Thanks To Wolfboy

I'm really excited to see what's going to happen with the West Memphis 3 now that there has been some new DNA evidence introduced. These kids, now men, have been in prison for nearly 15 years, and everybody in the world who has read anything about the case, except for the arresting officer, prosecutor, and judge, are %100 convinced that they were innocent. Anyone that has seen the "evidence" which they used to convict them, has shaken their heads in utter disbelief that such a Salem Witch Trial could happen in this day and age. They've made 2 documentaries on this matter (click on the picture to go to the first one, I highly recommend it) and I can't think about it without getting really angry, and really sad. Anyway, go here to read a good background summary of the case, and here is what's going on with it currently.

Comments

[Miss Luongo]

I'm glad someone is finally doing something productive in that case. What a nightmare. It was so clear watching the documentary that the high school kids had nothing to do with the murders. Of course, the documentarians made it seem like that one stepfather was the guilty party, which is pretty messed up since it's not panning out that way. Although, it's not as horrible as putting three innocent kids in jail for 15 years - one on death row. How do you recover from that and have a normal life?

[messiestobjects]

It's not so much that the documentarians made made it look like that one stepfather (John Mark Byers, I think) was the guilty party; it's more that they were in town with a camera, and Mr. Byers, whether he's guilty of the crime or not, is clearly insane and loved being in front of the camera. He gave the documentarians a knife, for God's sake, which had human blood on it, after he told everyone that the knife had never been used for anything. After the blood was discovered, he changed his story to that he'd used it once to carve up a deer. After it was determined the blood was human, he had nothing to say.

When teeth marks were found on the boy's bodies, he went to his dentist with extreme dental pain and had all of his teeth removed.

When he passed a lie detector exam, (Which he admitted to showing up for all doped down on pain killers) he exulted "I knew I was innocent!"

If he's not the killer, then circumstance hates that man.

Apparently the kids are doing as well as can be... Damien Echols got the protection of a famous criminal while in prison, and is generally well-respected by his fellow inmates. Also, he's published one or two books and got married to a woman who was helping to work on his defense team. When he gets out, he's going to be very well off. This doesn't make up for 15 years in prison, of course, but it's something. He's actually been very philosophical about it. His book is worth a read.

Jason Baldwin has a degree in something and apparently has a knack with computers.

Jesse Misskelley.... he may or may not come out of it so well, we'll see.

[messiestobjects]

Also I have to say that while Damien Echols' book is definitely worth a read, it's more important to see both documentaries, then read devil's knot by Mara Leveritt first.

[Miss Luongo]

Oh, right, I forgot about the knife and the teeth and the lie detector test. I guess it's useless for me to read that stuff if all I'm going to do is forget important details.

[messiestobjects]

Excuses, excuses.