Paradise Lost - The Robin Hood Hills Murders

Damien Echols did say he was involved in Wicca and then later that he was Catholic (I believe). He dressed in black (goth) a lot.

I think the sentences were consecutive but I am not positive. I'm gonna go back and do a little refresher today.

Defense Offers New Evidence in a Murder Case That Shocked Arkansas

That West Memphis Case -- Again
(By John Brummett, SPRINGDALE MORNING NEWS, December 16, 2007)

Look for a flurry of activity in the next few days from people supporting Damien Echols and those two other men from West Memphis who got sent to prison 14 years ago in part for being very weird, very eerie teenagers.

Most likely, though, this will remain for now a criminal justice matter insulated from any exercise of media and politics. There probably will be a costly and time-consuming legal process before Echols and the others might get freed.

But I predict their release, maybe full exoneration, even if not for years.

It is always possible, I guess, that Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley, clad in black and talking about witchcraft as they wandered around as misfit 18-year-olds, did in fact torture and kill those three little boys in West Memphis in 1993.

It's too uncertain, though.

The prosecution had no physical evidence and relied solely on sometimes imaginative circumstantial evidence. It extracted easy guilty verdicts from juries predisposed by fear and rage.

Now there are new DNA findings, produced by a sophisticated defense team funded by celebrities like Johnny Depp, who have rallied to Echols' cause. This evidence links none of the three men to the slain boys or the crime scene.

Maybe Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley did all that alleged sodomizing, ritualizing and blood-drinking without leaving a shred of physical evidence. The little boys' bodies were found in water; perhaps the DNA was washed away. Logically, though, I must side with the growing chorus deeming this to have been, at the least, an unsupported judgment driven by emotion stirred by the horror of the crime and the outcast oddness of Echols and the two others.

The police described this as the work of a satanic cult. But outcast kids -- adults, too -- can fancy themselves as witches without being Satanists.

Misskelley, with a low IQ, gave the police a confession laced with contradictions and errors.

He recanted hours later. But the police and prosecutors were on their way. Juries convicted all three, sentencing two to life in prison and giving Echols, the scariest-looking and scariest-acting, the death penalty.

These new findings by Echols' defense team make a case that those supposed ritualistic mutilations were actually the postmortem work of animals.

People will tell you that this was an uncommonly vexing case. Every new bit of police information would neither prove nor disprove the guilt of the three.

But convictions are supposed to rise beyond a reasonable doubt.

Anyway, things are starting to percolate anew.

From Death Row, Echols was to give a telephone interview Friday to Larry King. It was to be taped for airing Wednesday night on CNN.

That day, supporters who advocate exoneration and release for Echols and the others will rally at the state Capitol. They intend to make a presentation to Gov. Mike Beebe, or at least someone with his office. It will be of a massive banner made up of supportive postcards from around the world, stretching a city block. Natalie Maines, the Dixie Chick who is no stranger to controversy, is to be on hand.

The matter has been sent back to Crittenden County Circuit Court on pleadings either for vacated verdicts or new trials.

But the state law on new post-conviction DNA evidence allows vacated verdicts only if that evidence provides prima facie proof of innocence. In this case, what we've seen so far only makes it seems even more unlikely -- or at least unproved -- that the imprisoned men did these crimes. It doesn't prove conclusively or absolutely that they couldn't have.

Beebe is too much the cautious man to free these three until and unless the argument becomes even more compelling. But Beebe also is the kind of man who would do the right thing eventually. I cannot imagine that he would let Echols get put to death. Commuting the death sentence would seem to be the least, the very least, the state ought to do. Then we could argue about whether he and the others ought to be in jail at all.

Mark Byers: West Memphis 3 May Be Innocent
(By April Norris, WHBQ FOX13, 26 Nov 2007)

The West Memphis Three murder case shocked the country 14 years ago, but new evidence has caused many to question if the real murderers are in jail. Now a father of one of the little boys killed is joining the movement to free the West Memphis Three.

Because of new evidence, Mark Byers said he believes Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie Branch, one of the murdered little boys, should be considered the prime suspect. Byers said he's backing the West Memphis Three's defense team and thinks there needs to be a new trial.

It's been 14 years since Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were found murdered in West Memphis.

Earlier this month, attorneys for the three men convicted of the crime submitted new evidence and asked for a new hearing to prove their innocence.

The court has yet to make a decision.

For years, Mark Byers, Christopher's father, thought Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin were the killers. However, on Monday, he told Good Morning Memphis anchor Valerie Calhoun he doesn't think that anymore.

"I basically hated them with every fiber in my body," he said. "I just knew they were guilty…until about seven months ago when I got started thinking for myself. For years I always believed what the state of Arkansas told me."

Byers changed his mind when Damien Echols' attorneys said hairs belonging to Hobbs were found in a knot at the crime scene.

"To me, Police 101 says clear the parents first before you go any farther and that wasn't done," said Byers. "One parent wasn't done or talked to until 14 years later."

For a long time, Byers was a target of suspicion and said he went through intense scrutiny from police.

Hobbs' attorney said his client maintains his innocence.

"The perception is, that this is somehow an accusation against Mr. Hobbs and we don't perceive that as such," said Ross Sampson, Hobb's attorney.

But, Byers said he's going to keep pushing the Arkansas' Attorney General's Office for a new trial.

"I'm going to do everything in my power…they've been fooled and they need to stand up and take a look at this," he said.

State prosecutors stand by the convictions. No date has been set for new hearing.

Supporters Gather to Rally for 'West Memphis Three'
(By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press, December 19, 2007)

An effort to free three men convicted as teenagers in the sexually charged slayings of three 8-year-old boys has moved from Internet forums and the mouths of rock stars to the front steps of the Arkansas state Capitol.

Supporters of Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley -- known to sympathizers as the "West Memphis Three" -- rallied Wednesday in support of the men they fear prosecutors and a small-town police force railroaded into prison because of the teens' interest in heavy metal music and the occult. About 100 supporters gathered at the Capitol and unfurled a banner of postcards asking for the men to be freed.

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The celebrity interest helps the case's notoriety, as well as the three's legal defense. In all, the fund received more than $1 million over the last decade from celebrities and Internet donations, enough to fund lawyers, new DNA testing and a second federal appeal on behalf of Echols, said supporter Capi Peck.

The new appeal, filed in October, includes DNA tests conducted by a private laboratory in Virginia that handled bone fragments found in rubble at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. A report from the lab included in the filing shows much of the evidence failed to yield reportable results. However, on evidence that could be tested, the lab found no traces of the three convicted for the slaying, according to the recent court filings.

The filing also included claims by forensic experts saying the mutilation of the boys' bodies came from animals after their death.

A federal judge ordered state courts to examine the new claims first. The state attorney general's office has asked for more time to look over the tests and other materials.

Supporters for the men herald the recent appeal as a step toward holding a new trial. However, it is one of many appeals filed on behalf of Echols since his conviction. Echols himself initially declined to appeal his death sentence, later saying he made the decision without talking to his attorneys.

Echols' other appeals claimed his mental state stopped him from properly assisting in his 1994 joint trial with Baldwin. Echols also claims his lawyers at the time made an unfair deal with the producers of the HBO documentary, responsible for much of the attention the case received in later years.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a 1997 appeal by Echols, after the Arkansas Supreme Court roundly rejected a joint appeal filed by his and Baldwin's lawyers. That opinion cited "substantial evidence" of the two's guilt, upholding the lower court's decision to show evidence like a funeral register Echols owned, as well as a journal that contained "morbid images and references to dead children."

A psychologist who examined Echols noted the teen had "an all powerful Godlike image of himself" and once tried to "claw the eyes out" of another student before dropping out of high school.

"I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. They're going to talk about me for years," a 19-year-old Echols told documentary filmmakers. "People in West Memphis will tell their kids stories. It will be like, sort of like I'm the West Memphis boogeyman. Little kids will be looking under their beds before they go to bed."

The arrests were largely based on Misskelley's confession. Defense lawyers claimed detectives coerced two taped statements out of the then-17 year old, who they described as having the mental grasp of a child. Supporters of the three point to inconsistencies -- how Misskelley offered the wrong times for the slayings and the wrong colors for the shoelaces that bound the second-graders.

Arkansas Supreme Court justices refused to throw out the statements in Misskelley's appeal, noting that he was advised of his rights three times during a four-hour interview with officers. The court also said Misskelley had been advised in other juvenile proceedings between 1988 and 1993 and "was no stranger to the criminal justice system."

KING: From the Varner Unit of Supermax State Prison Facility in Grady, Arkansas, we are joined by Damien Echols, who is on death row. He recently had a birthday, by the way. He's 33 years old.

Now, how long have you been on death row?

DAMIEN ECHOLS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: About 14 years. All in all, I've been locked up almost 15 years.

KING: Now there's so-called -- let's get into it -- new evidence in your case. It's encouraged a lot of your defenders -- and there are many -- to feel optimistic.

Give us the story.

What's new?

ECHOLS: There are several things. But I think the main one is probably the DNA testing that know they said it revealed no evidence of me or the other two guys who were convicted of the crime at the crime scene. There was also evidence that said that what the prosecution had alleged were knife wounds, things of that nature were actually more along the lines of post-mortem injuries inflicted by snapping turtles and other things that would have been in the woods.

KING: Why this late, Damien?

ECHOLS: Well, a lot of the testing that they had to use now to reveal this wasn't available. They couldn't do it at the time that I was arrested. You've got to keep in mind, that was almost 15 years ago. And forensic technology has come a long way in 15 years.

KING: We'll be getting into the case and the structure of the case. But the legal process, if the DNA excludes you, why are you in prison?

ECHOLS: Well, a lot of people think that if you have some sort of definitive proof of innocence, something like a DNA test, that you're automatically released. And that's not actually true. A lot of times in cases like this it's more about politics than it is about justice. You know, a lot of people have built their careers off of this case. You know, you had police officers who were given promotions. You had the prosecutor, who ran for and was elected judge. The judge -- or the circuit court judge is now saying that he plans on retiring and running for Senate.

All of this pretty much happening on the merit of this case. And these people do not want to admit that they made a mistake.

I'm going to get the book, Devil's Knot, and read it for myself. If everything has been true concerning the mistakes, etc., made, I do feel a new trial would be in order.

I find it a fascinating case and can't wait to read the book.