[55] The justices also instructed the lower court to examine claims of misconduct by the jurors who sentenced Damien Echols to death and Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin to life in prison. [45] John Mark Byers had his teeth removed in 1997, after the first trial but before an imprint could be made. At the request of West Memphis authorities, the two were picked up and questioned by Oceanside police. "... Every crime, no matter what it is, gets blamed on Satanism.". [citation needed], Around 1:45 pm, juvenile Parole Officer Steve Jones spotted a boy's black shoe floating in a muddy creek that led to a major drainage canal in Robin Hood Hills. [9], On June 3, the police interrogated Jessie Misskelley, Jr. The first film gave rise to a movement devoted to reopening the investigation in hopes of exonerating, and ultimately freeing, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley. '", In 1999, a more mature Echols explained the comment. "[67] Byers has spoken to the media on behalf of the convicted, and has expressed his desire for justice for the families of both the victims and the three accused. The man was bleeding and had brushed against the restroom walls. Based on the true story of mother/son tag-team Sante Kimes and her offspring, Kenny, who crisscrossed the country and committed a string of crimes, among them robbery, fraud, arson, slavery, and murders that shocked the world. Replacing Burnett was Circuit Court Judge David Laser. But before you watch Mindhunter season 2 this weekend, take a look back at the true story of the 1979–1981 Atlanta Child Murders (and Wayne Williams, the man who is … The episode premiered May 5, 2011, with extensive background information included on the show's page at the Investigation Discovery site. Atlanta Child Murders. The third put forth the unusual theory that the killings were committed as a cult ritual. Nonetheless, they claimed he was not regarded as a direct suspect but a source of information. Miller dismissed a suit Hobbs filed over Maines' remarks and writings implying that he was involved in killing his stepson. At approximately 1:30 p.m., Steve Jones, a juvenile parole officer from Crittenden County, peered over the steep bank of a water-filled ditch in the woods near the Blue Beacon truck wash. In this first confession, Miskelley often agreed to details suggested by the police or attributed to prior statements which he did not make. On November 4, 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a lower judge to consider whether newly analyzed DNA evidence might exonerate the three. [9] The initial autopsy report describes the drug as Carbamazepine and the dosage at a sub-therapeutic level. For the former Australian rules footballer, see, three men convicted of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States, DNA testing and new physical evidence (2007). [70], Three films, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, and Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, have documented this case and are strongly critical of the verdict. Sign In; ... 72 Hours: True Crime (2003) Documentary, Crime. In 1994, a memorial was erected for the three murder victims. However, the Black Hood's terror was not over. A hearing on Echols' petition for a writ of habeas corpus was held in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. The bodies had been removed from the water and placed on the adjacent embankment, possibly disturbing physical evidence or otherwise contaminating the scene. They wouldn't be able to pull the same tricks. The prosecution called Dale W. Griffis, a graduate of the unaccredited Columbia Pacific University, as an expert in the occult to testify the murders were a Satanic ritual. [27], During Misskelley's trial, Richard Ofshe, an expert on false confessions and police coercion, and Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, testified that the brief recording of Misskelley's interrogation was a "classic example" of police coercion. Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was known for being one of the vilest pedophiles, serial child killers, and cannibals of all time. [16] Steve Edward Branch is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Steele, Missouri. When police speculated about the assailant, the juvenile probation officer assisting at the scene of the murders speculated that Echols was "capable" of committing the murders," stating: "it looks like Damien Echols finally killed someone. Covered in wounds, all three showed signs of having been beaten. Examiners reported that both men's charts indicated deception when they denied involvement in the murders. The record on appeal spells out a long history of Echols' mental health problems, including a May 5, 1992, Arkansas Department of Youth Services referral for possible mental illness, a year to the day before the murders. To assist in the appeals process, Echols' appellate legal team retained a Berkeley, California-based forensic psychiatrist, Dr. George Woods, to make their case. The judge then sentenced the three men to 18 years and 78 days, the amount of time they had served, and also levied a suspended sentence of 10 years. Officials failed to drain the creek in a timely manner and secure possible evidence in the water (the creek was sandbagged after the bodies were pulled from the water). The community's worst fears were confirmed. Under order of the Arkansas Supreme Court, there were to be new evidentiary hearings in the case. As the movement to free the West Memphis Three gained traction, a number of celebrities joined the cause, bringing the case under more scrutiny. Now, I see they can. In 2000, the biological father of Christopher Byers, Rick Murray, expressed his doubts about the guilty verdicts on the West Memphis Three website. On the evening of May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys disappeared from the streets of West Memphis, Ark. [51] At the time, legal experts agreed that this issue could result in the reversal of the convictions of Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols. [33] On March 19, 1994 Echols and Baldwin were found guilty on three counts of murder. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt, and riding a black and red bicycle. The first being that boys were killed by someone they knew. When the bodies proved to have been discovered near where Aaron indicated, Bray asked Aaron for further details, and Aaron claimed that he had witnessed the murders committed by Satanists who spoke Spanish. According to HBO's documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000), no blood was found at the crime scene, indicating that the location where the bodies were found was not necessarily the location where the murders actually happened. Initially, Misskelley repeatedly denied having knowledge of the crime, aside from rumors that Damien Echols was involved. According to his mother, Christopher was a typical eight-year-old. Searchers canvassed all of West Memphis but focused primarily on Robin Hood Hills, where the boys were reported last seen. [56], After weeks of negotiations, on August 19, 2011, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were released from prison as part of a plea deal, making the hearings ordered by the Arkansas Supreme Court unnecessary. U.S. executes Black man for double murder committed at 19 Christopher Vialva, 40, was the first Black inmate put to death at the federal prison in Indiana this year. The prosecution claimed that Echols' knowledge was nonetheless too close to the facts, since there was no public reporting of drowning or that one victim had been mutilated more than the others. Judge Laser then sentenced them to time served, a total of 18 years and 78 days, and they were each given a suspended imposition of sentence for 10 years. Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers were best friends. This ruling was in turn thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court as to all three defendants on November 4, 2010.[44]. All three were released from prison that same day. Stidham, who was later elected to a municipal judgeship, has written a detailed critique[citation needed] of what he asserts are major police errors and misconceptions during their investigation. Echols testified that Detective Ridge's description of their earlier conversation (which was not recorded) regarding those particular details was inaccurate (and indeed that some other claims by Ridge were "lies"). The film stars Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth. [14], Steve Edward Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were all second graders at Weaver Elementary School. No matches were found. In the years since the trial, John Mark Byers, adoptive father of Christopher Byers, and Pamela Hobbs, mother of Stevie Branch, became vocal supporters of the West Memphis Three. I kind of enjoy it because now even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. [92], On August 19, 2011, Echols, along with Baldwin and Misskelley, entered an Alford plea, while asserting their innocence. Unfortunately, for three teen outsiders, the West Memphis Police Department chose to focus on the cult angle to the detriment of their efforts to investigate the other two, more likely scenarios. Arnold was accused of advocating for the guilt of the West Memphis Three and sharing knowledge of inadmissible evidence, like the Jessie Misskelley statements, with other jurors. Among those active in the cause were singer Eddie Vedder of the band Pearl Jam, the country music trio The Dixie Chicks, punk rock icon and poet Henry Rollins, and actor Johnny Depp. ... West Memphis is pretty much like a second Salem," Echols stated in the 1996 documentary Paradise Lost: The Murders at Robin Hood Hills. Trace amounts of sperm DNA were found on a pair of pants recovered from the scene. Blood and urine samples from both men were collected and sent to the West Memphis Police Department. [31] His conviction was appealed, but the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. Bray asked her if she knew about rumored cult activity in the community. However, these potential bite marks were first noticed in photographs years after the trials and were not inspected by a board-certified medical examiner until four years after the murders. After a reported 12 hours of interrogation by police, Misskelley, who has an IQ of 72, confessed to the murders, and implicated Baldwin and Echols. In the Bible Belt, the Satanic Panic took hold with a vengeance. The polygraph examiner claimed that Echols' chart indicated deception. After his capture he admitted to molesting more than 400 children and torturing and killing several of them, though it wasn't known if his statement was true. Branch was eight years old, 4 ft. 2 tall, weighed 65 lbs, and had blond hair. None was found to match DNA from Echols, Baldwin, or Misskelley. It’s a case built on a shoddy confession and community bias, and includes allegations of Satanism, sexual abuse and mutilation. On August 19, 2011, Misskelley, along with Baldwin and Echols, entered an Alford plea. [10], After a month had passed with little progress in the case, police continued to focus their investigation upon Echols, interrogating him more frequently than any other person. In 2000, The album Free the West Memphis 3 was released by KOCH Records. Misskelley's coerced confession, as contradictory as it seemed to the evidence, was consistent in implicating Echols and Jason Baldwin. [30] The court sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison. Register. The first report to the police was made by Byers' adoptive father, John Mark Byers, around 7:00 pm. [20], California police sent blood and urine samples from Morgan and Holland to the WMPD, but there is no indication WMPD investigated Morgan or Holland as suspects following their arrest in California. [17], At the time of their arrests, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was 17 years old, Jason Baldwin was 16 years old, and Damien Echols was 18 years old. [9], On February 5, 1994, Misskelley was convicted by a jury of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. "WM3" redirects here. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the juveniles killed the children as part of a Satanic ritual. Also, law enforcement chose not to focus on the victims' families as the starting point of the investigation as is the norm. Judge David Laser then sentenced them to 18 years and 78 days, the amount of time they had served, and also levied a suspended sentence of 10 years. [57], Echols relocated to Salem, Massachusetts with his wife and has no intentions of returning to Arkansas. [76], In January 2010, the CBS television news journal 48 Hours aired "The Memphis 3", an in-depth coverage of the history of the case including interviews with Echols and supporters. Echols self-published the memoir, Almost Home: My Life Story Vol. [47] She further asserted that the police had implied that if she did not cooperate with them they would take away her child. According to Griffis, black hair, black T-shirts, and black jeans were signs that a kid was in league with the devil. In 2011, Echols would reflect that, should investigators attempt to proceed to trial with the same evidence compiled in 1993 and with the external scrutiny which had not then existed, he and his co defendants would not have been brought to trial, stating: "They knew that there would be more people watching this, more attention on this case. However, within the first crucial hours after the bodies were discovered, mistakes were made at the crime scene that negatively impacted the investigation. The court sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison. On September 17, 2011, 48 Hours re-aired the episode with the update of their release and interviews from Echols and his wife, and Baldwin. I'm not stupid." [82] Baldwin said in a 2011 interview with Piers Morgan that he worked for a construction company and he was learning how to drive. Watch free crime tv movies and TV shows online in HD on any device. [9][28] The defense team objected when the prosecution attempted to question Echols about his past violent behaviors, but the defense objections were overruled.[35]. [47] She also claims that an audiotape the police said was "unintelligible" (and that they eventually lost) was perfectly clear and contained no incriminating statements. Reaching its apex in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Satanic Panic was a wave of paranoia rooted in the belief that Satanic cults intent on corrupting the souls of the young had infiltrated American society. Little kids will be looking under their bed — 'Damien might be under there! Baldwin is the co-founder of the legal advocacy organization Proclaim Justice. [citation needed], While in prison, Echols wrote letters to Gloria Shettles, an investigator for his defense team. The most recent data available from the FBI (which is for 2015) indicates that 89.3 percent of black murder victims that year were killed by black perpetrators. [9], In October 2003, Vicki Hutcheson, who had played a part in the arrests of Misskelley, Echols, and Baldwin, gave an interview to the Arkansas Times in which she stated that every word she had given to the police was a fabrication. A police officer leaked portions of Aaron's statements to the press contributing to the growing belief that the murders were part of a Satanic rite. Further testing of the knife produced inconclusive results about the source of the blood. Two questions plagued the conservative, middle-class community: Why would anyone commit such a heinous act, and, more importantly, who? Wayne Bertram Williams was born on May 27, 1958, in Atlanta, Georgia. On the surface, 18-year-old Damien Echols, an intelligent, but psychologically troubled teen with interests in Wicca and extreme music, fit the profile. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley Jr. to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin to life imprisonment. She claimed she had implicated Echols and Misskelley to avoid facing criminal charges, and to obtain a reward for the discovery of the murderers. During Wednesday's episode of the hit CW drama, Hal confirms he is … As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Jackson and Walsh helped fund key investigations for the West Memphis Three's defense during the last seven years of their incarceration. To date, no DNA evidence from the crime scene can be linked to Damien Echols, Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley. [9] On May 9, during a formal interview by Detective Bryn Ridge, Echols mentioned that one of the victims had wounds to the genitals; law enforcement viewed this knowledge as incriminating. [9][26], On May 6, 1993 (before the victims were found later the same day), Hutcheson took a polygraph exam by Detective Don Bray at the Marion Police Department, to determine whether or not she had stolen money from her West Memphis employer. The deceased, Donnie Weatherby, a Black man, was killed in an earlier gang-related shooting, police said. [24] Portions of Misskelley's statements to the police were leaked to the press and reported on the front page of the Memphis Commercial Appeal before any of the trials began. [9] Byers later stated that he may have cut his thumb. The West Memphis Three are three men convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States. The prosecution accused the three young men of committing a Satanic murder. The knife was not received at the West Memphis Police Department until January 8, 1994. Baldwin and Echols were acquainted with Misskelley from school, but were not close friends with him. [9], Echols' family was poor and received frequent visits from social workers, and he rarely attended school. Lawyers representing the West Memphis Three reached the plea deal that allowed the men to be released from prison. [72] A biography of John Mark Byers by Greg Day named Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three was published in May 2012. Although Griffis' testimony was dramatic, it showed only a tenuous grasp of occult knowledge — much of it, including a reference to a cult called "Crytos," was simply made up. He stated in his report for Echols's legal team that there was no evidence the murders were linked to satanic rituals and that post-mortem animal predation could explain the alleged knife injuries. I wouldn't do something like that. He claimed that he "might have" killed the victims but quickly recanted this part of his statement. To bolster their assertions that the killings were related to occult activity — despite virtually no evidence – prosecutors brought in their own so-called expert on cult murders. [88] Hospital records for his treatment in Little Rock 11 months before the killings show a history of self-mutilation and assertions to hospital staff that he gained power by drinking blood, that he had inside him the spirit of a woman who had killed her husband, and that he was having hallucinations. [85] Until August 2011, he was incarcerated in the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC) Varner Unit Supermax. The following day revealed the unthinkable, when the bloodied and bruised bodies of the three boys were found submerged in a muddy creek in a wooded area called Robin Hood Hills. Michael Moore was the son of Todd and Dana Moore. The films marked the first time Metallica allowed their music to be used in a movie, which drew attention to the case. In the minds of many, the bizarre nature of the Robin Hood Hills murders could only have been committed by one of Satan's minions. Since his release, he has published a non-fiction book about both his childhood and incarceration, He and Lorri Davis, a NYC landscape architect who initiated a correspondence with Echols in 1999 and ultimately became his wife, co-authored, Echols provided the voice of Darryl, a fish man (i.e., a fish situated on a robot body), in episode 3 of the animated, This page was last edited on 6 April 2021, at 11:29. Investigators kept minimal notes and omitted pertinent details including criminal records. This is the true story of the West Memphis Three murders. [54] That ruling was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case on September 30, 2010. John Mark Byers, the adoptive father of victim Christopher Byers, gave a knife to cameraman Doug Cooper, who was working with documentary makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky while filming the first Paradise Lost feature. According to local West Memphis police officers, on the evening of May 5, 1993, at 8:42 pm, workers in the Bojangles' restaurant located about a mile from the crime scene in Robin Hood Hills reported seeing a black male who seemed "mentally disoriented" inside the restaurant's ladies' room. [6], Factors cited by prosecutor Scott Ellington for agreeing to the plea deal included that two of the victims' families had joined the cause of the defense, that the mother of a witness who testified about Echols's confession had questioned her daughter's truthfulness, and that the State Crime Lab employee who collected fiber evidence at the Echols and Baldwin homes after their arrests had died. She also stated that beyond the single meeting at her trailer, she had no further contact with Echols. In 2002, Henry Rollins worked with other vocalists from various rock, hip hop, punk and metal groups and members of Black Flag and the Rollins Band on the compilation album Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three. Other details that have come to light include that many wounds on the slain children, originally attributed to human bites and/or a serrated blade, were the result of animals feeding on the bodies. On September 10, 2008, Circuit Court Judge David Burnett denied the request for a retrial, citing the DNA tests as inconclusive. TheWarriorLevel.com Opa-Locka Documentary “Remnant Of Christ” He and a girlfriend had run off and later broken into a trailer during a rain storm; they were arrested, though only Echols was charged with burglary.[9]. Misskelley told Hutcheson that he really didn't know much about Echols other than that he was "a weird person." Stidham made similar comments during a radio show interview in May 2010. He lived with his mother, Sharon Melissa Byers, his adoptive father, John Mark Byers, and his stepbrother, Shawn Ryan Clark, aged 13. The West Memphis Three are three men convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States. Additionally, after the Murders my sister Jo Lynn McCauhey and I found in Terry's nightstand a knife that Stevie carried with him constantly and which I had believed was with him when he died. Despite the best efforts of the police, dozens of volunteers, a search-and-rescue team, and a helicopter dispatched from nearby Memphis, Tenn., searchers came up empty handed. "[49] Pamela Hobbs' May 5, 2009 declaration in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Western Division indicates that "one hair was consistent with the hair of [Terry's] friend, David Jacoby" (Point 16), and:[50]. Piers Morgan Tonight aired an episode on September 29, 2011, about the three's plans for the future and continued investigations on the case.
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