Sir Peter Jackson inks 'special' tattoo

Sir Peter Jackson inks 'special' tattoo
November 24, 2011
DEBBIE JAMIESON
Stuff.co.nz

Sir Peter Jackson has had a matching tattoo inked in Queenstown along with a man he helped save from death row in the United States.

Jackson and his partner, screenwriter and producer Fran Walsh, helped fund a seven-year investigation that eventually led to Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelly being freed from jail in August.

The men were accused of murdering eight-year-old Scouts Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and James Moore in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. Misskelly and Baldwin were given life sentences. Echols was sentenced to death and was on death row.

Jackson was in Queenstown this week filming The Hobbit and it is understood he and Echols visited White Tiger Tattoo, in Cow Lane, on Tuesday to get tattoos.

Tattoo shop owner Greg Burt confirmed the men were there and had the tattoos done, but declined to give more details.

"It was kind of special. I'd like to respect them for it."

In 2007, new DNA tests showed the three men were not linked to the murders and in August they accepted a bargain known as an "Alford plea", that allowed them to publicly proclaim their innocence in exchange for pleading guilty in court and giving up their right to seek compensation for a miscarriage of justice.

Jackson has since said that despite their release from jail it was "very difficult to suppress a deep anger" at the lack of justice.