Dixie Chicks star Natalie Maines took to Twitter.com over the weekend (19-21Aug11) to celebrate the release of the West Memphis Three from an Arkansas prison on Friday (19Aug11).
The singer joined family members, friends and supporters of Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and Jason Baldwin in court as they became free men after pleading guilty to murdering three boy scouts in 1993.
The trio walked free from court and promptly insisted they had served 18 years behind bars for a crime they "did not commit" at a press conference.
Maines and rocker Eddie Vedder have been the trio's staunchest celebrity campaigners, and the country singer couldn't hide her delight when her friends were released.
In a tweet on Friday, she wrote, "Beautiful things went down in Arkansas today. Beautiful beautiful things... I'm sitting in a holding room at the courthouse about to see three men walk free!"
Maines also took a moment to thank Pearl Jam star Vedder for all his hard work, adding he "worked hard on this and is an angel!"
And the singer accepts the three men had to plead guilty to the crime in order to be released; she doesn't think they are guilty.
She states, "They must plead guilty as a technicality so they can't sue AK (Arkansas) for $$ (money)... 3 men are free after 18 years of wrongful imprisonment."
Echols, Misskelley, Jr. and Baldwin were also sentenced to serve life prison sentences in 1994, despite maintaining they were not responsible for the deaths of the scouts. Echols was also placed on death row.
Celebrities like Vedder and Maines became involved in the campaign to free the West Memphis Three after Dna evidence found at the site of the satanic killings failed to match the three men.