Freedom for the “West Memphis Three”

After a brief, mostly procedural hearing Friday afternoon, the Jonesboro, Arkansas criminal court released the celebrated “West Memphis Three”–

Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelley, and Jason Baldwin, who had served more than eighteen years in prison on charges they had savagely murdered three eight-year-old boys in May, 1993. Echols was eighteen, Miskelley and Baldwin were sixteen when, just weeks after the slayings, the three were indicted on first-degree murder charges. The “WM3,” now in their mid-thirties, have maintained their innocence from the very first moment investigators identified them as persons-of-interest in the case.  They still say prosecutors convicted them of “being different,” and a host of Hollywood celebrities have championed their cause because they agree.

Prosecutors and the WM3 reached agreement on an unusual “Alford Plea,” a plea bargain that allows criminal defendants to plead guilty to the charges against them even as they assert their innocence.  During Friday’s hearing, the court ratified the plea agreement, the men allocated, and the judge order their immediate release.

During the trial, the prosecution made the case against Echols, Baldwin, and Miskelley strictly on circumstantial evidence, capitalizing on their “difference” from other “normal” teen-agers in the community, and maintaining they belonged to a Satanic cult.  At one point in detectives’ aggressive interrogation, Miskelley, who is mentally disabled, confessed to cult membership; but his attorneys made their claim for its coercion, Miskelley subsequently recanted, and the confession was not introduced at trial. Miskelley’s admissions did, however, leak to the press, where they influenced the public’s conviction the three teen-agers were somehow dangerously involved with the occult, and the horrific murder of the three eight-year-olds was connected with their Satanic practices.  All of this obviously inflammatory discussion originated in the three teen-agers affection for wearing black clothing and their passion for heavy metal music.  No forensic evidence ever linked the WM3 to the victims, the crime scene, or the crime itself.

In the last year, compelling and incontrovertible DNA evidence has surfaced, implicating Terry Hobbs, a victim’s step-father, with the crime.  Taking that evidence to court, prominent criminal defense attorney Steven Braga made the case for granting the WM3 a new trial.  The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled none of the recent DNA testing of material at the crime scene pointed to the convicted men, and it ordered new hearings In December.     In the aftermath of that ruling, prosecutors concluded staging a new trial would be “almost impossible,” because several witnesses have died, and several of the victims’ families have become convinced of WM3’s innocence. Hence the offer of an Alford plea.

After his release on Friday, Echols told the press, “”It’s not perfect by any means, but at least it brings closure, [and] we can still try to clear our names. The only difference is now we can do it from the outside.”

Scott Ellington, Jonesboro, Arkansas prosecutor, told reporters the new evidence linking another individual to the crimes gives the three men grounds for a new trial, but it would have been “practically impossible’” to put on a proper trial eighteen years after the slayings. Ellington particularly noted, in the wake of widespread publicity surrounding the case, two of the victims’ families have concluded the men were wrongly accused.  Despite these developments, Ellington told local television he considers the case closed, asserting, “As far as the state’s concerned, there is no further investigation.”

The movie-music-West Memphis connection

The West Memphis Three literally have become a cause celebre as a number of prominent actors, musicians, and film-makers have supported their cause with fundraising, advocacy, and resources for their families.  Rocker Eddie Vetter, “Dixie Chicks” vocalist Natalie Maines, and super-star Johnny Depp have carried the message and decried the miscarriage of justice in WM3’s case. Depp was especially visible and vocal during the campaign to free Echols, Baldwin, and his advocacy frequently brought the case back into the public spotlight just when it threatened to languish or get lost in the system.  In fact, Echols, sentenced to death, twice came within days of his execution, ultimately saved at the last minute by timeline intervention from celebrity-supported attorneys.

Analysts credit the internet with launching and sustaining the initiative. Momentum doubled, however, when filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky produced a series of three documentaries–“Paradise Lost”—for HBO.  In fact, Berlinger and Sinofsky were making final cuts in “Paradise Lost: Purgatory,” third in the series, when they heard the news of WM3’s release.  They immediately traveled to Jonesboro for the celebration; and Berlinger told the press, “It’s freedom, on the one hand, but it’s not full freedom. These guys deserve a full exoneration.”