Voices for Justice Concert - August 28, 2010

[da Hutch]

thank you very much, Hutch. I worried about getting a copy of Pastor Murray's speech probably just as much as Eddie Vedder's music. On my friend list are the leaders of our local Methodist youth and I wanted them to see it.

You're welcome I thought it was a smart move seeing as they are in the "Bible Belt" he was great.

[Admin.]

The Observer, Sept. 2, 2010

by Arkansas Times Staff

The concert to raise awareness about the West Memphis 3 came on the eve of The Observer's child's 19th birthday.

That's not what we were thinking about when we went. We were thinking about those poor sons of bitches who were sent to prison based on testimony by a certified whackjob who claimed to be an expert in Satanism, feeding the jury crap about the coming full moon and its role in the devil killings.

Prior to the event, our only thought about our child was worry that our child might not forgive us for seeing Johnny Depp and Patti Smith live while she was otherwise engaged at college.

After the concert video — featuring Damien Echols speaking from prison and author Mara Leveritt talking about the case — we started thinking about our kid's life and those of the WM3. That those three teen-agers — Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Echols — have been incarcerated for 17 years, nearly as long as she's been alive. That while she went to summer camp and the beach and abroad, realized a love of music of all kinds, read books and went to movies, met people, spent (too many) hours on a computer, filled an iPod, and went to college they turned from boys to men locked in cells smaller than her bedroom, one of them facing a death sentence.

The three little boys who were brutally killed that day in 1993 must be remembered. Have they gotten justice? Or were Misskelley, Baldwin and Echols themselves sacrificed, to a public that demanded swift action and retribution and were easy with blaming a kid named Damien who wore black T-shirts and his insignificant friends from insignificant families.

The Observer was struck by the passion with which the celebrities pleaded, to come on Arkansas, this happened here, learn about this case, do something. It was nearly impossible to believe that Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines and Depp and Smith came to a stage at Robinson Auditorium to exhort Arkies to throw off their deadening familiarity with the case and, if they think the three should be free, do something.

The state Supreme Court has been provided the sworn affidavit of a prosecutor who reveals that the jury foreman provided information to his fellow jurors that had been inadmissible in court, about the confession by the feeble-minded Jessie Misskelley, a 16-year-old who had to be prompted to get the details right. A confession that had been recanted. Shortly, the court will decide whether that information and other forensic evidence should nullify the convictions. A hearing is set for Sept. 30.

As a postscript, it turns out the daughter wasn't too put out that her aged mother saw the incredibly sexy Depp (though some guys in the office don't see it) play guitar and swagger like Jack Sparrow and she didn't. But when she heard the old lady got to see Patti Smith, that was something different. Smith belted it out in that delicious low and sometimes furious voice, and controlled the stage. We know how old she is, because we saw her when we were young, and that was a long time ago. But she's defied age. Her lyrics, her voice — nothing about her is less powerful than it was 40 years ago. It was beautiful.

We will add one curmudgeonly complaint about Saturday night's show. Although the crowd brought an overwhelming sense of purpose and energy, they also brought something else: their phones.

We realize that seeing the likes of Depp, Maines, Vedder and Ben Harper share one stage is rare, but the glaring rectangle LCD screens hovered around the darkened theater like over-grown cancerous fireflies, distracting from the view. The smartphone screens seemed to entrance and hypnotize their owners as they stared directly at them the entire time, trying to get that perfect YouTube video.

Others were more concerned with sending out Tweets about the night's event or grabbing a perfect picture of themselves for their Facebook pages.

What's sad is that there really was something special happening on stage, a memory waiting to happen and something that's not likely to come to Little Rock again in the near future. The Observer wanted to tap the person sitting in front of us on the shoulder and say, "You know, you don't have to record this. It's going on right up there."

Link

[Admin.]

Voices for Justice
by Gerard Matthews

'Voices for Justice'
Aug. 28, Robinson Center Music Hall

You just had to be there. Saturday's rally for the West Memphis Three was a success on every level. The sold-out crowd brought a lot of energy (and iPhones) and the performances were spot on. The night began with remarks from Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church Rev. Thompson Murray and Capi Peck, a founding member of the group Arkansas Take Action. The crowd also heard from Damien Echols' wife, Lorri Davis, and saw a video message from long time WM3 supporter Henry Rollins.

After the initial remarks, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder took the stage and played "Rise Up," one of his tracks off the "Into the Wild" soundtrack, followed by a cover of Tom Waits' "Rains on Me." Vedder was the de facto master of ceremonies, providing back-up vocals or guitar for many of the night's performances. After a song from Austin, Texas, songwriter Bill Carter, Vedder came back out to play a soulful rendition of Bob Dylan's "The Times, They are a Changin'," followed by a raucous version of Bruce Springsteen's "Open All Night."

Then Johnny Depp took the stage to read a page from Damien Echols' journal. For a moment, it appeared that organizers' early fears that Depp's celebrity might overshadow the event had some merit. Depp, trying to read through a passage from Echols' journal about being shackled and not able to walk freely, was interrupted by shouts of "We love you, Johnny!" Depp, to his credit, stopped for a moment and asked the crowd, "We all know why we're here, right?"

One of the highlights of the night was a three-song set by Fistful of Mercy, made up of Ben Harper, Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur. Harper's lyrics soared over intricate guitar work by the entire band and the three-part harmonies were nothing short of sublime.

Natalie Maines then took the stage for a four-song set of new material and covers. Before she started, Maines told the crowd, "This song's for, well ... I don't want to get myself in trouble again, so this goes out to whom it may concern." Her beautiful take on Dan Wilson's "Free Life" was particularly strong. Afterwards, Vedder and Maines sang a couple of songs, including a cover track from WM3 supporter John Doe called "The Golden State." Maines and Vedder's voices melded together perfectly, and the crowd sat in absolute silence for their rendition of James Taylor's "Close Your Eyes."

Later, Depp came back out on stage to join Vedder on another of his solo tunes, "Society," and played an impressive lead solo. Depp swaggered around the stage like an experienced rock star but almost appeared to be a caricature of himself, rocking back and forth with his guitar strapped low and taking cigarette breaks during performances.

Patti Smith, the final act of the night, was a force to be reckoned with. Talk about stage presence. Smith started by screwing up the guitar chords to "My Blakean Year," saying "fuck it" and playing the rest of the tune a cappella.

"Well, I fucked it up, but I haven't fucked up as bad as the judicial system," she told the audience and then spat on the stage.

Smith stayed on for the rest of the set, leading up to an incredible finale where every musician came back out onstage for a rousing almost church-like rendition of her song "People Have the Power."

Organizers of the event said they considered it a huge success. And even though the stage was filled with big names, no one could forget what the night was really about: freeing three wrongly convicted young men from prison. It was an experience I won't soon forget and something we're not likely to see around Little Rock for some time. For more information or to find out how you can help, visit Arkansas Take Action's website at www.freewestmemphis3.org.

Link

[Admin.]

Sounding out for the WM3
by John Brummett


Pearl Jam's front man, Eddie Vedder, sat on stage in front of 2,500 people at Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock on Saturday night. Equipped only with a guitar, a foot stomp and his rich and reasonably famous baritone, he filled the hall with seriously good music.

Vedder brought with him the newest "super group," calling itself Fistful of Mercy and comprising Ben Harper, Joseph Arthur and Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatle, George. If you are older like me, you probably can best understand when I relate that the significance of their partnership has been likened to that of Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Oh, and there also was this: Johnny Depp, the best or second-best actor of his generation, kept walking on stage to read something or introduce someone or, at the end, play competent guitar himself.

You can't beat good music. It can inspire. It can thrill. It can transport.

But it can't beat a horrible jury.

I'm pretty sure Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley didn't kill those three little boys in West Memphis in 1993. I'm absolutely positive the prosecution didn't make the case against them.

Because of fear, the jury rushed to convict Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley and to give the death penalty to Echols, the leader and brains of the trio. The fear was of the horror of the act and of the creepy way the teen-aged Echols dressed and acted and professed to believe.

People want to destroy what scares them. They are scared of values they don't share and lifestyles they don't understand.

People also want a horrible crime to be solved. Acquittal would send everyone back to the starting line.

Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley aren't the only people sitting in jail on a flimsy case that jurors chose to believe because they wanted to believe it.

But they're the only ones who got an HBO polemical documentary produced in their favor. They're the only ones whose plight connected uncommonly with wealthy and generous celebrities.

Echols also is the only one to be visited by a woman from New York, a landscape architect named Lorrie Davis, who was inspired by the documentary and who so connected with the articulate, thoughtful and literary Echols that they are now married and she now lives in Little Rock.

She told me a few years ago when she cleared me to visit with Echols on Death Row that Depp, who was seen as weird himself as a teen-ager in Kentucky, was itching to lend his celebrity to an event to raise money and awareness. She thought Saturday was the right time.

On Sept. 30, the Arkansas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether Echols is due a new trial.

Alas, a preconceiving jury issuing a convenient and unsupported ruling is not a reversible error. There must be new evidence or proof of procedural and prejudicial missteps by the professional officers of the law or the court.

Echols relies on new DNA evidence that says nothing physically connects him and the other two to the scene. He relies on public statements by the trial judge, David Burnett, that suggest bias. And he relies on reports that his jury foreman influenced the jury by touting in deliberations a trial-excluded and recanted confession by Misskelley, who is mentally impaired.

I suspect all three of these men will eventually get new trials and then get freed. But I'm not much expecting relief to come from the state Supreme Court.

The absence of genetic evidence does not actually prove or disprove anything. The Supreme Court so defends Burnett it appointed him a special judge to keep him on the case even after he declared as a candidate for the state Senate. Juries can't possibly disregard all the things they are instructed to disregard.

But the appeal could then be taken to federal court, where you can better make a fresh case that your rights got trampled.

If the $50 I paid for two tickets for Saturday night's show helps the cause, fine. But I was there for the music. I am sorry, though, that three probably innocent men have had to spend their adult lives in jail for me to get to hear it.

http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/sounding-out-for-the-wm3/Content?oid=1283721

[copper50]

For those of you with a Sirius radio, the concert is going to be a special on Saturday. If you don't have one you may get it by signing up for the free trial on the net....go here for more info.
http://www.sirius.com/thespectrum

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