LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – An effort to free three young men convicted in the lurid 1993 slayings of three eight-year-old boys is gathering speed, with rock stars and other celebrities taking up their cause and about 150 supporters rallying Wednesday on the steps of the Arkansas capitol.
Supporters of the “West Memphis Three” say prosecutors and a small-town police force railroaded the young men because of their fascination with heavy metal music and the occult. And they say new DNA tests and other forensic evidence call their guilt into question.
At the Capitol, sympathizers including Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, unfurled a long banner of postcards asking for the men to be released.
“You want to do anything you can to right this wrong,” said Maines, whose earlier criticisms of President George W. Bush outraged many country music listeners. “I’m just amazed that these guys are still in prison and have turned into men in prison.”
For years, prosecutors have steadfastly maintained the defendants committed the crime. And the convictions have withstood numerous appeals, with the Arkansas Supreme Court saying in’96 that there was “substantial evidence” of guilt.
The grisly killings of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore shocked West Memphis, a blue-collar town of about 28,000 across the Mississippi River from bustling Memphis, Tenn.
Police found the battered bodies of the three Cub Scouts in a drainage ditch a day after they disappeared from their neighbourhood. Their hands were bound to their legs with shoelaces, and one boy was sexually mutilated, prosecutors say.
Three teenagers – Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley – were arrested a month later, largely on Misskelley’s confession. Misskelley told investigators how he watched Baldwin and Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys as he chased down another who was trying to escape.
The case – two trials, held in’94 – included testimony and prosecutors’ allegations that the defendants acted as part of a satanic cult, and that they used to eat the hind legs of dogs and participate in orgies.
A jury gave Misskelley life in prison plus 40 years. Baldwin got life without parole. Echols, then’, the oldest of the three, was sentenced to die. No execution date has been set.
A’96 HBO documentary, “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills,” galvanized many supporters, who say that it reinforced their belief that the defendants were falsely convicted because they listened to heavy metal music and dressed in black in a small Southern town with a strong Christian faith.
“They were listening to Metallica. They were listening to the music they liked,” said supporter Kody Bradshaw,’, of Gurdon. “I feel blessed to be an avid, open supporter in my town. We live smack in the middle of the Bible Belt.”
Since the film’s release, Echols’ art made from old magazines and prison-issued razors has sold at auction, the proceeds going toward a defence fund. Echols contributed lyrics to rock band Pearl Jam’s 2006 album. Henry Rollins, frontman for punk rock band Black Flag, issued a tribute album in 2002 to raise money for their defence. Comedian Margaret Cho highlighted the case several times on her blog, posting a picture of herself across from a bespectacled Echols, sitting behind prison glass.
“Damien is beautiful like a girl, with a pale, delicate complexion that is Dove Cleansing Bar-worthy,” Cho wrote after a 2004 visit. “He is an inspiring teacher and a remarkable thinker. His writing is a constant source of wonder, especially as he lives in this terrible captivity.” In all, the defence fund has received more than $1 million over the past decade from celebrities and Internet donors, money that has gone toward new DNA testing and a second federal appeal on Echols’ behalf, said supporter Capi Peck.
The new appeal, filed in October, includes the results of DNA tests conducted by a private laboratory in Virginia. The lab said much of the evidence failed to yield reportable results, but on the material that could be tested, no traces of the three defendants were found.
The filing also included claims by forensic experts that the bodies were not mutilated by the killers, but mauled by animals.
A federal judge ordered the state courts to examine the new claims first. The Arkansas attorney general has asked for more time to look over the material. However, a spokesman said the state stands behind the convictions.
Asked Tuesday if he would consider commuting or pardoning the three, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe said: “No, absolutely not.”
The Arkansas Supreme Court in’96 roundly rejected an appeal from Echols and Baldwin, who were tried jointly. It also upheld the judge’s decision to let the jury see evidence such as a funeral register Echols owned, as well as a journal that contained “morbid images and references to dead children.”
Defence lawyers claimed detectives coerced two taped statements out of the then-17-year-old Misskelley, who they say had the mental capacity of a child. Supporters of the three point to inconsistencies: how Misskelley offered the wrong times for the slayings and the wrong colours for the shoelaces that bound the second-graders.
But the Arkansas high court noted that Misskelley was advised of his rights three times during a four-hour interview with officers. The court also noted Misskelley’s “detailed knowledge of the injuries inflicted on the boys.”
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a’97 appeal from Echols. What is clear from the record is Echols’ macabre imagination.
“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,” he told the 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.”
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On the Net:
Supporters’ website:
http://www.wm3.org
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