I repeatedly found myself setting this book down, composing myself, and then ranting to my husband about how these teenagers were fucked from the get-go.
In 1993, three 8 year old boys were found naked, hog tied, and drowned in a drainage ditch. They were severely beaten, cut up, and one boy had even been castrated. The police quickly set their sights on Damien Echols, a teenager who they believed was involved in the occult and Satanism. It seems as though the police turned their investigation into a literal witch hunt for someone who could tie Damien to these crimes. They found just that when they interrogated Jesse Misskelley for more than 11 hours, but somehow only got 34 minutes of confession on tape. A confession that was obviously coerced by police. The entire thing is the investigators leading Jesse to information about the crime, ignoring his repeated mistakes, only to lead him back to the answer they were looking for. What the justice system fail to recognize was that Jesse was mentally handicapped, and therefore more susceptible to coerced confessions. Not to mention he was a minor who was interviewed with a guardian or lawyer present.
So all of the evidence the West Memphis Police had was Jesse's coerced confession. They only motive they could come up with was that these killings occurred on the night of a full moon and could possibly be a ritualistic killing. Enter Damien. When Damien took the stand at his own trial, many felt that it hurt his case even more. He admitted he has read books on witchcraft, but that he also studies a variety of religions. Being that he is an angsty teen, he was exploring who he was and where religion fit into his life. I felt that him taking the stand was beneficial to his case because he explained literally everything that was thrown at him.
I also think that Jason Baldwin's action speak volumes about this case. Throughout the trial, his lawyers presented him with deals that would have him out in forty years, if he would just testify against Damien. He turned it down. They came back with a counter offer, testify and he'd be out in 20 years. Again he turned it down saying, they could let him out today and he still wouldn't testify against something he knows his friend did not do.
There was virtually no evidence leading detectives to these three teenage boys. But there was a mass of evidence pointing to a more likely suspect, John Mark Byers. Byers was the stepfather to one of the murdered boys, Christopher. He already had an arrest record that included assault charges. He admitted on camera to previously hitting Christopher with a belt. He told reporters that he himself was raped and left for dead in a drainage ditch. His alibi did not match the rest of his families alibi's for the night the boys went missing. Oh, and the most obvious evidence against him....a hunting knife with blood on it that was a similar type of blood to his murdered stepson who had been castrated with a knife similar to the one he owned.
It took 18 years before Damien, Jesse, and Jason were released from prison. They had their entire young adult lives taken from them. These three teenagers were tried as adults for crimes they obviously did not commit. They were sent directly into adult maximum security prisons, where they were expected to live out these rest of their lives. Damien was literally 19 years old and sitting on death row.
I cannot believe that any jury could listen to the court proceedings, hear the lawyers say, "We will be showing you negative evidence," and still find a way to convict three teenage boys for the murders of three 8 year old boys. Growing up in the south, I know how small town politics work. I know that any mention of witchcraft or Satanism would immediately cast a black cloud over anyone who believed it.
I feel sorry for these teenagers, now grown men, who spent more than a third of their life behind bars.
I feel sorry for Michael, Christopher, and Stevie for their tortuous murders.
I feel sorry the true killer or killers have never been punished for these horrific crimes.
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