WELLINGTON, New Zealand ? A news report says renowned New Zealand movie director Peter Jackson is working with an American once on death row in hopes of getting the man a complete pardon.
The New Zealand Herald reported Friday that Jackson, who directed the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, got an exemption to New Zealand law to allow Damien Echols to visit him. Echols was part of a group known as the West Memphis Three who were convicted of killing three boys in the U.S. state of Arkansas in 1993.
The three men were released in August under a deal in which their initial convictions were set aside and they pleaded guilty to lesser charges ? while publicly proclaiming their innocence.
Three HBO films about the case helped spark a movement to free the men, who spent 18 years in jail.
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