# West Memphis 3 getting released? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2011, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293 "2011-08-19T07:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/101 "2011-08-21T05:09:23Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > It’s very likely they won’t be able to make any money. There are a lot of laws in most states prohibiting people convicted of crimes from profiting from them in any way. And since they took a plea bargain and are, as far as the state is concerned, still guilty, those laws would apply to them. Would it really? A book or a movie of what happened isn’t directly profiting of the murders I would think. Surely there has been convicted criminals that have published autobiographies before where they’ve written about the crimes that put them in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/102 "2011-08-21T05:18:34Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > OK, the state called them violent criminals, and they said they wouldn’t argue with that. > > hh They didn’t say they wouldn’t argue that. You have your facts wrong. They are arguing with that quote vociferously, in fact. The plea amounts to a very narrow statement about the reasonableness of the evidence, not factual guilt. Essentially, they were just asked to say that the state didn’t do anything wrong. The state knew it couldn’t win a new trial, so just wanted to inoculate itself against lawsuits. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/103 "2011-08-21T05:21:54Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > Would it really? A book or a movie of what happened isn’t directly profiting of the murders I would think. Surely there has been convicted criminals that have published autobiographies before where they’ve written about the crimes that put them in prison. There are ways around this. You can’t write a book about a crime you committed, but no reason your wife/sister/best friend can’t, and if they just happen to let you live in the house they purchased with their royalties. Or, if you’ll agree to be an unpaid consultant to this book about the crime we’ll pay you $250,000 advance for a book of poems about kittens (that we may never publish but the advance is yours to keep). Book advances have long been a way of bribing elected officials. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/104 "2011-08-21T07:12:28Z")
> [@](#): > > **Diogenes** : > Those kids were railroaded because they wore black T-shirts and listened to heavy metal in a town full of retarded hillbillies. \ > [@](#): > > **Diogenes** : It is absolutely as simple as a town of hillbillies deciding to lynch the metal head kids because they must be servants of Satan. The trial was a joke. That “cult expert” especially. \ > [@](#): > > **Diogenes** : I’m originally from Shreveport, LA, which is not very far from Arkansas. I know from retarded hillbillies. I’m related to some. Diogenes, you’re not just “related to some.” You are some. Those kids were railroaded for their cult image the same way that you stereotype “hillbillies” just because they live in the South and speak a different dialect and listen to country music. You are no different from the people who branded them out of ignorance. Just because you moved from Shreveport doesn’t mean that you are not of the South, Bubba. You are no different from the rest of us. Some are poor, some are not. Some are educated and others are better educated. Some speak with funny dialects and some don’t sound like Garrison Keillor. Get over the relatives you are ashamed of. Not everybody in Shreveport is as stupid as your kin. Not everyone in Minnesota is as well-educated as you are. Do you think that everyone in West Memphis is just like the people you saw interviewed in the films? Then why was there a Damien Echols? Stop being a major contributor to cultural bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/105 "2011-08-21T17:18:28Z")
I grew up in southwest Virginia in the Appalachians, those are hillbillies. Arkansans are all rednecks, even the ones who live in the hills, to me hillbilly is properly reserved for Appalachian mountain-dwelling rednecks not just rednecks who happen to live in the hills. If you look at [this map](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AppalachianLocatorMap2.png) any of the areas south of New York that are in the Appalachians you might have some hillbillies. While the mountains go up through New England I don’t really think you have any hillbilly culture up there, you definitely do have a historical Appalachian culture in all of those regions of the Southern states which are in the range. Pennsylvania also has some true hillbillies as well, anyone who has spent time in PA know that the mountainous area in between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia which constitutes a lot of the state’s land area is pretty legitimately hillbilly. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/106 "2011-08-21T17:23:01Z")
For a quick pop cultural framing, Mayberry is an Appalachian town in North Carolina. Those people are hillbillies, most of them are fairly modernized and don’t have the most obvious hillbilly cultural traits anymore (this is widely true in most towns in the Appalachians these days and even in the 60s, the traditional hillbilly culture has been very much almost totally erased. It was mainly based on deep isolation and the interstate system really finished it off, but you still see a few places and a few families that would still be considered true hillbillies), but some of the characters that appear in a few episodes of the show are traditional hillbillies. The Alabamans in _My Cousin Vinny_ are rednecks. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/107 "2011-08-21T20:52:34Z")
My mother’s family called themselves “Hill-Williams”. They lived in the hills of north-central Alabama but they had running water and (eventually) electricity and telephones and many were well educated. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/108 "2011-08-22T06:54:33Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > While the mountains go up through New England I don’t really think you have any hillbilly culture up there I invite you to read [The Beans of Egypt, Maine](http://www.amazon.com/Beans-Egypt-Maine-Carolyn-Chute/dp/0802143598/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313995973&sr=8-1) by Carolyn Chute to change your mind. There are definitely pockets of them here and there, especially in small isolated towns. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/109 "2011-08-22T08:02:31Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The state was going to kill Echols (or at least try to. At the very least, they would have kept in the living hell of death row until a jury let him out) unless he agreed to their bullshit plea. That is the definition of duress - and no, it isn’t the same as a normal guilty plea because normal guilty pleas don’t offer a swing between unfettered freedom and death row The state knew it couldn’t win a new trial, and also knew that a lawsuit would take them to the cleaners since no reasonable person could conclude there was any factual basis to even charge these kids. > > The state basically admitted they were innocent today. If they really thought these guys had murdered and mutilated three cub scouts, there is zero chance they would have offered a deal like this. > > The plea also allows them to maintain their innocence, which is very unusal, and is also proof that the state knows they’re innocent. I’m not sure but I have the impression that the deal was offered and all three of them had to agree or none of them would get the deal. So if I’m in jail, wrongly convicted, and my good friend, also wrongly convicted, is in jail but I’m in for life and he is on death row… Well that is saying “Sign here or your friend dies.” That is duress. Is it true that they all had to take the deal or none of them would get the deal? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/110 "2011-08-22T08:12:42Z")
I believe so, yes. They said at the press conference that Jason agreed to the plea to get Damien off death row, so I guess it must have been contingent on all of them taking the deal. ---
**Author:** ![neckred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5e9695/32.png) [@neckred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neckred)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293/111 "2011-08-22T20:55:33Z")
I was glad to hear of this news. I have followed/supported them since the beginning. I have always felt they were innocent. I hate what happen to those boys, but I think they had the wrong three from the beginning. I hope they find who really did this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-memphis-3-getting-released/593293.md?page=5)