West Memphis Three

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The West Memphis Three is the collective nickname of three then-teenagers -- Damien Echols (formerly Michael Wayne Hutchison), Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. -- who in 1994 were convicted of the gruesome murder of three eight-year-old boys -- Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch -- in West Memphis, Arkansas, on May 5, 1993.

The case has been controversial since its beginning, with some believing that the defendants were carrying out some Satanic ritual killing (guilty) and others that the defendants were themselves the victims of a modern "witch hunt" (innocent). The cable-television network HBO made two documentaries, starting with the police videotape of the bodies where they were found and including footage from the trials: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills in 1996 [UPC 7-07729-11708-7 (VHS); ISBN 0-7670-8590-6 (DVD)] and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations in 1999 [ISBN 0-7670-3773-1 (VHS); ISBN 0-7670-8590-6 (DVD)], both directed and produced by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.

Little Rock, Arkansas, investigative journalist Mara Leveritt wrote the definitive book on the subject so far, the 2002 Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three [ISBN 0-7434-1759-3 (hardback); ISBN 0-7434-1760-7 (paperback)]. Several heavy-metal musicians contributed to concerts and/or recordings to raise money for the three defendants, and Echols wrote a book: Almost Home: My Life Story Vol. 1 [ISBN 0-5953-5701-6]. In about 2001, New York DNA lawyer Barry C. Scheck, of The Innocence Project legal clinic at Benjamin Cardozo Law School in New York, joined the team of lawyers trying to get post-conviction relief for Echols, the only one of the three sentenced to death instead of to life in prison. In February 2007 an Arkansas lawyer representing Echols announced that he had received the results of DNA tests those lawyers had arranged (no DNA tests were performed before the trials, and no direct, physical evidence against the defendants was ever introduced) and would be submitting that "significant" evidence to the state's prosecutors shortly.

Other books

  • Blood of Innocents: The True Story of Multiple Murder in West Memphis, Arkansas by Guy Reel, Marc Perrusquia & Bartholemew Sullivan [ISBN 078601363X (2000 paperback); ISBN 0786018607 (2007 paperback)]
  • The Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis 3 [ISBN 1551521628 (2004 paperback)]

External links

Official webpage

Books

Movies

Commentary

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