West Memphis Three refers to the conviction of three juveniles in the horrible slaying of three 8 year old cub scouts in West Memphis. Based upon the statements of one of the juvenile defendants, a borderline mentally retarded teenager named Jessie Misskelley, he and two other boys, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the crime. Echols received the death sentence while Misskelley and Baldwin received life sentences.
After the trial, doubts began to arise about the strength of the conviction. A witness recanted. The prosecutor's theory that the killings were part of a satanic ritual were discredited. The youths, have served their time on death row and prison until now, proclaiming their innocence all the while.
Three documentaries were made about this case, Paradise Lost and the follow up qnd Devil's Knot.
Evidence was uncovered after the trial of bite marks on the victims body. Dental impressions of each of the defendants was taken and they were excluded as potential source of the marks.
It wasn't until new DNA testing in 2007 showed that a fourth person's DNA was found on the victims, and none of the DNA of the convicted juveniles, now men in the middle of their second decade in prison.
Prosecutors concerned about the weakness of their conviction offered reduced sentences if the defendants would plead guilty and be released from prison. Eager to be released, they accepted and they are expected to be released within a few weeks.
It is unfortunate that the prosecution is insisting on a guilty finding of lesser included charges as a trade for agreement to release the men. The prosecutors know that the evidence they thought they had did not really exist. Their theory of the crime, that included only the three men, did not account for any other people. Common sense and decency would dictate that prosecutors would seek to have the convictions reversed and the men freed immediately. It is suspected that prosecutors took this position to avoid civil liability to the men for being imprisoned all those years. Be that the reason or not, they did not do the right thing by covering up their mistakes. All they have done is continue to persecute the convicted men, and ensured that there would never be any investigation that might find the real killer.
Potential deal could lead to release of 'West Memphis Three'
The Devil's Advoctes: How Arkansas' West Memphis Three went from convicts to L.A.'s cause celebre