of many publications catering to Seattle’s vibrant music scene.
382. Also featured were the Clash’s Joe Strummer with the Long Beach Dub All-stars, the John Doe Thing, L7, Murder City Devils, Tony Scalzo of Fastball, Nashville Pussy, former Breeders singer Kelley Deal, Rocket from the Crypt, Mark Lanegan, Zeke and Killing Joke—who had reunited specifically for the cause. Portions of Jello Biafra’s performance “The Murder of Mumia Abu Jamal,” were also used on the CD. In interviews that accompanied the CD’s release, the Supersuckers’ lead singer, Eddie Spaghetti, explained, “I guess the thing that touches me about those guys is the fact that it could be any one of us.” Doe said, “The world is unfair, damn it, and we’re here to keep it a little more fair in any small way we can” (Arkansas Times, April 21, 2000). Earle, who’d spent a year in prison himself on a drug charge, said his opposition was to the death penalty, period. Bland told a reporter for theWillamette Week (October 10, 2000), “The best we can do in this situation is just make sure that the authorities in Arkansas don’t get away with anything, that whatever happens is publicized, that people know about it.” He added, “Tom Waits said something about this case. He said, ‘The worst two things you can be in our justice system are poor and different, and these guys were both.’”
383. The notes were written by Burk Sauls, who warned that a CD such as this could, in some jurisdictions, send a person possessing it “on a horrible descent through the criminal justice system, and eventually into a lifetime in a maximum security prison.” Sauls wrote that the inmates for whom it was made “liked the kind of music that’s on this CD. They wrote poetry and read Stephen King and Shakespeare and wore black concert T-shirts. That was enough for the judge and jury.” The notes referred listeners to