He stated that he had been confused by the behavior of the police and had attempted to cooperate without realizing the implications of his statements. However, the three boys remained in custody, and both the prosecutor and the defense teams began preparing for trial.
Byers had given the knife away shortly after the murders. However, the police did not pursue this potential lead. The police also failed to pursue a potential lead called in by a local Bojangles restaurant.
One of the employees witnessed a disoriented man covered in mud and blood enter the restaurant the night the boys went missing. The man used the restroom, leaving smears of the blood he was covered in on the walls. Though the police took samples of the blood, they never pursued this lead and later lost the evidence.
Prosecutor John Fogleman wanted Misskelley to be able to testify against Baldwin and Echols, but Misskelley refused to repeat the statements that he had previously given and recanted.
Baldwin and Echols were tried a month later, beginning on February The other evidence presented to the juries was similarly circumstantial. At both trials, the juries determined that the defendants were guilty of the crimes they were accused of. Misskelley and Baldwin were both sentenced to life in prison, with an additional forty years tacked on for Misskelley.
Echols was sentenced to death. Outside of the courts, the case continued to fall apart. Vicki Hutcheson claimed that she had committed perjury when she testified against the three and stated that the police had told her what to say. The foreman of the jury was also accused of misconduct after it came to light that during the trial he had discussed the case at length with his own attorney. The West Memphis Three case has inspired numerous individuals to intervene on their behalf.
Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger created a documentary about the West Memphis Three, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills , and released it in , hoping to encourage the public to remain interested in the fate of the three convicted men. Sequels to the documentary were released in and After extensive research, Leveritt concluded that the entire situation was a tragedy and a gross miscarriage of justice.
Numerous celebrities agreed with Leveritt. Eddie Vedder of the rock group Pearl Jam visited Echols on death row and used his music and fame to spread the message that Echols and the others were innocent. On November 4, , after numerous failed appeals, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered that a hearing take place in order to analyze new evidence that had the potential to exonerate the West Memphis Three.
Preparations began immediately. Echols hired a new defense team that included Stephen Braga and Patrick Benca. However, as the new lawyers worked to present their case at the hearing, they were dismayed to find that the new evidence did not conclusively point to a different perpetrator. As was typical for this case, the evidence was only circumstantial. Braga and Benca, convinced that the West Memphis Three were innocent and deserved their freedom, decided to take a different approach.
Benca had a working relationship with Arkansas attorney general Dustin McDaniel. The two met to discuss the case. During that meeting, Benca asked McDaniel if his team would consider skipping the hearing in order to move straight to new trials.
The judge, Benca argued, would certainly grant new trials after considering the jury misconduct discovered years before.
McDaniel agreed to discuss the idea with his team. As negotiations between the lawyers continued, Benca and Braga suggested that both sides agree to an Alford plea, with time served, in order to avoid the risk to both sides that a new trial would bring. An Alford plea required the three defendants to plead guilty to a series of lesser charges while at the same time stating for the record that they were innocent and only pleading guilty because it was in their best interest.
Both legal teams agreed that the plea would be acceptable provided that all three defendants were willing to cooperate. He confessed to the murders, which inculpated the other two accused.
Under the " Bruton rule", his confession could not be admitted against his co-defendants and thus he was tried separately. Misskelley was convicted by a jury of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The court sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison. His conviction was appealed and affirmed by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Advocates have argued that the three were wrongly convicted. These include the mother of one of the victim's, Pamela Hobbs, who has come to believe the prosecution case was flawed, given new DNA evidence. In November , the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that the cases of Misskelley, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin should be reviewed in a court hearing to determine whether they should be given a new trial.
The hearing will allow new evidence, including DNA evidence which could exonerate the convicted men. As of Jessie Misskelley is located in the Varner Unit. He has the Arkansas Department of Correction and entered the system on February 4, The West Memphis Three is the name given to three teenagers who were tried and convicted of the murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in by a prosecution team that put forth the idea that the only purported motive in the case was that the slayings were part of a Satanic ritual.
Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. In July , new forensic evidence was presented in the case, including evidence that none of the DNA collected at the crime scene matched the defendants, but did match Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the victims, along with DNA from a friend of Hobbs' whom he had been with on the day of the murders.
The status report jointly issued by the State and the Defense team on July 17, states, "Although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants.
On November 4, , the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Burnett's interpretation of the DNA statute was too narrow and reversed and remanded all three cases for hearings as to whether new trials should be ordered.
The hearings, to be presided over by Judge David Laser, are tentatively scheduled for July, The first report to the police was made by Byers' adoptive father, John Mark Byers, around pm.
The boys were last seen together by a neighbor, who reported that they had been called by Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Steve Branch around Hobbs later denied seeing the boys at all on May 5. Initial police searches made that night were limited. Friends and neighbors also conducted an impromptu and unsuccessful search that night, which included a cursory visit to the location where the bodies were ultimately found.
A more thorough police search for the children began around am on the morning of May 6, aided by Crittenden County Search and Rescue personnel, along with several others. Searchers canvassed all of West Memphis, but focused primarily on Robin Hood Hills, where the boys were reported last seen. Despite a human chain making a shoulder-to-shoulder search of Robin Hood Hills searchers found no sign of the missing boys.
Search and Rescue personnel broke for lunch at pm, but police and others continued searching. Around pm, Juvenile Parole Officer Steve Jones spotted a boy's black shoe floating in a muddy creek that led to a major drainage canal in Robin Hood Hills. A subsequent search of the ditch found the bodies of three boys. They were stripped naked and had been hogtied with their own shoelaces: their right ankles tied to their right wrists behind their backs, the same with their left limbs.
Their clothing was found in the creek, some of it twisted around sticks that had been thrust into the muddy ditch bed. The clothing was mostly turned inside-out; two pairs of the boys' underwear were never recovered.
Christopher Byers also had deep lacerations and injuries to his scrotum and penis, most likely caused by post-mortem animal predation. The original autopsies were inconclusive as to time of death, but the Arkansas medical examiner determined that Byers died of blood loss, and Moore and Branch drowned. A later review of the case by a medical examiner for the defense determined that the boys had been killed between am and am on May 6, The official interpretation of the crime scene forensics for the case remains controversial.
Prosecution experts claim Byers' wounds were the results of a knife attack and that he had been purposely castrated by the murderer; defense experts claim the injuries were more probably the result of post-mortem animal predation.
Police suspected the boys had been raped or sodomized; later expert testimony disputed this finding despite trace amounts of sperm DNA found on a pair of pants recovered from the scene. Police believed the boys were assaulted and killed at the location they were found; critics argued that the assault, at least, was unlikely to have occurred at the creek.
Byers was the only victim with drugs in his system; he was prescribed Ritalin in January , as part of an attention-deficit disorder treatment. The initial autopsy report describes the drug as Carbamazepine. The dosage was found to be at sub-therapeutic level, which is consistent with John Mark Byers' statement that Christopher Byers may not have taken his prescription on May 5, Stevie Branch was the son of Steve and Pam Branch, who divorced when he was an infant.
Pam was awarded custody, and Steve was allowed visitation with the boy only when Pam was also present. She later married Terry Hobbs. John Mark Byers had a long criminal history, including charges for making "terroristic [death] threats" against his first wife, and multiple drug and theft offenses. Postal Service. The elder Byers admitted whipping Christopher with a belt only a few hours before the boys went missing, because Christopher had tried to break into his own home Christopher was not allowed a house key, and the empty house was locked when he arrived home after school.
According to Crittenden County Prosecutor John Fogelman, police and other officials suspected John Mark Byers of committing the murders the day the victims were discovered. Michael Moore was the son of Todd and Dana Moore. Of the three murdered boys, Michael's parents were the only ones still married and who never had any serious criminal charges or investigations made against them.
Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley. Baldwin and Misskelley had previous records for minor juvenile offenses for vandalism and shoplifting, respectively and Misskelley had a reputation for being hot-tempered and engaging in frequent fistfights.
Misskelley and Echols had dropped out of high school, but Baldwin earned above-average grades and demonstrated a talent for drawing and sketching, and due to encouragement from a school counselor, was considering studying graphic design in college. Echols and Baldwin were close friends, due in part to their similar tastes in music and fiction, and due to a shared distaste for the prevailing cultural climate of West Memphis, which was politically conservative and strongly Evangelical Christian.
Baldwin and Echols were acquainted with Misskelley from school, but were not close friends with him. Echols' family was poor, with frequent visits from social workers, and he rarely attended school.
His tumultuous relationship with an early girlfriend culminated when the two ran off together. After breaking into a trailer during a rain storm, the pair were arrested, though only Echols was charged with burglary.
Police heard rumors that the young lovers had planned to have a child and sacrifice the infant; based on this story, they had Echols institutionalized for psychiatric evaluation. He was diagnosed as depressed and suicidal, and was prescribed the antidepressant imipramine.
Subsequent testing demonstrated poor math skills, but also showed that Echols ranked above average in reading and verbal skills. Echols spent several months in a mental institution in Arkansas, and afterwards received "full disability" status from the Social Security Administration. During Echols' trial, Dr. George W. Woods testified for the defense that Echols suffered from:. At the time of his arrest, Echols was working part-time with a roofing company and expecting a child with his new girlfriend, Domini Teer.
Chris Morgan and Brian Holland. Chris Morgan and Brian Holland, both with drug offense histories, had abruptly departed for Oceanside, California four days after the bodies were discovered. Morgan was presumed to be at least casually familiar with all three murdered boys, having previously driven an ice cream truck route in their neighborhood.
Arrested in Oceanside on 17 May , Morgan and Holland both took polygraph exams administered by California police. Examiners reported that both men's charts indicated deception when they denied involvement in the murders. During subsequent questioning, Morgan claimed a long history of drug and alcohol use, along with blackouts and memory lapses. He furthermore claimed that he "might have" killed the victims but quickly recanted this part of his statement.
The relevance of Morgan's recanted statement would later be debated in trial, but was eventually barred from admission as evidence. The sighting of a black male as a possible alternate suspect was implied during the beginning of the trial, at which time the possibility of conviction of the initial suspects seemed slim. According to local West Memphis police officers, on the evening of 5 May , at pm, workers in the Bojangles' restaurant about a mile from the crime scene a direct route through the bayou where the children were found in Robin Hood Hills reported seeing a black male "dazed and covered with blood and mud" inside the ladies' room of the restaurant.
Defense attorneys later referred to this man as "Mr. The man was bleeding from his arm and brushed against the walls. The man had defecated on himself and on the floor. The police were called, but the man left the scene. Officer Regina Meeks responded by inquiring at the drive through window about 45 minutes later. By then, the man had left and police did not enter the restroom on that date.
The following day, when the victims were found, Bojangles' manager Marty King, thinking there was a possible connection between the bloody, disoriented man and the killings, called police twice to inform them of his suspicions. Investigators wore their same shoes and clothes from the Robin Hood Hills crime scene into the Bojangles restaurant bathroom, conceivably contaminating that scene.
Police detective Bryn Ridge later stated he lost the blood scrapings taken from the walls and tiles of the restroom. A hair identified as belonging to an African-American male was later recovered from a sheet which was used to wrap one of the victims. Investigative criticism. There has been widespread criticism of how the police handled the crime scene. Misskelley's former attorney Dan Stidham cites multiple substantial police errors at the crime scene, characterizing it as "literally trampled, especially the creek bed.
The police did not telephone the coroner until almost two hours after the discovery of the floating shoe, resulting in a late appearance by the coroner.
Officials failed to drain the creek in a timely manner and secure possible evidence in the water the creek was sandbagged after the bodies were pulled from the water. Stidham calls the coroner's investigation "extremely substandard. There was a small amount of blood found at the scene that was never tested. According to HBO's documentaries "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" and "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations" , no blood was found at the crime scene, indicating that the location where the bodies were found was not necessarily the location in which the murders actually happened.
After the initial investigation, the police failed to control disclosure of information and speculation about the crime scene. According to Mara Leveritt, investigative journalist and author of Devil's Knot , "Police records were a mess.
To call them disorderly would be putting it mildly. Police refused an unsolicited offer of aid and consultation from the violent crimes experts of the Arkansas State Police, and critics suggested this was due to the WMPD being investigated by the Arkansas State Police for suspected theft from the Crittenden County drug task force.
Leveritt further noted that some of the physical evidence was stored in paper sacks obtained from a supermarket with the supermarket's name pre-printed on the bags rather than in containers of known and controlled origin. Leveritt also mistakenly presumed that the crime scene video was shot minutes after Detectives Mike Allen and Bryn Ridge recovered two of the bodies, when in fact the camera was not available for almost thirty minutes afterwards.
When police speculated about the assailant, the juvenile probation officer assisting at the scene of the murders speculated that Echols was "capable" of committing the murders, stating "it looks like Damien Echols finally killed someone. One expert in the film Paradise Lost 2: Revelations , stated that human bite marks could have been left on at least one of the victims.
However, these potential bite marks were first noticed in photographs years after the trials and were not inspected by a board-certified medical examiner until four years after the murders. The defense's own expert testified that the mark in question was not an adult bite mark, which is consistent with the testimony of the list of experts put on by the State who had concluded that there was no bite mark.
The State's experts had examined the actual bodies for any marks and others conducted expert photo analysis of injuries. Upon further examination, it was concluded that if the marks were bite marks, they did not match the teeth of any of the three convicted.
Evidence and interviews. Police interviewed Echols two days after the bodies were discovered. During a polygraph examination, he denied any involvement. The polygraph examiner claimed that Echols' chart indicated deception. However, when asked to produce the record of the examination, the examiner indicated that he had no written record.
On 10 May , four days after the bodies were found, Detective Bryn Ridge questioned Echols, asking Echols to speculate as to how the three victims died. Ridge's description of Echols' answer is abstracted as follows:. He stated that the boys probably died of mutilation, some guy had cut the bodies up, heard that they were in the water, they may have drowned. He said at least one was cut up more than the others. Purpose of the killing may have been to scare someone.
He believed that it was only one person for fear of squealing by another involved. At trial, Echols testified that Ridge's description of the conversation which was not recorded was inaccurate.
At the time that Echols had allegedly made these statements, police thought that there was no public knowledge that one of the children had been mutilated more severely than the others.
This contradicted John Mark Byers' the stepfather of victim Christopher Byers statement to reporters only minutes after the three bodies were found, "that two boys had been badly beaten and that the third had been even worse. Gitchell had not released that information. Gitchell later said he had told John Mark Byers some details of the scene first, before the official release to the media. Leveritt also demonstrates that the police leaked some information, and that partly accurate gossip about the case was widely discussed among the public.
Throughout the course of the trial and afterward, many teenagers came forward with statements regarding being questioned and polygraphed by the local police. They said that Durham, among others, was at times aggressive and verbally abusive if they did not say what was expected of them. After the test, when asked what he was afraid of, Echols replied, "The electric chair.
After a month had passed with little progress in the case police continued to focus their investigation upon Echols, interrogating him more frequently than any other person; however, they claimed he was not regarded as a direct suspect but a source of information. On 3 June police interrogated Jessie Misskelley Jr.
Misskelley, whose IQ was reported to be 72 making him borderline mentally retarded , was questioned alone; his parents were not present during the interrogation. Misskelley's father gave permission for Misskelley to go with police, but did not explicitly give permission for his minor son to be questioned or interrogated.
Misskelley was questioned for roughly twelve hours; only two segments, totaling 46 minutes, were recorded. Misskelley quickly recanted his confession, citing intimidation, coercion, fatigue, and veiled threats from police. During Misskelley's trial, Dr.
Richard Ofshe, an expert on false confessions and police coercion and Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, testified that the brief recording of Misskelley's interrogation was a "classic example" of police coercion.
Critics have also stated that Misskelley's "confession" was in many respects inconsistent with the particulars of the crime scene and murder victims, including for example an "admission" that Misskelley "watched Damien rape one of the boys. Subsequent to his conviction, a police officer alleged that Misskelley had confessed to her.
However, once again, no reliable details of the crime were provided. Misskelley was a minor when he was questioned, and though informed of his Miranda rights, he later claimed he did not fully understand them. The Arkansas Supreme Court determined that Misskelley's confession was voluntary and that he did, in fact, understand the Miranda warning and its consequences.
Misskelley specifically said he was "scared of the police" during his first confession. Portions of Misskelley's statements to the police were leaked to the press and reported on the front page of the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper before any of the trials began. Shortly after Misskelley's original confession, police arrested Echols and his close friend Baldwin. Eight months after his original confession, on February 17, , Misskelley made another statement to police with his lawyer Dan Stidham in the room continually advising Misskelley not to say anything.
Misskelley ignored this advice continually and went on to detail how Damien and Jason abused and murdered the boys, while he watched until he decided to leave. Misskelley's attorney, Dan Stidham, who was later elected to a municipal judgeship, has written a detailed critique of what he asserts are major police errors and misconceptions during their investigation.
Vicki Hutcheson. Vicki Hutcheson, a new resident of West Memphis, would play an important role in the investigation, though she would later recant her testimony, stating her statements were fabricated due in part to coercion from police.
On 6 May the day the murder victims were found , Hutcheson took a polygraph exam by Detective Don Bray at the Marion Police Department to determine if she had stolen money from her West Memphis employer. Hutcheson's young son, Aaron, was also present, and proved such a distraction that Bray was unable to administer the polygraph.
Aaron, a playmate of the murdered boys, mentioned to Bray that the boys had been killed at "the playhouse. When the bodies proved to have been discovered near where Aaron indicated, Bray asked Aaron for further details, and Aaron claimed that he had witnessed the murders committed by Satanists who spoke Spanish.
Aaron's further statements were wildly inconsistent, and he was unable to identify Baldwin, Echols or Misskelley from photo line-ups, and there was no "playhouse" at the location Aaron indicated.
A police officer leaked portions of Aaron's statements to the press contributing to the growing belief that the murders were part of a satanic rite. On or about 1 June , Hutcheson agreed to police suggestions to place hidden microphones in her home during an encounter with Echols.
Misskelley agreed to introduce Hutcheson to Echols. During their conversation, Hutcheson reported that Echols made no incriminating statements. Police said the recording was "inaudible", but Hutcheson claimed the recording was audible. On 2 June , Hutcheson told police that about two weeks after the murders were committed, she, Echols and Misskelley attended an esbat in Turrell, Arkansas. Hutcheson claimed that, at the esbat, a drunken Echols openly bragged about killing the three boys.
Misskelley was first questioned on 3 June , a day after Hutcheson's Esbat confession. Hutcheson was unable to recall the esbat location, and did not name any other participants of the purported esbat. Hutcheson was never charged with theft. She claimed she implicated Echols and Misskelley to avoid facing criminal charges and to obtain a reward for the discovery of the murderers.
Murder trials Misskelley was tried separately, and Echols and Baldwin were tried together in Under the "Bruton rule", Misskelley's confession could not be admitted against his co-defendants and thus he was tried separately. They all pled innocent. On February 5, , Misskelley was convicted by a jury of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder.
On March 19, Echols and Baldwin were found guilty on three counts of murder. The court sentenced Echols to death and Baldwin to life in prison. Appeals and new evidence. In May , the three appealed their convictions. The convictions were upheld on direct appeal.
In , Echols petitioned for a retrial based on a statute permitting post-conviction testing of DNA evidence due to technological advances made since might provide exoneration for the wrongfully convicted. However, the original trial judge, Judge David Burnett, has disallowed hearing of this information in his court. The Knife of John Mark Byers John Mark Byers, the adoptive father of victim Christopher Byers, gave a knife to cameraman Doug Cooper, who was working with documentary makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky while they were filming the first Paradise Lost feature.
The knife was a small utility-type knife, manufactured by Kershaw. According to the statements given by Berlinger and Sinofsky, Cooper informed them of his receipt of the knife on December 19, After the documentary crew returned to New York, Berlinger and Sinofsky reported to have discovered what appeared to be blood on the knife. Byers initially claimed the knife had never been used.
Blood was found on the knife and Byers then stated that he had used it only once, to cut deer meat. When told the blood matched both his and Chris' blood type, Byers said he had no idea how that blood might have gotten on the knife. During interrogation, West Memphis police suggested to Byers that he might have left the knife out accidentally, and Byers agreed with this.
Byers later stated that he may have cut his thumb. John Mark Byers agreed to, and subsequently passed, a polygraph test during the filming of Paradise Lost 2: Revelations in regards to the murders, but the documentary indicated that Byers was under the influence of several psychoactive prescription medications that could have affected the test results. During the filming of the show, Byers also volunteered his false teeth when presented with the challenge he had bit the boys' bodies, although at the time of the murders he had his original teeth, which he later had voluntarily extracted, and later claimed there was a medical reason for the procedure.
Possible teeth imprints. As documented in Paradise Lost 2 , Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin submitted imprints of their teeth after their imprisonment that were compared to apparent bite-marks on Steve Branch's forehead, initially overlooked in the original autopsy and trial. No matches were found. According to the film, Byers had his teeth removed in —after the first trial.
He has never offered a consistent reason for their removal; in one instance claiming they were knocked out in a fight, in another saying the medication he was taking made them fall out, and in yet another claiming that he had long planned to have them removed so as to obtain dentures. After an expert examined autopsy photos and noted what he thought might be the imprint of a belt buckle on Byers' corpse, the elder Byers revealed to the police that he had spanked his stepson shortly before the boy disappeared.
He also had a conviction for terroristic threats that arose from an incident involving his ex-wife, Sandra Byers. Melissa Byers had contacted Christopher's school a few weeks before the murders, expressing concerns that her son was being sexually abused. A fact not revealed until after the trial was that John Mark Byers had acted as a police informant on several occasions.
His prior conviction for the incident had been expunged in May, , upon the completion of probation, despite the fact that other criminal charges against him should have caused the revocation of his probation. Vicki Hutcheson recants. In October , Vicki Hutcheson, who played a part in the arrests of Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin, gave an interview to the Arkansas Times in which she stated that every word she had given to the police was a fabrication.
She further asserted that the police had insinuated if she did not cooperate with them they would take away her child. She noted that when she visited the police station they had photographs of Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley on the wall and were using them as dart targets. She also claims that an audio tape the police claimed was "unintelligible" and eventually lost was perfectly clear and contained no incriminating statements.
DNA testing and new physical evidence In , DNA collected from the crime scene was tested. In addition, a hair "not inconsistent with" Terry Hobbs, stepfather to Stevie Branch, was found tied into the knots used to bind one of the victims. The prosecutors, while conceding that no DNA evidence ties the accused to the crime scene, has said that, "The State stands behind its convictions of Echols and his codefendants.
On 29 October papers were filed in federal court by Damien Echols' defense lawyers seeking a retrial or his immediate release from prison. The filing cited DNA evidence linking Terry Hobbs stepfather of one of the victims to the crime scene, and new statements from Hobbs' now ex-wife.
Also presented in the filing is new expert testimony that the "knife" marks on the victims were the result of animal predation after the bodies had been dumped.
That ruling was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case on September 30, Foreman and jury misconduct Legal experts have agreed that this issue has the strong potential to result in the reversal of the convictions of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols.
If their convictions are reversed, the State is expected to retry them. In October , Attorney now Judge Daniel Stidham, who represented Jessie Misskelley in , testified at a postconviction relief hearing. Stidham testified under oath that, during the trial, Judge David Burnett approached the then-deliberating jury in the Misskelley matter at approximately a.
When the foreman answered "we may almost be done", Judge Burnett responded "well, you'll still have to return for sentencing. Stidham testified that his failure to request a mistrial based on this exchange was ineffective assistance of counsel and that Misskelley's conviction should therefore be vacated. Current events and Arkansas Supreme Court ruling. On November 4, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a lower judge to consider whether newly-analyzed DNA evidence might exonerate three men convicted in the murders of three West Memphis Cub Scouts.
The justices also said a lower court must examine claims of misconduct by the jurors who sentenced Damien Echols to death and Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin to life in prison. Family and law enforcement opinions.
The families are divided on the belief that the West Memphis Three are guilty. In August , Pamela Hobbs, the mother of victim Steven Branch, and John Mark Byers, adoptive father of Christopher Byers, joined those who have publicly questioned the verdicts, calling for a reopening of the verdicts and further investigation of the evidence. Byers has been speaking to the media on behalf of the convicted and has expressed his desire for "justice for six families.
In , district Judge Brian S. Miller dismissed a suit Hobbs filed over Maines' remarks at a Little Rock rally implying he was involved in killing his stepson. The judge said Hobbs had voluntarily injected himself into a public controversy over whether three teenagers convicted of killing the three 8-year-old boys had been wrongfully condemned.
Documentaries, publications and studies. The movie marked the first time Metallica allowed their music to be used in a movie and drew attention to the cases.
The directors are planning two more sequels. In addition, there have been a few books, including Blood of Innocents by Guy Reel and Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt, which also argue that the suspects were wrongly convicted. In , Damien Echols completed his memoir, "Almost Home, Vol 1," offering his perspective of the case.
The Robin Hood Hills Murders. By Burk Sauls - WM3. May 5th, was a Wednesday, and when the Weaver Elementary school bell rang, three 8 year old boys headed home to their nearby West Memphis, Arkansas neighborhood. Only a few hours later they would be reported missing and an informal search by their parents would be under way. The next afternoon at PM, a child's body was pulled from a creek in an area known as Robin Hood Hills.
Eventually the bodies of the other two missing children were found nearby. All three of them were naked and they had been tied ankle to wrist with their own shoe laces. The children had been severely beaten, and one child, Christopher Byers, appears to have been the focus of the attack; he had been stabbed repeatedly in the groin area and castrated.
A triple homicide is extremely unusual, and particularly when the victims are children and unrelated to one another. So far, two documentary films have been made about this case, and interest in it shows no sign of fading. The facts surrounding the Robin Hood Hills murders, the events which they triggered, the aftermath, the trials, the verdicts and the hearings have been the focus of an ongoing research project for the past several years and we have reached many surprising conclusions.
Having had no previous experience with this type of murder, the West Memphis Police Department allowed potential evidence to be destroyed at the site where the bodies of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were located.
Officers who were present made very little apparent effort to preserve or properly document the scene or to make accurate notes. Perhaps this was due to negligence or perhaps it was due to the fact that they were inadequately trained and inexperienced in handling such a crime and the events that naturally follow. Many unidentified people can be seen milling around the bodies in the brief crime scene video, and the Chief Investigator, Gary Gitchell can be seen smoking a cigarette well within the perimeter of the area.
Strangely, a juvenile probation officer was present when the horrible discovery was made and he indulged in speculation with a police officer about who might be responsible for such an unspeakable act. The probation officer had been following the activities of a local teenager named Damien Echols for years, and his first instinct what that the moody, dark haired teen was responsible. In fact, he and the police officer agreed that Damien was the only person they felt was "capable" of such a thing.
Both men decided that the triple homicide had actually been a bizarre Satanic ritual sacrifice performed by a "cult" which they imagined Damien was the leader of. Of course, there was no evidence of any "cult" activity in the woods, and the investigating officers found nothing incriminating the next day when they visited Damien Echols in his trailer in the nearby town of Marion. The juvenile officer had questioned Echols before whenever something happened for which he could find no explanation.
When a piece of guidance equipment disappeared from a train that had passed through West Memphis, Damien was questioned even though the train didn't even slow down when it passed though the small truck stop town.
When a girl was killed miles away, Damien was questioned. It seems that this juvenile officer was looking for a crime that he could pin on what he saw as a "sinister" teenager, and the homicides of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were good enough. Though there wasn't any evidence to connect Damien to the victims or to the murders, the rumors, irresponsible police work and the media created an environment where it was decided, well before the trials, that the three teenagers were devil worshippers who were guilty of the murders.
A local woman who was in trouble for writing bad checks agreed to assist the police in their efforts to investigate Damien by trying to record something incriminating with a hidden tape recorder. She invited Damien to her house, but recorded nothing unusual.
This same woman later urged her young son to tell police that he'd seen what had happened in the woods on May 5th. The boy told the police a series of strange tales about people speaking Spanish, riding motorcycles and his eventual escape from these bizarre characters by kicking them and running. The boy's stories became more and more exaggerated, and although after being asked, he agreed with police that Damien Echols had killed his friends, they eventually gave up on the boy providing them with anything reliable that could used against Echols.
Apparently the boy's drawings of Damien with glowing eyes and armor holding up a bloody sword were not convincing enough for an arrest just yet. Back to School. School Day Forecast. Special Reports. Bridging the Great Health Divide. Mid-South Heroes. Friday Football Fever. Gas Prices. Bluff City Life. About Us. Meet The Team. Editorial Board. Latest Newscasts. Investigate TV. Gray DC Bureau.
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