West Memphis 3 Are Going To Be Freed!

Odd that you guys have a problem with sharing information on this case.

I also find it interesting that you Firefly are taking the interesting moral position that it does not matter if the three of them are in fact guilty of killing those children or not they still should go free because of the poor treatment they was given by the justice system.

To me it matter one hell of a lot if they are three innocent men walking free or three murderers of young children walking free no matter how badly the case was mess up in the first place.

That why personally I would love to see all three take lied detectors tests and once more if they are innocent and pass those tests it would be helpful to them in getting their lives back and perhaps pressuring the state to find the real killer or killers.

Emotions run high among parents of slain Arkansas boys

That is the word John Mark Byers, whose stepson Christopher was among three second-graders killed in West Memphis, Arkansas in May 1993, repeatedly used to describe Friday's release of three men convicted in the boys' murders from a Craighead County Courthouse in Jonesboro.

It is a sentiment shared by Steven Branch Sr., whose son Steven also was slain -- but for entirely different reasons.

A sense of disbelief and anger was ripe Friday among the victims' family members, trying to make sense of what happened 18 years ago and, especially, Friday. That is when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. entered what is known as an Alford plea on murder charges for which a jury had found them guilty. By doing so, the three maintained their innocence even as they acknowledged that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them.

Byers told reporters that he previously felt that these three men murdered Christopher, Steven Branch and Michael Moore, mutilated the boys' bodies, then left them in a ditch, hogtied with their own shoelaces.

But since 2007, he's become convinced that all three are innocent -- as they have long claimed -- and has fought for their cause.

And he is flabbergasted the men, as part of the plea deal reached with Arkansas' 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington, have returned home even though their convictions on three counts of murder apiece still stand. In Byers' view, they should have been cleared without any caveats.

"Do the citizens of Arkansas realize how crazy this is is?" Byers said. "To think that I'm disturbed and upset and mad over it, yes, I am. I want justice."

So, too, does Steven Branch Sr.

West Memphis Three: Free and guilty too? He does not believe the prosecution should have accepted the defense's proposal to employ the rarely used pleas, nor that the convicts should have been released as a result.

Outside the court Friday, Branch referred to Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley as "animals" who should have remained behind bars -- and, in Echols' case, been executed as he'd been sentenced.

Branch told reporters that he believes allowing the three convicted felons to walk free via a mechanism like the Alford plea sets a dangerous precedent.

"It's just going to give a key to everybody that's on death row right now to open up their cells and walk out there with the rest us," he said. "All the killers, the rapists, the serial murderers."

The roller coaster of emotions has taken a toll on Branch's ex-wife, Pat Hobbs. She told CNN affiliate WREG that she'd once believed fervently Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley killed her son.

Now, Hobbs said, she doesn't know what to think. What she does want, though, is peace -- for herself and her late son.

"It's a terrible nightmare that I have to live with from day-to-day," Hobbs told WREG. "And I want to rest, and I want my son to rest."

Does anyone else hear that hiss coming from what sounds like a hummingbird's butt? CLICK.

Note given that legally they are still guilty can they benefit from their "crime" with pay interviews or books?

If you expect others to answer questions for you, you should at least pay attention to the information which has already been posted.

My my here I always assume you was past that time of month emotional swings.

Thanks as I was looking to produce a cheap shot

West Memphis Three: What will they do now that they're out of prison?
Suzi Parker | The Christian Science Monitor | Aug 20, 2011

Life seldom plays out like a movie. But for the West Memphis Three, it did.

The lives of the three men convicted of the 1993 brutal killings of three young Cub Scouts in Arkansas shifted dramatically this week.

On Monday, Damien Echols sat on death row while Jason Misskelley and Jason Baldwin each faced life without parole sentences. By Friday afternoon, they were free men with no restrictions on travel and undefined futures after 18 years behind bars.

At a hearing in Jonesboro, Ark., Friday morning, the trio agreed to a legal maneuver that allowed them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence against them to find guilt. Important questions had been raised about crime scene evidence and conduct of the trial. They were sentenced to time served and immediately released.

But such a startling change in circumstances could have dire effects on the three men locked up as teenagers and now in their mid-30s. They've spent half their lives in prison, missing out on the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the rise of Twitter and Facebook, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the election of the first black president, and the creation of reality TV.

“It’s disconcerting when an inmate leaves the system so abruptly,” says Dr. Frederic G. Reamer, a professor at the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College in Providence “And it’s extraordinarily unusual. To go from zero to 75 within a matter of hours is likely to be overwhelming for anybody. There hasn’t been enough time to construct the scaffolding that an ex-offender absolutely needs after entering society.”

For the West Memphis Three, legal negotiations accelerated so quickly that this couldn't happen.

Shea Wilson, an Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman, says that no inmate has ever walked off death row like Echols.

Most inmates have some notice of impending release, Wilson says, in order to prepare for life on the outside. Typically, prison officials work with inmates on a parole plan that includes programs designed to help them transition to a new life.

The three men were teenagers when they were arrested. In prison, they grew up in a hostile environment surrounded by violent offenders, says Reamer, who also serves on the Rhode Island Parole Board. Echols has lived in solitary confinement for ten years, and now he has to learn daily human interaction.

.While in prison, Echols married Lorri Davis, a long-time defender of the three men. One challenge will be learning how to maintain that relationship.

“Sudden liberation, while wonderful, can also be absolutely overwhelming,” Reamer says.

According to experts, recently released prisoners have three areas of concern. They must adapt to the practical side of an unstructured world – making life decisions for the first time and learning new skills like working a smart phone. Second, community support is a must. And third, they need psychological attention to understand their experience.

“In the end, it would be a deeply personal process, dealing with the pains of an 18-year imprisonment and a perception of betrayal by the criminal justice system,” says Dr. Michael Jenkins, a professor at the University of New Haven’s Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences in Connecticut.

After their release, Echols and Baldwin attended a lunch and later an evening party at a swanky Memphis, Tenn., hotel with supporters that included Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks.

While celebrity hoopla and international attention currently surrounds the West Memphis Three, reality will soon loom.

“My guess is that their heads are spinning,” Reamer says. “It will take a Herculean effort to cope with this traumatic set of challenges in everyday life.”
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/west-memphis-three-what-will-they-do-now-theyre-out-prison

but the state dragged its heels while these men were being denied their freedom.