There was a comma stuck in the link somehow. It worked fine for me when I got rid of it.
The latest I could find for activity on the wm3 site was the attorney’s requests for fees, or something of the sort.
Bricker (or any other legal Dopers), does this convey any information to you? Are they trying to pay for the DNA testing or anything?
Or is the case now - over?
Regards,
Shodan
I hate to do this, but I am just tipping out the door and I am not sure how much time I will be online this weekend. If I get a chance this weekend, I will post more information regarding his appeals.
In a nutshell, they are just going through the motions in Arkansas with their hopes of a new trial focused on the federal level. There is quite a bit of information on this page http://wm3.org/framesets/newsframe.html
The message board is usually kept pretty up to date with current development and information. (look under “Contact Us” then click the EZ message board).
What about the DNA testing? And the money raised to perform it?
Regards,
Shodan
After a whole lot of googling, the best I can tell is that the WM3 is still trying to get the state to release the evidence for testing. The latest news I can find is from about six months ago, at which time the state had not yet released the evidence, nor had a date or place for the testing been agreed upon. I can’t find anything after that. I’m guessing that the state is still trying to prevent the testing from being done.
I still can’t believe that anyone with an IQ over 4 would actually think there isn’t enough reasonable evidence in this case big enough to drive a truck through.
Why do you care about the money?
Sheesh, Dio take a chill pill, already. There could be any number of legitimate reasons for wanting an answer to the question. Reading between the lines of your post (and I will freely admit that I am doing so), I have the feeling that you’re only asking that because the person who posed the question happens to be someone whose socially reactionary opinions tend to push your buttons.
It’s possible to be Shodan and be interested in avoiding a miscarriage of justice, both at the same time, you know.
If you have read something in this thread that suggests Shodan is not sincerely concerned with avoiding the execution of an innocent man in this case, please direct me to it, and I’ll reconsider and apologize to you.
Because, the last I heard, they were trying to raise money to do DNA testing. And the latest “news” on the website is the attorneys requesting their fees, or something like that. So some money must have been spent.
And Diane said in January that information she had received “a few weeks ago” said that the DNA testing was very close to completed.
So maybe the testing is done, and that is what the fee request is for. Which is interesting, because the advocacy website is still appealing for fees for (according to Diane’s latest) not DNA testing, but a new trial.
So maybe the DNA testing needs more money. Or the money raised didn’t get spent on DNA testing. Which might be considered dishonest.
Or maybe the DNA testing got done, but the results aren’t what those claiming their innocence were expecting.
Although you are correct that I am more interested in the results of the DNA testing, if any, than where the money is going. Although if it turns out that the money raised for DNA testing didn’t get spent on what they claimed it would be, that says something more about the credibility of those running a website swearing up and down that this is a case of an innocent guy being railroaded.
So it is desperate appeals for money to do DNA testing. Then, suddenly, just about the time frame when Diane says they should be completed, the subject gets dropped, or at least not followed up on, and now it is a new trial they want. I imagine if the DNA tests showed innocence, it would be publicized very heavily indeed. Almost the same (as I mentioned long before) if the results were inconclusive.
But that doesn’t seem to be happening. And yet they are spending money on (apparently) something other than DNA testing.
Interesting, to say the least.
Regards,
Shodan
Since you didn’t donate any money it’s really none of your fucking business what happened to it. If you have some evidence that the money is being raised or used dishonestly then post it. Otherwise keep your slimy insinuations to yourself.
These kids have had enough groundless accusations thrown at them.
So if money is being stolen or misused, it is nobody’s business except those who have donated?
You have an interesting, if excessively flexible, approach to morality. By that same logic, since you are not currently on Death Row, it is none of your business if the DNA testing shows innocence or not.
This is fun, but besides the point. What DNA testing has been done, and what were the results? And what does the attorneys’ request for money as documented on the website mean?
The last question was addressed to lawyers and rational persons, so Diogenes, there is no reason for you to respond.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m glad you realize there’s a difference.
This is a thread that I had no idea existed until today, which is a pity because I’m a passionate believer in the need for a new trial for the WM3. I currently donate as much money as I can afford to the Defense Fund and have tried to raise awareness, but the latter is so difficult (I’ll have to tell the story about why this book was turned down for freshmen reading at the college where I work at some point). People hear about the trial and have a jaundiced “damned shame… you catch American Idol last night?” The case and the apathy both make me want to vomit.
I am not a radical liberal: I have no problem supporting the death penalty in cases such as Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy, etc., in which guilt has been established beyond reasonable doubt. (Today I think that DNA evidence [or other little-room-for-doubt technological evidence] should be a criterion for death penalty trials as well.) In fact, if I didn’t already have reason to dislike Clinton, this would have given me one (he saw the video, admitted that the boys were probably innocent, but said as president and former governor of Arkansas he really couldn’t do anything so why bother mentioning it?) Furthermore, I have actually crossed swords (to mixed outcomes) in other threads with several of the other WM3 supporters in other threads, but unlike those other threads here I am glad that they’re formidable debaters. 
A hundred or so of the reasons why have already been posted here, particularly in Nighttime’s excellent rebuttals and deconstructions of the “physical evidence”. A few things I’ll add:
The defense budget for investigation of all types was $1,000. Some of the defense attorneys were appointed by the court and received $20 per hour, yet even at that it took them forever to get paid.
Robin Wadley, Jason’s attorney, was later disbarred.
At the time of the trial, Dale Griffis was the author of one (1) published book:
A law enforcement primer on cults :
with a guide to the prevention of deceptive recruitment into cults
It was published by… Dale Griffis. Vanity press. It would be as easier to accept Andrew McDonald (author of ‘The Turner Diaries’) as an expert on world Jewry- at least his book was accepted by a publisher (and is owned in hundreds of libraries as opposed to the one [Case Reserve University*] that owns a copy of Griffis’)
(Has everybody heard the details of Melissa Byers’ death? Now that’s one fucked up story.)
Much more later, but I need to run.
*Almost certainly donated by Griffis himself or a numbskulled believer in him. As a collection development librarian I receive copies of self-published crackpot manifestos on at least a monthly basis. Some I keep for the benefit of professors and students who may one day need to do research on the subject of self-published crackpot manifestos; most I send on down the line to be rejected by other universities and eventually retire to a landfill.
FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE!
I apologize for the… interesting… grammer and spelling in the posting above. It was written under fire and posted before being proofread.
For those interested in the death of Melissa (Mrs. John Mark) Byers, here is an article.
So what would you do if your mother was lying naked and dead in the next room and you knew the paramedics and police were on their way? Well, if you were Ryan Clark (Melissa’s son), you’d be lying naked with your girlfriend in the living room. (Check out some of Byers’ post-trial adventures as well, including the forced knife fight [which I believe was mentioned in PL2], burglary and death threats against neighbors.)