Johnny Depp will appear on the CBS prime-time program 48 Hours Mystery on Saturday, February 27th, but it has nothing to do with his role as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. According to a preview in Entertainment Weekly, Johnny will be speaking out in defense of the West Memphis Three, who as teenagers were found guilty of the 1993 murder of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. This is a highly controversial case which has received a lot of media attention as a possible miscarriage of justice. “Since their case was chronicled in the acclaimed 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Damien Echols, who is on death row, and Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who received life sentences, have drawn support from a variety of pop culture figures, including Eddie Vedder, the Dixie Chicks, Henry Rollins, Tom Waits, and Winona Ryder, who argue that they were wrongly convicted of the brutal killings largely because, in their conservative community, their goth looks and taste for heavy-metal music stoked irrational fears of satan-worshipping teens and made them easy fall guys,” says EW’s Josh Rottenberg. Johnny is among those who believe the West Memphis Three were wrongfully convicted: “There’s not a shred of evidence. I think the most courageous action that the state could now take would be to admit that they were wrong, admit they made mistakes, and correct these errors.”

The Zone thanks Chocolat for sharing the news.