| Author |
Message |
bassguy252
Title: Professional Malcontent
Joined: May 26 2010
Location: Mount Dhoom!!!!!!!
Posts: 517
|
| Quote: |
WASHINGTON — Three U.S. men convicted as teenagers of kidnapping, torturing and mutilating three eight-year-old Cub Scouts in May 1993 were set free on Friday after serving nearly 20 years in jail.
The "West Memphis Three" — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley — were convicted in a 1994 trial marked by local hysteria over allegations that the grisly killings were part of a Satanic ritual.
The three boys — Steve Branch, Chris Byers, and Michael Moore — were found in a ditch, stripped naked and hog-tied. Byers had bled to death after his penis was cut off and the other two had drowned in the muddy water.
The three convicts have always maintained their innocence, however, and a 1996 documentary questioning the conviction led actors Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder to embrace their cause.
Investigators found no physical evidence to connect the three to the murders, and recent DNA testing — which did not exist at the time — found only inconclusive evidence pointing to two completely different individuals, leading the Arkansas state supreme court to set Friday's hearing.
Fearing a new trial following nearly two decades of knotted legal appeals, prosecutors agreed to a deal in which the three pleaded guilty in return for their being sentenced only to the 18 years they had already served.
"Today's proceeding allows the defendants the freedom of speech to say they are innocent, but the fact is, they just pled guilty," District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said.
"I strongly believe that the interests of justice have been served today . . . The legal tangle that has become known as the West Memphis Three case is finished."
The three teenagers insist they are innocent, and Baldwin said he was opposed to the plea deal but agreed to it to save Echols from death row.
"In the beginning, we told nothing but the truth that we were innocent and they sent us to prison for the rest of our lives for it," Baldwin told reporters.
"Then we had to come here, and the only thing the state would do for us was to say: 'Hey, we'll let you go, but only if you admit guilt.' That's not justice no matter how you look at it.
"They're not out there trying to find who really murdered those boys."
The original case was based on an apparent confession by Misskelley, then 17, in a tape-recorded interview with police, a statement he later recanted.
He then refused to repeat the confession even when he was offered a more lenient prison term than the life sentence he eventually received.
The confession led to the conviction of Echols, then 18 and the alleged ringleader, who was sentenced to death, and Baldwin, who received a life sentence.
Prosecutors sought to present the murders as part of cult ritual, pointing out — during the trial in the conservative southern town — that Baldwin wore black tee-shirts and listened to heavy-metal bands like Metallica.
The 1996 documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" presented the teenagers as having been unfairly singled out because they were nonconformists and raised questions about the trial.
One key prosecution witness later said she had fabricated her testimony under police pressure, and her son, a friend of the deceased boys who was eight at the time, has said police "messed with my words," according to the Arkansas Times, which has closely followed the case since 1993.
The DNA evidence, while inconclusive, linked a hair found at the scene of the crime to the stepfather of one of the victims and another hair to a friend of the stepfather, according to the Arkansas Times.
Family members of two of the victims have in recent years come out in support of the three, saying they were wrongfully convicted.
"They did not kill my son," John Mark Byers, the adoptive father of one of the boys, told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday.
"This is not right, and the people of Arkansas need to stand up and raise hell, because three innocent men are going to have to claim today they are guilty . . . and that's bullshit." |
A rather fitting end for this case, it ends just as ugly as it began
|
 Let's assume it's a mixture of the two!
 |
|
      |
|
|
JRA
Joined: Sep 17 2007
Location: The Opium Trail
Posts: 3475
|
About fucking time. This town should burn to the ground for this blasphemy.
|
There are a lot of what if's in life Donny. What if I hit you really hard in the face, knocked yo shit to the back of yo skull? What if I....had you girl gargle my nuts? The fact remains, you are a fuckin mutant. |
|
|
|
|
Fighter_McWarrior
Title: Gun of Brixton
Joined: Jun 05 2011
Location: Down by the River
Posts: 1087
|
Oh, now. It wasn't exactly the town's fault. THat said, the judge and jury, in a just world, should have to spend about 20 years in prison to make up for the time they took from these kids.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blackout
Title: Captain Oblivious
Joined: Sep 01 2007
Location: That Rainy State
Posts: 10376
|
Wasn't there a bunch of shifty stuff with the father of the deceased, like having all his teeth pulled right after the murder or something like that?
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Opponent
Title: Forum Battle WINNER
Joined: Feb 24 2010
Location: The Danger Zone
Posts: 3495
|
The one thing in the world I absolutely cannot stand is people being wrongly indicted. It's the biggest possible crime to me and they have my infinite sympathy.
|
I'm not a bad enough dude, but I am an edgy little shit. I'll do what I can. |
|
|
|
|
Shut up, Dorn
Title: White Chocolate
Joined: Jan 04 2008
Location: Grate Whyte Norf
Posts: 1179
|
Honestly, the truth of every legal proceeding, whether a civil case or a legal case is "innocent until proven guilty". I know he was probably cornered into confessing so many years ago, but unless the confession is given with pure sincerity and repeated over and over again, it shouldn't be the be all end all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fighter_McWarrior
Title: Gun of Brixton
Joined: Jun 05 2011
Location: Down by the River
Posts: 1087
|
| Blackout wrote: |
| Wasn't there a bunch of shifty stuff with the father of the deceased, like having all his teeth pulled right after the murder or something like that? |
The stepfather of one of the kids, yeah. His hair was found near the crime scene, along with the hair of one of his close friends. Also there was a blood sample taken from some gardening tool of his (a spade, I think) that matched one of the boys.
I don't know if he did it, but that combined with the total lack of hard evidence against he boys and the inconsistency of the confession should have been enough to prove reasonable doubt in any of the non-inscesty states.
|
|
|
|
|
|
anorexorcist
Title: Polar Bear
Joined: May 21 2008
Location: The Cock and Plucket
Posts: 2131
|
Wow, I can't believe it finally happened.
|
Lawyers, Guns and Money |
|
|
|
|
Douche McCallister
Moderator
Title: DOO-SHAY
Joined: Jan 26 2007
Location: Private Areas
Posts: 5672
|
The plea deal was so shitty. My one gripe with the justice system is that they get these three guys for murder but Casey Anthony walks free. Not only that but there is no compensation for the 18 years they have spent behind bars wrongfully. Life itself is priceless and to take 18 years from not only one person but 3 people, is just ridiculous. How do you bounce back from something like this and lead a fullfilling life.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Alowishus
Joined: Aug 04 2009
Posts: 2515
|
| JRA wrote: |
| About fucking time. This town should burn to the ground for this blasphemy. |
This!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alowishus
Joined: Aug 04 2009
Posts: 2515
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
