# The West Memphis Three
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [January 31, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880 "2013-01-31T04:38:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/1 "2013-01-31T04:38:41Z")
I’d like the opinions of the people here at SDMB because I’m sure that I will get an honest and diverse group of opinions; I don’t want a bunch of hysterical rambling that “THEM BOYS WAS SATANISTS!” nor do I want “THEY WERE RAILROADED BY A BUNCH OF IGNORANT RELIGIOUS FANATIC REDNECKS!” Is there any hard evidence suggesting that they were guilty? Is there any hard evidence to completely exonerate them? The movies were interesting, but I can’t help feel that the producers wanted to promote a specific outcome. Your thoughts?😕
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### Author:  [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/2 "2013-01-31T05:08:48Z")
No offense but the West Memphis Three isn’t exactly a household name…
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/3 "2013-01-31T05:17:25Z")
[This site](http://blinkoncrime.com/category/west-memphis-three/) has compiled a lot of the information that was gathered. Chances are it won’t change anyone’s opinion one way or the other, though.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/4 "2013-01-31T05:18:46Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#):
>
> No offense but the West Memphis Three isn’t exactly a household name…
Weren’t they a band from the Early '60s Folk-Music Scare?
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/5 "2013-01-31T05:22:54Z")
[West Memphis Three.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three)
> [@](#):
>
> The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. **During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the children were killed as part of a satanic ritual.** [1][2][3] A number of documentaries have been based on the case, and celebrities and musicians have held fund raisers in the belief that they are innocent.
>
> In July 2007, new forensic evidence was presented in the case and a status report jointly issued by the State and the Defense team stated, “Although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants.” On October 29, 2007, the defense filed a Second Amended Writ of Habeas Corpus, outlining the new evidence.[4]
>
> Following a successful decision in 2010 by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding newly produced DNA evidence,[5] the West Memphis Three reached a deal with prosecutors. On August 19, 2011, they entered Alford pleas, which allow them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Judge David Laser accepted the pleas and sentenced the three to time served. They were released with ten-year suspended sentences, having served 18 years and 78 days in prison.[6]
Now, I hope we all can agree here that [Satanic ritual abuse,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=680096) let alone murder, is pure-crazy UL. Doesn’t mean these guys were innocent – but it casts doubt the way the evidence of the cops framing OJ cast doubt on **his** guilt, and properly should have.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/6 "2013-01-31T05:28:06Z")
Several opinions have been expressed on this board, previously. None of them appear to be ones that the OP has rejected:
[West Memphis Three: Miscarriage of Justice or Liberal Cause Celebre du Jour?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=112842)
[I’m doing a internet radio show about the West Memphis Three - questions needed](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=140373)
[West Memphis Three Witness Recants Testimony](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=281868)
[West Memphis Three news](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=584458)
[West Memphis 3 getting released?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=620970)
[Why were the suspects in the satanic abuse cases convicted?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=656229)
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/7 "2013-01-31T05:29:48Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#):
>
> No offense but the West Memphis Three isn’t exactly a household name…
On the other hand, a fairly simple Google search, (or even an SDMB search), could have prevented you from looking snide.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/8 "2013-01-31T06:31:40Z")
[Good summary of the case from RationalWiki:](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Satanic_Panic#West_Memphis_3)
> [@](#):
>
> **West Memphis 3**
>
> At about 6 p.m. on 5 May 1993, three young boys who lived in West Memphis, Arkansas, disappeared from their neighborhood. Their bodies were found the following day in a nearby drainage ditch. The population of West Memphis includes a rather large contingent of Southern Baptists who have been preached to for years that a many Satanic covens are hidden in plain sight within decent society. A neighborhood teenager named Jessie Misskelley – who has the mental abilities of a ten-year-old – confessed to the crimes. He then implicated two other neighborhood teenagers, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, claiming that the murders were part of a Satanic rite. Misskelley and Baldwin were sentenced to life without parole. Echols received the death penalty. Later, evidence showed no traces of DNA from Misskelley, Echols or Baldwin. However, DNA evidence from the stepfather of one of the victims was found on the ligature that strangled that boy. For 18 years, the appeals of the West Memphis 3 remained unsuccessful.[13] They were finally released on 19 August 2011 after entering a brokered “Alford plea” deal that allowed them to plead guilty and go free while declaring their innocence of the crimes.[14]
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/9 "2013-01-31T07:25:00Z")
I was barely out of high school when I first heard of the WM3 (though I don’t know if anyone was calling them that back then). I just assumed they were guilty even though I knew nothing about the case. Hey, they were convicted and how many convicts swear they were innocent? I didn’t learn anything about the case until 2007 and I honestly couldn’t understand how the jury convicted those three young men based on the case the prosecution made.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/10 "2013-01-31T08:05:53Z")
Railroaded by trailer park rednecks!! 😃
Seriously, there was NO hard evidence whatsoever with the WM3. They wore Ozzy tees and had a book about Wiccan. Any hard evidence pointed mainly to the stepdad of one of the victims.
Watch Paradise Lost PST 1 & 2. Even the parents of the victims thought they weren’t guilty after some time.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/11 "2013-01-31T08:24:34Z")
Also read “The Devil’s Knot”. This follows the investigation from the start up to sentencing. This is a tiny town with, like, 6 cops. They’ve never seen something like this. It was bumbled from the start, getting bogus accounts from a nutty hairdresser and a son who had over eight different stories, a black man in a sports car bogus story, victims bodies not refrigerated at morgue, etc.
Most disturbing was Jamie Misskelly, a kid with an IQ of 72, who was interrogated for 12 hours, no lawyer or guardian present, with only 46 minutes of interrogation taped. WTF??? The confession notes show Jamie being led by cops through a story he could never remember. They fed him names of acquaintances, led him through times of day (“It was after school.” “Don’t you mean at night? No, not a gun, Jamie, a knife, right??”) Corrupt “experts” who never went to college, corrupt judges, etc.
Unbelievably stupid.
This case would’ve been tossed out in any major city at the time for lack of evidence. I think small towns like this, if anything this awful happens again, the state should send the proper forensics team and a prosecutor to see over the investigation.
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2013, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/12 "2013-01-31T08:42:46Z")
[Here’s a great section](http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/famous/memphis/question_8.html) of the trials and the roundup of unreliable witnesses and testimony that judge Burnett allowed at trial. Also evidence that was inadmissible for the defense.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2013, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/13 "2013-02-04T08:19:40Z")
So many of the people in West Memphis seemed to think that Damien’s Gothic sppearance and lack of a recent haircut was evidence enough. And then Misskelley “confessed” and it just became an open and shut case.
They just didn’t do it and it is a shame that they had to accept the plea that they did to get their freedom. I understand why they took the plea, but that wasn’t justice.
After they left prison they were treated to dinner at a restaurant. They were just blown away by cell phones and how everyone seemed to have them.
I think they have been called The West Memphis Three for a very long time. It would have been so easy to bring in experts from the other end of the bridge in Memphis. But since it was a different state, maybe they couldn’t do that. I don’t know.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-west-memphis-three/648880/14 "2013-02-04T08:41:15Z")
> [@Zoe](#):
>
> I think they have been called The West Memphis Three for a very long time. It would have been so easy to bring in experts from the other end of the bridge in Memphis. But since it was a different state, maybe they couldn’t do that. I don’t know.
I don’t think the people of Memphis or Tennessee have any desire to spend money from their budget on a case in Arkansas anyway. Most police departments in Arkansas probably would have enlisted the aid of the Arkansas State Police for a crime of this nature. However the WMPD was under investigation for the theft of some drugs from a joint Crittenden County task force and some people believe this led them to refuse any aid from the state police. Yes, the Arkansas State Police asked the WMPD if they wanted any aid and were refused.
I still find it nearly unbelievable that three young men were convicted on the basis of the evidence presented by the prosecution. But I’m equally baffled by the lack of professionalism of the WMPD and what the judge in the case allowed into evidence.