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The West Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 09-29-2010
i've never really looked at this case closely, but i think i'll watch this on CNN tonight and tomorrow night and do some reading.
it's pretty bad, three little boys murdered and mutilated. it's on at 10 Eastern tonight and thursday night if you're interested. (they usually repeat on saturday) i'd like to know more about Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the boys.
By Deborah Feyerick and Stephanie Chen, CNN
September 29, 2010
Damien Echols talked from death row about his appeal in the West Memphis 3 case.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Damien Echols appeals conviction for murders of three Cub Scouts in Arkansas
* On Thursday, Echols asks the Arkansas Supreme Court for a new trial
* He spoke to CNN from death row about new evidence that supports his claim of innocence
* Echols' appeal rests heavily on DNA tests that don't link him to the crime scene
Don't miss "AC360°" tonight and tomorrow at 10 p.m. ET for it's two-part series on the case of the West Memphis 3.
Grady, Arkansas (CNN) -- Some things about Damien Echols remain unchanged since he was sentenced to death in 1994 at the age of 19 after being convicted of murdering three 8-year-old boys.
At 35, his favorite holiday is still Halloween. To celebrate, friends say, he sends them hand-made jack-o'-lantern cards. He longs for contact with the outside world.
"I miss the things that most people take for granted, things people don't want, like rain," Echols told CNN in a face-to-face interview airing on tonight's "AC360°."
"To go out and touch it and get wet, or to feel snow. I loved snow my entire life, and I haven't had that in almost 20 years now."
From the Varner Unit of the Arkansas prison system, Echols maintains his innocence 16 years after he and two other teens were convicted of murdering three Cub Scouts -- Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steven Branch. On May 6, 1993, police in the rural community of West Memphis, Arkansas, found their bodies bruised and mutilated, their arms and legs hogtied with their own shoelaces.
Echols, along with 16-year-old Jason Baldwin and 17-year-old Jessie Misskelley, were found guilty a year later. Echols received a death sentence, while Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison. The three teens became known as the West Memphis 3.
Echols is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday to grant him a new trial. His lawyers want to present DNA evidence not available at the time of the trial, as well as testimony that supports arguments that Echols and the two others did not commit the crime.
Meanwhile, no execution date is set for Echols.
"We are asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to right a terrible wrong, overturn their convictions and grant Damien as well as Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley a new trial," said Dennis Riordan, the lead attorney on the case.
The outsiders
Born in West Memphis, Echols grew up in poverty. His family shuffled between trailer parks and apartment buildings, moving around the country frequently. They survived on food stamps, what Echols often called "government cheese."
In his 2005 autobiography "Almost Home," Echols documents one winter when his family lived without heat, huddling around a wood-burning stove to stay warm.
"The worst part wasn't the poverty, the heat, the cold, or even the humiliation of living in such circumstances; it was the absolute and utter loneliness," Echols wrote in his book.
No matter where they went, Echols never quite fit in.
The family settled back in Marion, Arkansas, a small town next to West Memphis. Echols dropped out of high school, where he says he was an outcast. He kept his dark hair long, wore black clothes and listened to heavy metal music. His best friend, Jason Baldwin, was later tried with him and convicted of murdering the three children. Echols believes that he, Misskelley and Baldwin were targeted by authorities because they were misfits.
"I didn't fit into the town where I lived," Echols told CNN in his prison interview. "I had never even heard of the word 'goth' up until a few years ago."
Echols says police questioned him a day after the bodies of the second-graders were found in the woods, near where they used to hunt turtles. A month later, the teens were arrested.
Prosecutors successfully argued the defendants were involved in a satanic cult. They said that punctures and cuts on the boys' bodies indicated a ritual sacrifice.
In addition, prosecutors secured a confession from Misskelley, although his defense attorneys argued that he had a learning disability and an IQ of 70. They also claimed that it was not only riddled with inconsistencies but was coerced.
Authorities discovered the three 8-year-old victims in a West Memphis, Arkansas ditch.
Neither his parents nor his attorney was present when he was questioned. His confession came during the last hour of a 12-hour police interrogation. A tape of the confession was play in court his trial.
The three teens were convicted of the boys' murders in early 1994. Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences. Echols, who was an adult at the time of the murder, was sent to death row.
Life on death row
Echols is no longer the naive teenager who entered prison in 1994. His hair is cropped short, and he has grown into a serious and thoughtful 35-year-old man.
His skin is ghostly pale. He rarely sees the sun in prison because he is in solitary confinement, and he appears to be thinner than he did during the original trial. He says the only sounds he hears are the screams of an inmate with psychiatric problems.
While finding joy on death row is difficult, Echols smiles when he talks about his wife, Lorri Davis, a 47-year-old landscape architect in Little Rock, Arkansas. Davis visits him weekly. He calls her when he can. To stay connected, they do little things like drinking water at the same time each day.
Davis learned about Echols' story from an HBO documentary. "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" examined the West Memphis 3 case and questioned the prisoners' guilt.
Davis wrote Echols in prison, and they married in 1999.
"You wanted to root for him," Davis said about her husband. "He didn't have a prayer down there with all those people who thought he was guilty."
In prison, Echols spends his days reading, meditating and practicing Reiki, the ancient art of healing. He reads The New Yorker and books on history and theology, those close to him say. Besides his book, he has written song lyrics he sends to his friend and supporter, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
Meditation has helped Echols work through his anger about being accused of a crime he says he did not commit, his wife said.
Asked if he killed the boys, Echols responded, "To constantly have to answer that question and to constantly have people asking you that question is like being kicked in the stomach over and over again."
The West Memphis 3 have gained advocates, including unexpected support from some of the parents of the victims. Last year, Pamela Hobbs, mother of victim Steven Branch, told CNN that she was once convinced of their guilt. Then she began to consider the DNA evidence. She now says she believes the prosecution's case was flawed.
Capi Peck formed Arkansas Take Action, a Little Rock-based group trying to raise awareness about the West Memphis 3. In the past few weeks, the group has brought in celebrities such as Vedder and actor Johnny Depp to a public rally.
"He's so positive and focused," Peck said of Echols, who is anxious for the court to hear arguments Thursday. "He's just ready to get this done."
Another chance?
Despite mounting support in the community and across the country, Echols' freedom rests on the courts.
His attorneys are trying to convince the Arkansas Supreme Court that new evidence not available during the trial exonerates Echols. DNA testing indicated that a hair found on the shoelace used to tie up one of the victims is consistent with a hair from Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of victim Steven Branch.
Police have never considered Hobbs a suspect and he maintains that he had nothing to do with the murders. Hobbs has said the boys often played together at his family's home.
"I want someone to put a stop to this," Hobbs told CNN in December. "I'm tired of this stuff. No one understands or cares what this does to us as parents over and over again." Terry and Pamela Hobbs divorced in 2004.
The state argues that under Arkansas law, Echols' defense team did not have the right to test the DNA because they did not first prove he was innocent. West Memphis police and the lead prosecutors, who are both now judges, have long considered the case closed.
"There is no piece of evidence, no information that this is a cover-up." said Assistant Chief Donald Oakes of the West Memphis police. "If there is a piece of information that would clear someone, we would help. There's no grand conspiracy. I'm sure that piece of evidence (the DNA) was made available."
About the DNA, Oakes pointed out that no one has ever determined whether the boys were actually tied up with their own shoe laces or whether Steven Branch's shoe laces may have been used on Christopher Branch, which is where Hobbs' DNA was found.
"We are committed to fairness and justice -- not just for the three inmates but also for the three little boys who didn't live to see middle school," Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel told CNN in a written statement.
In a deposition last year, Hobbs said he never saw his stepson and the other boys on the day they disappeared. However, defense attorneys say that three new witnesses have stepped forward who will testify that they saw Hobbs with the children that evening.
Hobbs, the former prosecutors and other skeptics have questioned why it took so long for the new witnesses to come forward. Defense lawyers say the new eyewitnesses were not aware that Hobbs claimed not to have seen the boys on the night they were killed.
But Echols is confident his lawyers will be able to convince the court to grant him a new trial.
"I believe there has to be a good reason for this," he said. "I believe something good will come out of it."
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 09-29-2010
a lot of celebrities have jumped on this case bandwagon. i don't give a shit about that. what i am interested in is new DNA evidence.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - QueenBee - 09-29-2010
I remember watching something about the trial back when Tru was still Court TV. Back then I thought they were all guilty as hell. BUT..after watching something a few months back, maybe on Dateline or one of those shows..I am wondering, myself, about the DNA evidence. Why not at least take another look? I mean, the guys are not going anywhere, and if it is determined that they did, in fact kill the kids..well they are already in prison.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 09-29-2010
shit. now i'm going to have to read the entire trial transcript. to be fair.
There was a time that Pamela Hobbs believed justice had been served for her young son's murder.
But 16 years after the mutilations and killings of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts, including her son, she has more doubts than ever.
Tear-stricken and angry, Pamela Hobbs sat through the original trial of the three accused teens -- Damien Echols, 18; Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17, and Jason Baldwin, 16.
They were convicted of murdering her son, Stevie Branch, and two other neighborhood boys, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. The second-graders' bodies were found bruised and mutilated in a West Memphis, Arkansas, ditch; their arms and legs were bound by shoe laces.
The killers became dubbed the West Memphis 3.
When interviewed by media and documentary crews after the trial, Hobbs believed justice had been served. Misskelley and Baldwin had life sentences. Echols was on death row.
But recent developments -- including new eyewitness statements and DNA evidence from the defense -- have uprooted her faith in those prosecutions. Once a staunch believer that the teens were guilty, now she says the teens accused of killing her son in the West Memphis 3 deserve a new trial.
"I wanted to believe in our justice system," said Hobbs, now 45. She moved to Blytheville, Arkansas, shortly after the 1993 trial. "But time heals all wounds, and you start looking at things differently."
Her public change of heart has been supported by new evidence presented by the defense over the past few years. In 2007, DNA and forensic evidence tests revealed no physical evidence at the crime scene that linked the three teens to murders. The evidence was presented to the state.
Furthermore, DNA that might belong to two other men was found in the knot used to tie Christopher.
One of the men is Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie, the defense says. In 1993, such advanced DNA testing had not been available, attorneys said. (she has since divorced hobbs.)
The defense continues to argue the results of the DNA evidence. In September, the Arkansas Supreme Court received an appeal from Echols, requesting a new trial after the lower courts denied his request to submit new DNA evidence. This month, an Arkansas Law Review article stated Echols should be granted a new trial based on the 2007 DNA evidence.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 10-02-2010
lengthy, but good article.
Associated Press writer Adrian Sainz contributed to this report from West Memphis, Ark.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – With the fervor of a religious revival, more than 2,000 people packed an auditorium in Little Rock and shouted alongside movie and music icons like Johnny Depp and Eddie Vedder: "Free the West Memphis Three!"
But the real star of the late August rally sat 75 miles away on Arkansas' death row. He's Damien Echols, sentenced to die for the horrific murder of three young boys 17 years ago; two other young men received life sentences in the case.
Supporters of the men, the so-called West Memphis Three — including hundreds who showed up at a candlelight prayer vigil at a church last week — argue there were two sets of victims from the May 5, 1993, crime: the three murdered 8-year-olds and Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, the then-teenagers who defenders claim were wrongly convicted in the deaths.
Prosecutors have insisted that the true killers are behind bars and that the evidence backs that conclusion. So far, courts have agreed. But doubts about the nightmarish case will not die, and they're not coming only from celebrities.
Following a hearing Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court is considering whether to grant Echols a new trial, weighing many issues: Did a juror commit misconduct? What's the significance of a new analysis of DNA, which wasn't tested before the trial?
Meanwhile, another question looms: If the West Memphis Three didn't kill the boys, who did?
___
The crime was beyond shocking.
Three 8-year-old friends, all Cub Scouts, disappeared after school one weeknight while riding their bikes. Their bruised and bloodied bodies were found the next day in a wooded area known as Robin Hood Hills. The scene was gruesome: The boys were nude, each with his ankles and wrists hogtied together with shoelaces.
Steven Branch and Michael Moore drowned in a drainage ditch filled with about 2 feet of water. Christopher Byers bled to death and his genitals were mutilated and partially removed, leading to rumors that the children were sacrificed in a Satanic ritual.
The outcry in the town of 28,000 across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tenn., was immediate and intense.
"We were upset, mad at whoever did this to those children," said Ann Powers, a 57-year-old cashier at a West Memphis Walmart. "We were trying to help the parents along as much as we could. Any information that came out was given to the police."
She remembers being extra vigilant of her son, who was 5 at the time. Powers said she would not let him stray from her sight, making him stay near the kitchen window as he played outside while she cooked dinner.
"I had to tell him, 'There's some bad people around, and you can't get out of Mama's sight,'" she said.
As the town grieved, police began to zero in on Echols, a smart-mouthed 18-year-old high school dropout known for dressing in black, a dark sense of humor and love for heavy metal music. Echols was fingered as a suspect by tipsters, including one who said she saw him, covered in mud, near the woods the night the boys disappeared.
But there was little movement until police brought in for questioning 17-year-old Jessie Lloyd Misskelley and he unexpectedly confessed, implicating himself, Echols and 16-year-old Jason Baldwin.
"Then they tied them up, tied their hands up," Misskelley said in the statement to police, parts of which were tape-recorded. Describing sodomizing and other violence, he went on: "And I saw it and turned around and looked, and then I took off running. I went home, then they called me and asked me, how come I didn't stay? I told them, I just couldn't."
But attorneys for the men, along with Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, say Misskelley's statements bear every sign of a false confession. Misskelley, whose IQ was measured at 72, was simply saying what he thought police wanted to hear, said Steven Drizin, the Northwestern center's legal director.
"It's clear that Jessie Misskelley didn't know what he was talking about, had never been to the crime scene, didn't witness the crime scene," and got key details wrong, Drizin said.
Misskelley told police they abducted the boys in the morning; by every account, the boys were in school all day. He also said they used rope to tie up the boys, rather than the shoelaces found on their bodies. He talked of Echols and Baldwin sodomizing the boys, although an autopsy found no definitive evidence of sexual assault.
The three teens were arrested the day Misskelley spoke to police. He almost immediately recanted the confession, and his attorney said that Misskelley only said what he did because he thought he'd receive a reward.
Misskelley was tried alone, convicted of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years.
"There is no more powerful evidence in a court of law than a confession," Drizin said. Even in cases where DNA evidence shows a suspect didn't commit the crime, he added, "juries will still convict on the basis of the confession because they can't understand why somebody would ever confess to a crime they didn't commit, especially a murder."
Although Misskelley refused to testify against the others and his confession was not admitted into evidence, both were convicted. Echols got the death penalty and Baldwin received life without parole.
___
The three have had no luck in their bids for new trials.
The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld Echols' conviction and death sentence in 1996, ruling there was sufficient evidence to prove he killed the three boys, citing:
— A 12-year-old and 15-year-old who testified they heard Echols bragging about the murders.
— Two witnesses who testified they saw Echols at a truck stop near Robin Hood Hills, wearing dirty clothes, at about 9:30 p.m. the night the boys disappeared.
— Fibers that were "microscopically similar" to ones found on the boys' clothing were found at Echols' home.
— Testimony from the state medical examiner that a serrated knife found in a pond behind Baldwin's home could have caused some of the wounds suffered by the boys.
— Echols' statement under cross-examination that he was interested in the occult, as well as a funeral register found in his room with hand-drawn pentagrams and upside-down crosses. Echols' journal was also admitted into evidence, and "it contained morbid images and references to dead children," the court's opinion noted.
— Echols' statement to police shortly after the murders that he understood the boys had been mutilated, with one suffering more serious injuries. That information hadn't been released to the public, the opinion said.
Echols' defense argues that he was speaking sarcastically when he told the 12- and 15-year-olds at a ballpark that he killed the boys. In Supreme Court arguments, defense lawyer Dennis Riordan said DNA testing conducted after Echols' conviction did not place Echols at the scene and that other scientific evaluation of evidence contradicts statements made in the confession. He asked the court to send the case back to circuit court for an evidentiary hearing or to grant a new trial.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel declined an interview with the AP on the case. But in 2008, shortly after Echols filed the appeal now before the state Supreme Court, he said he was confident in the verdicts.
"I'm growing increasingly frustrated by what I see as a misleading press campaign to suggest that there's new DNA evidence that in some way exonerates these boys that a jury found guilty and whose appeals they all lost. There is no new DNA evidence that exonerates these boys at all," McDaniel said. If there was, he added, "I would be the first one to start approaching the governor on options on bringing justice to the matter."
Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general, said Echols received a fair trial when he was convicted in 1994. A rehearing should only be ordered if evidence shows innocence, not just raises questions, the state argued before the supreme court.
"Neither the Sixth Amendment nor the Arkansas Constitution require the state to prove defendants guilty twice; only once, and fairly," Sadler said. "Fairness is not simply a question of public opinion."
___
Damien Echols is a pro at interviews.
Seated behind glass at the Varner Supermax prison, Echols was fighting a cold but used a spare tissue to wipe a smudge off the window to allow for clearer images for a photographer to snap.
He's told his story of what happened in 1993 many times before but still expresses astonishment at being accused and convicted.
"In hindsight, it just seems kind of ridiculous, I guess — when you're saying that basically you've got this redneck trailer park devil cult going around, killing children for no apparent reason?" he said. "It was one of those things where ... I couldn't believe it was happening."
But if he, Baldwin and Misskelley didn't kill the youngsters, who did?
The DNA analysis included in Echols' court petition said that a hair found on the shoelaces used to bind victim Michael Moore was consistent with hair found from Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of victim Steven Branch. Another hair found on a tree stump at the crime scene was consistent with hair from one of Hobbs' friends, the court filing said. The men have vehemently denied any involvement.
None of the DNA tested from the crime scene matched Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, the appeal said. The scene was clean of blood, leading investigators to hypothesize that the boys were killed somewhere else.
Even some of the victims' parents have questioned whether the right people are behind bars for the crime.
"I don't believe these guys could have killed these kids and not left any evidence," Pam Hobbs, mother of Steven Branch, told The Jonesboro (Ark.) Sun earlier this year. "That's impossible."
John Mark Byers, the stepfather of Christopher Byers, said he also believes the three men are innocent.
"I personally don't believe the three could have gone out there and opened a Twinkie and not leave any DNA," Byers said last week. "The facts don't fit the evidence."
Who then? There was another tantalizing thread of evidence.
On the night of the murders, a man entered a Bojangles fast-food restaurant less than a mile from where the bodies were discovered. He was covered in blood and mud, and his pants were soaked to the knee with water, according to the restaurant manager, who testified at both trials. The man went into the women's restroom and restaurant workers called police. He was gone by the time police arrived.
Although restaurant workers cleaned the bathroom that night, West Memphis police did take blood scrapings a few days later when officers returned to investigate.
That evidence, though, was lost before it was tested.
___
The case might have slipped into obscurity were it not for "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills."
A group of documentary filmmakers followed prosecutors, defense attorneys and families of the victims and suspects during the 1994 trials. Their film showed court proceedings as well as behind-the-scenes meetings among lawyers.
The film aired on HBO in 1996 and immediately sparked interest in the case. A sequel aired in 2000, and work on a third documentary is under way.
That's how Pearl Jam's Vedder and Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, learned of the case.
"Right after I finished (watching) the second film, I got online because I thought ... I'm going to look up and see if these guys have Facebook pages," Maines said. "And so I was shocked and saddened and disappointed to learn that they were still sitting in prison and Damien on death row."
Maines donated money to the defense fund and later visited Little Rock to speak at a rally in support of the men.
Vedder said he was interested in the case for years but kept a low profile, thinking a rock band's involvement "wasn't going to help their case at all."
After Echols' attorneys filed his request for a new trial in 2007, Vedder became more outspoken. He was the driving force behind the Aug. 28 "Voices for Justice" rally in Little Rock that featured Maines, Depp, singer Patti Smith and musicians Ben Harper, Dhani Harrison and Joseph Arthur.
Vedder now considers Echols a friend and has visited him on death row.
"This is an incredible person that I've been able to get to know and to see what he's done with his situation," Vedder said. "What he's been able to do with his life and his mind and his intellect and his spirituality is really one of the more monumental acts of a human I've ever witnessed."
Speaking of all three convicted men, Vedder added: "Why are they innocent? Because there's nothing that says they're guilty."
But many who lived through the case say the celebrities haven't followed the case closely enough.
Powers, the Walmart cashier, said she's convinced the men are guilty and that Hollywood figures won't change her view.
"They weren't here," Powers said. "These people, I hope they're not disappointed in the end because they're going to find out they went after a wrong cause."
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 08-18-2011
i really want to see what this is about.
![[Image: c1main.west.memphis.three.pd.jpg]](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/CRIME/08/19/arkansas.child.killings/c1main.west.memphis.three.pd.jpg)
(CNN) -- An Arkansas court has called a short-notice hearing Friday for three men convicted of killing three West Memphis boys in 1993, with authorities tight-lipped about the nature of the proceeding in a closely watched case.
All three of the men -- Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, dubbed the "West Memphis Three" -- are expected to attend the session in Jonesboro. The state attorney general's office said it could not comment on the matter, citing a gag order on participants in the case.
Stephanie Harris, a spokeswoman for the state court system, said the convicts would appear before a judge in chambers before the public hearing is held.
Echols was sentenced to death and Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences in the May 1993 slayings of second-graders Steven Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. The boys' bodies were mutilated and left in a ditch, hogtied with their own shoelaces.
Prosecutors argued that Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin, then teenagers, were driven by satanic ritual and that Echols had been the ringleader. But DNA testing that was not available at the time failed to link any of the men to the crime, and the state Supreme Court ruled in November that all three could present new evidence to the trial court in an effort to clear them.
The case has drawn national attention, with actor Johnny Depp and singer Eddie Vedder trying to rally support for the men's release.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - cannongal - 08-19-2011
'West Memphis 3' may be freed, source says
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/19/arkansas.child.killings/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
(CNN) -- Three men convicted of killing three West Memphis boys in 1993 could be freed at a court hearing Friday, a person close to the case told CNN.
All three of the men -- Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, dubbed the "West Memphis Three" -- are expected to attend the hearing in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Friday.
A source close to the case said a deal is in the works where the men can be freed Friday and maintain their innocence.
The deal involves a complicated legal maneuver in which the three men would have to acknowledge that the state has evidence it could use to try and convict them.
The case has drawn national attention, with actor Johnny Depp and singer Eddie Vedder trying to rally support for the men's release.
Presumed guilty: Murder in West Memphis
Singers want 'West Memphis 3' released
Echols was sentenced to death and Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences in the May 1993 slayings of second-graders Steven Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. The boys' bodies were mutilated and left in a ditch, hogtied with their own shoelaces.
Prosecutors argued that the men convicted, teenagers at the time, were driven by satanic ritual and that Echols had been the ringleader.
DNA later failed to link the men to the crime, and the state Supreme Court ruled in November that all three could present new evidence to the trial court in an effort to clear them.
The DNA tests were conducted between December 2005 and September 2007, according to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The material included hair from a ligature used to bind Moore and a hair recovered from a tree stump near where the bodies were found, court documents said.
The hair found in the ligature was consistent with Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs, while the hair found on the tree stump was consistent with the DNA of a friend of Hobbs', according to the documents.
Police have never considered Hobbs a suspect, and he maintains that he had nothing to do with the murders.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Harvest Moon - 08-19-2011
"The three men will be allowed to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have the evidence to convict them, according to the Associated Press.
It is a legal maneuver that would allow the men to leave prison for the first time in more than a dozen years. They have always maintained their innocence."
LC, Do you know what the "legal maneuver" means? They "can maintain their innocence but must acknowledge that prosecutors have evidence". Does this mean that the prosecutors could possibly reopen the case in the future and charge them again?
I have followed this story a bit over the years and do believe that these men are innocent. While I'm happy to hear that they may finally get freed, my heart aches thinking about the unnecessary years they spent in prison. They were just boys when they went in. My son is 21 and young adult males that age really are still boys in so many ways.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 08-19-2011
that may be referring to a nolo contendere or Alford plea. it's a no contest plea in essence. i'll wait until whatever happens in court happens to comment any further since i am not sure what they are going to do.
and i do think they are guilty. just my opinion.
edit to add: it may be used in future cases as a prior conviction. they cannot be tried twice for same crime. however, the Feds could still go after them for violation of kids' civil rights.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - trixie - 08-19-2011
There's a 40 minute special on the case at the link. I think it was the stepdad.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20094282-504083.html?tag=pop%3Bstories
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - trixie - 08-19-2011
They're free.
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=8316193
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Adub - 08-19-2011
They are free.
Live feed for press conference
http://www.wmctv.com/category/196691/action-news-5-live-video-coverage
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 08-19-2011
yes, i just got back here. as i thought, Alford plea.
![[Image: 081911_westmemphis3.jpg]](http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/396/223/081911_westmemphis3.jpg)
Jonesboro, Arkansas (CNN) -- Three men convicted in the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, were ordered released after entering new pleas following a court hearing, prosecutor Scott Ellington said Friday.
Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 18 years in prison with credit for time served, a prosecutor said. They were to be released on Friday.
The three entered what is known as an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to maintain innocence while simultaneously acknowledging that the state has evidence to convict, Ellington said.
whole story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/19/arkansas.child.killings/index.html
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Harvest Moon - 08-19-2011
(08-19-2011, 11:58 AM)Lady Cop Wrote: that may be referring to a nolo contendere or Alford plea. it's a no contest plea in essence. i'll wait until whatever happens in court happens to comment any further since i am not sure what they are going to do.
and i do think they are guilty. just my opinion.
edit to add: it may be used in future cases as a prior conviction. they cannot be tried twice for same crime. however, the Feds could still go after them for violation of kids' civil rights.
Thanks LC, You were right, the Alford plea. I just saw it mentioned in a news article.
I am curious, what brings you to the conclusion that they are guilty?
I am not involved or all that passionate about the case. I just remember hearing about it over the years and coming the the conclusion that they were innocent. I took it as a case of "burning the witches". Since I have studied many religions from an intellectual perspective, I felt it was all pinned on the fact that the supposed "leader" of the three claimed to be Wiccan and the inability of certain communities to understand/except that religion. There is no Satan worship in true Wicca tradition.
I certainly could be wrong...and am interested in hearing other people's impression.
Edit to fix grammer...you damn people have me very aware of my grammer! This makes it very hard to post anything while drinking Koolaid
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - IMaDick - 08-19-2011
Quote: Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin pleaded guilty
There own admission is enough for me, you know innocent people don't plead guilty or use the alford plea to keep the evidence the state has of their guilt from coming out in a trial.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Adub - 08-19-2011
Innocent people do take plea deals. This was a plea deal, was it not? And the state has no new evidence. It was all thrown out there during the first trial. The defendants, on the otherhand, have new evidence. Which is why the state offered the deal, imo.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Lady Cop - 08-19-2011
![[Image: t1main.west.memphis3.presser.jpg]](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/CRIME/08/19/arkansas.child.killings/t1main.west.memphis3.presser.jpg)
![[Image: 15297100_SS.jpg]](http://kait.images.worldnow.com/images/15297100_SS.jpg)
the state didn't want to put on another trial. and we have all these "celebrities" involved.
i have never really studied the case completely, but i will before offering any analysis.
and to get off death row and LWOP i guess a lot of people would take an Alford plea. but do they have to allocute? that is usually part of the deal in an Alford. to TELL what went down. in open court.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - IMaDick - 08-19-2011
a plea deal? They pled guilty to something they didn't do as part of a plea deal?
what kind of a moron does something like that?
The alford plea is explicit in it's use, they plead while at the same time recognising that the state had a case with evidence that would convict them.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Harvest Moon - 08-19-2011
(08-19-2011, 02:43 PM)IMaDick Wrote: a plea deal? They pled guilty to something they didn't do as part of a plea deal?
what kind of a moron does something like that?
The alford plea is explicit in it's use, they plead while at the same time recognising that the state had a case with evidence that would convict them.
OK now I understand the Alford plea. But if you were in prison for a crime you didn't commit and were offered anything, wouldn't you take it? Even if it meant admitting guilt? Remember we are not dealing with the sharpest tools in the shed, and their lives were basically cut off when they were in their late teens. So, they failed to develop beyond that point.
RE: The Memphis 3 Case - Harvest Moon - 08-19-2011
Again, I don't feel passionate about this case, just want to hear other people's opinions.