Johnny Depp is voicing his support for the so-called “West Memphis Three” on an episode of the CBS newsmagazine 48 Hour Mystery, set to air this Saturday, Feb. 27.
Depp has asked for the reopening of the case of three men convicted as teenagers of beating three 8-year-olds to death in 1994. Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley, and Damien Echols have spent 16 years behind bars for the crime.
“I firmly believe Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are totally innocent. It was a need for swift justice to placate the community. Damien Echols is on death row to be killed by lethal injection,” the Oscar-nominated actor bellows with conviction. Johnny believes the convictions were the outcome of the prosecution’s focus on the teens’ obsession with heavy metal music and Satanic rituals.
Depp joins fellow celebs Eddie Vedder, Metallica, Winona Ryder, and The Dixie Chicks, in supporting the young men.
Baldwin and Echols are serving life sentences, while Echolsis — who was 18 at the time of the slayings — is on death row.