The West Memphis Three Free

Continuing my rage-based theme of posts this week... I watched Piers Morgan's interview with Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, recently freed from 18+ years in prison for the murders of three young boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, and the subject of two HBO documentaries (Paradise Lost and its sequel), which created a worldwide outrage over their trial and conviction and eventually, 18 years later, led to their release by authorities who forced them to admit guilt under an "Alford plea" so that they wouldn't sue the state for wrongful imprisonment.  I've been a huge supporter of the West Memphis Three since viewing Paradise Lost over a decade ago (it made my top 10 movies of the '90s on a list for this web site) but when I say "huge supporter" I mean I gave some donations and wrote about it on my blog once or twice and that's about it.  And after watching the interview, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that the great relief and joy I felt at the release -- finally -- of three clearly innocent people was overwhelmed by a feeling of despair and anger over what had really happened over the past 18 years, particularly to Damien Echols, a life of absolute horror and torture that no freedom will ever be able to alleviate. 

For those who live their lives focused only on the Jersey Shore or NFL fantasy seasons, the West Memphis Three were three teenagers who were convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in the small rural town of West Memphis, Arkansas.  It was a shocking murder -- the boys were bound and gagged, stripped naked and murdered -- and a pair of documentary filmmakers went down to the town to cover the trial of the three arrested for the murders.  What they found though was a shocking lack of evidence against the teens and a court case that focused primarily on the black clothing, heavy metal music, and reading material (Stephen King!) of Damien Echols, the "ringleader" according to the prosecutors and a town outcast because he was "different" (a "goth" before the term became popular).  The police and prosecutors deemed the killings part of a satanic ritual, which back in 1993 when this happened, I guess was a worry of rural citizens, and pinned the crime on the one person in town who they thought might be capable of that -- Damien.  They coerced a confession out of Jesse Misskelley, a distant acquantance of Damien and his friend Jason Baldwin, in multiple interrogations without an attorney, despite the fact that Misskelley was mentally retarded with an IQ of around 75 and, according to Piers Morgan, the acuity of a 5 to 8 year old.  This "confession" was so riddled with errors and with so many gaping holes in the "tape recording" (almost all of which was "lost") that it wasn't even admitted into trial, although the jurors all knew about it from media reports (I think, it's been a while since I watched the film) and it was the key piece of "evidence" that led to the arrest of Echols and Baldwin.  Other than the confession -- again, made by a mentally challenged individual, recanted, and not used in the trial -- there was no other evidence offered at trial against either Echols or Baldwin that linked them to the crime.  No physical evidence at all but not even any eyewitnesses or motive or really anything at all.  There was plenty of blood and DNA evidence, some of which in recent years points to one of the murdered boys' fathers, but none of it was linked to Echols or Baldwin and none of it was used in the trial (the teens were represented by inadequate court-appointed attorneys).  The trial instead focused on the albums that Echols listened to and the fact that he wore black and expressed an instance in "wicca".  This was enough to convict him and sentence him to death.  As bad as that was, the Baldwin case was even more shocking -- in the trial all the "evidence" of occult stuff was all based on stuff in Echols' possession.  Baldwin wasn't even associated with any of that stuff.  He was an innocent-looking 16 year old kid whose only crime was apparently his friendship with Echols.  And he spent the past 18 years in prison because of it.  So incredibly shocking and disturbing in so many ways.  But the prosecutors in this small town had to have a perpetrator and the disturbed citizens had to have some closure so if three innocent teens had to take the fall for the crime, so be it.  Even if one of them was sentenced to death.

After the release of the HBO documentary to critical acclaim, the case became a sort of cause celebre as celebrities and activists from Johnny Depp to Eddie Vedder to Natalie Maines took up the case and raised monies for their defense, which eventually -- after 18 years -- led to their release.  It happened back in August on the day before I left for my cruise to Bermuda and I meant to post about it then but I went on the cruise and then we got hit by a hurricane and I just kind of forgot a little.  Even as I was so happy that an injustice had finally been righted.  But when I saw them on Piers Morgan last week, I couldn't help but feel sad again.  At the injustice of it all.

Echols spent the entirety of the last decade in solitarity confinement which consisted of a cell with no windows, no bed (just a concrete slab), not even any bars, just four walls and a slot for food.  He had no interaction with any other prisoners or guards or any other humans besides 3 hours a week that he got to spend with a visitor (his wife Lorri Davis, who met and married him after watching the documentary).  He hadn't seen sunlight in a decade.  He hadn't seen the sunset in 18 years.  He was nearly blind because the confined space didn't allow him to see far away.  He had television, local channels only, but no computer or Internet -- he had never used the Internet his entire life (he was in prison in 1994 before it was widespread) and the only exercise he could do he had to do in his own cell.  His health deteriorated (obviously), he attempted suicide, and basically through the sheer strength of his character he managed to maintain his sanity.  But for fuck's sake.  Half of his life -- the entirety of his adult life -- had been stolen by the state.  By a state in the United States.  By us.  In our democracy.  I guess in theory there's a chance that he is actually guilty and somehow the complete lack of any evidence whatsoever doesn't discount the chance that the prosecutors were right.  I mean, it's true that somebody killed those boys and that's a horrific unthinkable crime.  But in the 99.9999% chance that Echols and Baldwin and Misskelley are as innocent as it appears, how in the fucking world does this sort of thing happen, here in America, here in a democratic society, in the so-called "free-est" nation in the world, how does the treatment of Echols in prison even remotely coincide with the notion that we are even close to a free nation?  His treatment is something you would expect in Iran or Soviet Russia or Serbia before their war.  Hell, the Americans captured hiking in Iran got out over a decade quicker than the West Memphis Three, with just about the same evidence of wrongdoing in both cases.  It's just stunning.  And I find no joy in the release of these boys -- they were boys when this happened, just like the murdered victims -- it took too long to find any solace in their freedom.  Not now.

I took a cab ride to the airport in Atlanta last week and the radio program the driver was listening to was discussing the Troy Davis case, a black man who had been executed in Georgia a week earlier despite a mounting volume of evidence that appeared to point to his innocence.  The cab driver - an older black man -- took the opportunity to enlighten me on his opposition to the death penalty, an opposition I have shared my entire life, and while he rambled on about the Bible and God and the First Amendment and slavery, not making a hell of a lot of sense (at least to someone in a hurry to get to the airport), what struck me was that this was a new revelation for him, one that came after much soul searching (and before the Troy Davis case came to light), and it gave me hope.  Whatever convuluted reasoning he had for changing his opinion -- in all fairness all he had to point out was the disproportionate number of black death row inmates vs. white ones -- I was slightly heartened that perhaps there is a changing of Americans' minds over an issue that has long appeared barbaric to me, one of the many issues in which our country lags far behind the rest of the civilized world and instead lines up with dictatorships of Middle Eastern Muslim nations in our methods.  Here in New Jersey, we abandoned the death penalthy some time ago and I don't think we have ever executed anyone even when it was legal (since 1972) so it's not a moral issue that's all that pressing in our state's everyday lives.  But still in America there are places (cough Texas cough) where killing citizens in the name of the state is not only still happening but is praised (ie. Rick Perry getting cheered by Tea Party members for signing off on the most executions in the nation as governor).  It's appalling enough that we kill murderers out of some misplaced Old Testament "eye for an eye" agenda but the fact that so many -- 150+ and counting -- death row inmates have been exonerated by DNA or other evidence in recent years means we're not only killing murderers but also innocent people like Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and railroaded by a justice system that is not quite as fair or free as we've all been led to believe. 

It's great that the West Memphis Three are finally free.  But it should have happened at least 15 years ago.  Or at the original trial.  And someone killed those three innocent boys and got away with it.  To this day.  That's the American criminal justice system, at least in Arkansas.  G0d bless the USA!

Comments

[Suq Madiq]

Should I start Manningham or Antonio Brown this week? The bye weeks are an American travesty!

[West Memphis Three Case Evidence]

You might want to read about the other side of the case from the prosecution's point of view. The movie only presents one side of the story. Many believe they were guilty.

see wm3 truth (dot) c o m

All of this is documented information from legal documents and the mainstream media.

Misskelley confessed three separate times, once with his lawyer present. Misskelley also told two other people about the crime before he was arrested. Baldwin told someone else he committed the crimes. Echols was seen in muddy clothes near the crime scene. He bragged about the murder to two other teenagers, stating he killed the three boys. Echols is reported to have either told or bragged about the crime to four people before he was arrested. Echols also had a history of psychiatric treatment. His reported actions included brutally killing a dog, starting fires at his school, threatening to kill his teachers and parents and stating he liked to drink blood.

Fibers on the murdered victims’ clothing were found to microscopically similar to things in the Baldwin and Echols homes. The serrated wound patterns on the three victims that were consistent with, and could have been caused by, a knife found in a lake behind appellant Baldwin’s parents’ residence.

Echols' stated under cross-examination that he was interested in the occult. A funeral register found in his room with hand-drawn pentagrams and upside-down crosses. Echols' journal contained morbid images and references to dead children.

[Kirbyjay]

Too bad that all of the non-supporters still stick to the original trial and all of it's gossip and innuendo as facts and totally disregard DNA evidence, forensic experts, coerced confessions and pressured witnesses. It's getting old folks and so is that dumb dog story. I wonder if anyone, the state of Arkansas included, can really be that stupid to still believe this crap after all of these years.
Do you really think the state would have set 3 child murderers free because they couldn't have convicted them again? They still had their "expert" witness Dale Griffis to tell everyone about Damien Echols likes to bathe in the blood of children.
Morons

[Bill]

I haven't just seen the movie, I read Mara Leaveritt's well-researched book and have seen all the "evidence" that the other side has presented. I agree with Kirbyjay that there is little doubt they were innocent and there is no reason they should have been convicted in the first place. There has been no DNA evidence to link the 3 boys to the crime scene, that's why they were set free -- they would have won at a new trial.

[Psychological profile of Damien Echols]

There were no "coerced confessions." This is a myth.

see Jessie Misskelley’s 6/3/93 confession: myths and facts
w m 3 t r u t h . c o m / j e s s i e - m i s s k e l l e y s - c o n f e s s i o n - m y t h s - a n d - f a c t s

He confessed to the crimes THREE times. The third time in front of his own lawyer.

The reality is that Echols was very violent, had occult believes and suffered from a severe mental illness. There is no evidence to disprove any of this.

Psychological profile of Damien Echols
w m 3 t r u th . c o m / p s y c h o l o g i c a l- p r o f i l e - o f - d a m i e n - e c h o l s/

"Damien Echols in 1992-93 was extremely disturbed and violent. He was institutionalized three times in the year before the murders. He made a suicide pact with his girlfriend. He threatened to kill the girlfriend’s father. He threatened his father with a knife. He threatened to kill his mother by slicing her throat. He threatened to eat his father. He threatened suicide regularly, by hanging himself or drinking bleach. He tried to gouge his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend’s eyes out with fingernails he kept sharpened to talons. He set fires at school and burned himself. He cut himself with knives. He tortured and killed cats and dogs. He drank other people’s blood and told a psychiatrist that drinking blood gave him power, made him “feel like a god”. He talked about getting his girlfriend pregnant, then using the baby as a human sacrifice. He claimed to be possessed by a spirit and to converse with demons." details from court records - exhibit 500

Statement about Damien Echols stomping and killing a dog
c a l l a h a n . 8 k . c o m / w m 3 /j o e h b . h t m l

Dale Griffis was a highly respected police officer with several degrees and knowledge in the field.

The lack of DNA evidence proves little. The bodies were found under water after 18 hours. If they would have won at trial, why didn't they wait for a trial two months later?

Supporters ignore the evidence contrary to their opinions.
Don't believe one sided books, movies and supporters' pages. There are two sides to this case. They were found guilty by a unanimous jury the first time and plead guilty before a trial the second time.

Reader should make sure they read about both sides of the case before making any decisions.

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