of the free and the brave of the free and the brave Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

Don't you love this country? Australia, I mean, not America. The United States continues to have a legal system that on occasion churns out examples of cruel injustice unimaginable here.

The latest example comes courtesy of The Economist. In 1993 after three 8-year-old cub scouts were found murdered in West Memphis, three teenagrers were arrested and on almost no evidence convicted of the murders. The wretched youths, who weren't even black, have been in jail ever since.

"'Lord of the Rings' director Sir Peter Jackson chipped in for legal fees." 

Damien Echols was a Goth who read vampire books and listened to heavy-metal music. Enough said. Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley junior were his friends - enough said about them too. The latter confessed and then recanted, which means nothing to anyone aware of the frequency of false confessions made in police stations. The others have always maintained their innocence.

Over the years campaigns were run to free them, the most recent including a concert organised by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. 'Lord of the Rings' director Sir Peter Jackson chipped in for legal fees.

The 'West Memphis Three' have been freed after the state of Arkansas accepted a bizarre legal notion called an "Alford plea", which allows you to maintain your innocence while technically pleading guilty. (I know, I know. No correspondence will be entered into ...)

How did it all happen? According to The Economist, there was a public uproar after the killings and "Prosecutors, judges and attorneys-general are elected in Arksansas." Who would have believed it?