Story highlights Bruce Sinofsky's documentaries covered a range of topics

He took up the noted case of convicted "West Memphis Three"

Sinofsky, 58, co-directed film about heavy metal band Metallica

(CNN) Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bruce Sinofsky, whose series on the "West Memphis Three" cast doubt on the murder convictions of three Arkansas teenagers, catalyzing a movement that led to their release, died Saturday, longtime collaborator Joe Berlinger said.

The Emmy-award winning documentary director died in his sleep of complications from diabetes, Berlinger said. He was 58.

"Bruce's humanity is on every frame of the films that he leaves behind, and words can't express how graced I feel my life has been by having the extraordinary opportunity of being able to say we were partners and, more importantly, best friends," said Berlinger.

The duo collaborated on Sinofsky's debut, the critically acclaimed "Brother's Keeper," before turning to the "Paradise Lost" trilogy, a series of films that drew attention to the case of three teen boys convicted in 1994 of killing three Cub Scouts in West Memphis, Arkansas.

The films, released in 1996, 2004 and 2011, raised questions about the evidence, drawing attention from musicians including Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits and Henry Rollins, who pushed for a review of the case. After spending 18 years in prison, Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were released pursuant to a complicated plea agreement in September 2011, one month before the final installment, "Purgatory," was released.

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