Five years after the West Memphis Three were released from prison on an Alford plea, the funding to test evidence that may prove their innocence is gone, but Blake Hendrix, former attorney for Jason Baldwin, says testing has already shown that it was not possible for the three to be at the crime scene as described by Jessie Misskelley.
Damien Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin -- often referred to as the West Memphis Three -- were released from prison under the seldom-used plea agreement in 2011, after spending 18 years in prison for killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis in 1993. The plea allowed the men to maintain their innocence while admitting that there was enough evidence to convict them.
Hendrix presented his legal team's findings, done in collaboration with numerous nationally known forensic pathologists and other scientists, at the Arkansas Bar Association's annual meeting Friday at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
The findings suggest that the markings on the victims were not caused by a serrated blade that was found submerged in a lake behind Lakeshore Trailer Park, where Baldwin lived, and fibers also found on the bodies did not match those that were found on Baldwin's and Echols' clothing at their residences. Rather, it suggests that, during the Alford plea, the men falsely admitted guilt to a crime that evidence places someone else, whose identity they are still unsure of, at the crime scene.
"Why does this case still generate interest? This is my explanation and thought, the West Memphis Three kind of goes to the direct heart and soul of our criminal justice system. It is a system of criminal justice that some believe is the best system of justice on the planet," Hendrix said.
"A system that is based on some fundamental ideals unique to us; the presumption of innocence, proof beyond reasonable doubt. The founders believed that there was a system that they believed would result in their absolute confidence that only the guilty in our system would be convicted guilty. This West Memphis Three case challenges those ideals.
"The case resulted in an Alford plea deal in 2011 and it was a plea deal that was ambiguous to some of us involved in the case. It was a catastrophe. We felt like we got our legs cut out from under us."
Looking at the validity of more than 300 DNA exoneration cases across the country, including the West Memphis Three case, it has been determined three-quarters of the eyewitness accounts were false, that in nearly one in three cases the defendant falsely pleaded guilty, and about 50 percent of the cases used unsound scientific methodology or exaggerated pronouncements by forensic scientists regarding the manner of death and matches of evidence.
"All three of those errors appeared in the West Memphis Three case," Hendrix said.
Due to the condition of the bodies, which in the early years of the case scientists suggested that the boys had been forced to perform in certain sexual activities and then mutilated by a serrated blade, some believed the murder happened as a satanic ritual. Echols became a target, but Misskelley was seen as a known associate. Misskelley was interrogated for 12 hours with only 46 minutes being recorded.
"On the tape, he said he, Baldwin and Echols encountered the boys at Robin Hood Woods. Misskelley told them that Echols and Baldwin had severely beaten the kids. He told them that two of the boys had been raped and were forced to perform oral sex on Echols and Baldwin," Hendrix said. "Young Michael Moore had tried to run, but Misskelley tracked him down and brought him back to Echols and Baldwin. They then stripped the kids of their clothes and hogtied them with rope. He then left the scene."
Echols was given the death penalty, Baldwin was given life without parole and Misskelley got life in prison. During their 18-year incarceration, funding from various celebrities, including Metallica and Pearl Jam, allowed a team of lawyers to collect the evidence and seek advice from multiple pathologists. Drs. Janice Ophoven, Werner Spitz, Michael Baden, Vincent Di Maio were among several forensic pathologists who confirmed on the bodies there was no sign of rape or sexual assault and the puncture and scraping wounds were done by animals after the children were deceased. Drs. Michael Tabor, Richard Souvion and Robert Wood, odontologists who study wildlife, confirmed the fibers that were found on the bodies were not from Baldwin or Echols, but rather from animals in the area.
"The significance of the pathological findings were these: no DNA connected Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley at the crime scene; foreign DNA of the presence of someone else at the crime scene was confirmed; we know from the best pathologists in the country that those injuries were not caused by a serrated knife; there was no evidence of rape; the injuries were the result of post-mortem animal predation; Misskelley's confession is simply impossible, it did not happen the way Misskelley said; and the entire state's theory of satanic ritual, satanic killing is simply wrong," Hendrix said.
Local on 06/20/2016