West Memphis 3

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

If you are like most people – the ex, my kids, my clients, and let the things I say go in one ear and out the other, you may not know that I have been very actively involved with the West Memphis 3 over the last few years. www.wm3.org

The Salt Lake Tribune posted a very good article today regarding the case. Henry Rollins is still doing his benefit tour to help fund the continuing investigation of the case. He is here in town tonight, which is the reason for this article. I was unable to attend but my daughter and her friends are there right now with my donation.

http://www.wm3.org/framesets/newsframe.html

Every other month, my daughter and I spend a day sending letters to the courts, congress, and the media. We also PayPal a few dollars to the WM3 fund. If you would like to know how you can help, please ask me or check out the website. It has very easy instructions on how to write the letters. There is also information on how to help fund the case.

There are still so many unanswered questions and conflicted evidence, that I feel that it is very important to complete the DNA testing that is already started. Damien just received his last stay of execution in order for the testing to come back. Last year he came very close to execution. This is what we have been waiting for, the evidence that will finally tell whether or Jessie, Damien, and Jason are indeed guilty. Knowing what I have learned, I am 99.9% certain they are innocent. I believe that Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the murdered little boys is the true killer.

Please, please, please, if you are familiar with the WM3 you already know what a travesty the entire case has been. If you are not familiar, please take time to check out the message board, watch the documentaries Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost Two – Revelations, or read the book Devil’s Knot. Hopefully you will become just as enraged as I became when I first read the case a few years ago.

If anything, at least get enough information to make your own opinion.

These boys (now young men) need all the support they can possibly receive. Don’t let an execution happen until each and every piece of evidence has been cleared.

2

I saw the HBO documentary about them (with the excellent Metallica soundtrack) about a year ago. My brother has added my name to a petition to reopen the investigation. FWIW, I grew up not an hour from West Memphis, and I know exactly how those towns can be. Close-mindedness to anything “different” prevails. My heart goes out to the M3, and my prayers go to the souls of the murdered boys.

I also agree that Mark Byers is guilty. He needs his very own padded cell. That scene at the cemetary when he addresses the “real killers” is chilling.

3

KC, they are currently casting a WM3 movie that looks like it will be interesting.

Did you see both documentaries? The second one shines even more light on that freak Mark Byers. The book Devil’s Knot gives even more detail than both documentaries. It is amazing how many convictions and suspicious circumstances outside of the murders that Byers has been involved in. One almost wonders if he has something hanging over the authorities in Arkansas.

4

A movie, huh? I wonder who they’ll cast as Byers.

As for the documentary, I seem to recall viewing both installments. I haven’t read the book, though. And from what I know about the authorities in Arkansas, your theory is wholly possible.

5

I don’t know if they have cast Byers yet, but they just announced Ricki Lake will play Damien’s mom (great resemblance!). I’m thinking Vincent Schiavelli would be perfect!

http://fff.fathom.org/pages/itsstormie/VincentSchiavelli.jpg

This page shows the cast so far:

http://www.wm3.org/framesets/newsframe.html

6

I’m so glad you posted this, Diane. I am also a strong supporter of the WM3 and have been ever since I first saw the documentaries a few years ago. I try to get the word out to people whenever I can.
As for Mr. Mark Byers-well, that little incident with his teeth cinched it for me. The defense team finds a bite mark on one of the boy’s faces and lo and behold, Mark Byers ENTIRE SET OF TEETH goes missing! And then he waffles back and forth on the reason why–first it was a side-effect of some medications and then he’d been “punched in the face”. His medical records showed that he’d had them all pulled. Gaah! How much more blatantly obvious could he get?

No matter how many times I read information about the WM3, I am always shocked and horrified that something like this has been allowed to happen in our country. It’s frightening to think that witch-hunts are still happening to this day and that a person can actually be tried and convicted of murder on the basis of the way he dresses and the music he listens to, with NO concrete evidence and using the forced “confession” of a frightened young boy with a very low IQ.

I highly recommend Devil’s Knot by Mara Leveritt also.

7
  • a 12 hour forced confession of a border line mentally retarded kid that didn’t get recorded until IIRC 8 hours later! A confession that included information that was clearly driven my the cops -

To paraphrase -

Jessie: “We got the boys in the morning”.

Cops: “In the morning or was it later?”

Jessie: “Ummm, later!?!?! Like around noon.”

Cops: “Later as in after schoooooooool?”

Jessie: “Ummmm, yeah.”

Not to mention the confessed “rope” that was really shoe laces or the way they were tied or the direction one kid ran. . . .

So many things in the confession they finally created, er uh, got, were just wrong.

Besides the pulled teeth, Byers gave the HBO producers a bloody knife that had the same blood type as his stepson. I think that the blood maybe part of the DNA testing, but I am not certain. The knife edge matched some of the wounds.

I also wonder if Byers may have murdered his wife. “Died of a broken heart” my ass. There are hints that the autopsy reports suggested suffication.

He gives me chills.

8

I also recall Byers slipping up during his lie detector test and mentioning his wife as having been murdered.

I was wondering if the knife was part of the DNA testing. During the trial, I think they had it narrowed down to one of the boy’s blood type but that was so generalized that it did no good. Byers changed his story on the knife a few times too (I never cut myself with it. " “Oh yeah, I might have cut myself while cutting up a deer.”). Wonder how Byers would talk himself out of that if DNA testing did prove the boy’s blood was on it?

And what about that “Satanic expert” who first pointed the finger at Damien? His basis for the accusation–Damien’s name and the fact that he wore all black.
Ugh.

9

The entire case infuriates me. Byers is too stupid to lie well but the cops continue to buy his story. I worry about this case even if they prove the blood on the knife belongs to one of the boys. Byers has been involved in numerous crimes and arrests but over and over again, he walks. Paperwork disappears. Charges drop. Felony charges (attempted murder of his first wife) wiped from his record years before the law allows him to file to have them removed.

Something isn’t right.

Another thing about the “Satanic expert” is that the “expert” part was due to a couple of online classes he took on the computer from his home. He was no more of an expert in Satanism than I am an expert in Olympic Curling.