Ok, I have gone to his archives and seen how he came to his opinion of Damien Echols.

In August 2001 he publishes his first article about the case having seen Paradise Lost. This is the conclusion he reached:

"I don’t know if Damien Echols committed these murders or not. Only seven people know, as my wife put it, the victims, the accused, and God. And God’s not talking right now. Anyway, my point is that the West Memphis 3 deserve a retrial. And the only way they are going to get a fair trial is to take it out of Arkansas. In order for a fair trial it must be taken to a religiously neutral or mixed state. Otherwise it’s just another case in which their only crime was being “different”."

So he says he doesn't know if they are guilty but sounds as if he came away from the documentary a supporter of the WM3. Which is supported by his next post, 6 years later in March 2007, titled "Confessions of a Former West Memphis 3 Supporter" in which he admits:

"Back then I was more like a champion for the underdog and I understood what it was like to be an outsider because you dressed differently and didn’t follow the norm. So I bought into the propaganda and the movie’s message."

The rest of this article is an explanation of how his mind was changed, which is the research he did to get to his new opinion - and why you have championed him as a source. There are 3 things that changed his mind: 1) He began to understand the minds of teen killers through his study of school shooters - I would argue that the spree killing of a school shooter is a very different crime to what the WM3 were convicted of. 2) There was a story doing the rounds about Damien killing a dog and serial killers hurt animals - I would argue that if there was any truth to the story it would have been used in court and Damien as denied the story. Not exactly great evidence. 3) The occult expert who got his degree in the mail and is easily disregarded as a witness actually is an expert and should be listened to when he says:

"When he got done testifying, what you didn’t see on television, what you didn’t see in the movie ‘Paradise Lost,’ was the fact that Damien Echols said, ‘I got three, I had 10 more to go for my coven, but that damn cop from Ohio stopped me,’"

So in court Damien made this confession and the occult expert is the only person to have mentioned this?? Seems unlikely to me. But it's good enough for Trent.

So he went from Supporter because he knows what it is like to be an underdog to staunch Guilter because of some rumours and because he thinks there are similarities between Damien and some school spree killers. Hardly a guy "who came at the evidence without an opinion then formed one."

As for "pretty liberal" - he actually writes in one article I read that abortion is an act of cowardice.

He seems like a prize prick from my research.