West Memphis Police had never handled a murder of this magnitude. Their lack of experience caused lots of evidence to be tampored with, destroyed, or lost. The crime scene video shows countless unknown people milling about the crime scene. Police inspector Gary Gitchell can be seen smoking a cigarette. The officers who were present made very little effort to preserve the scene, or document it so that acurate notes could be made. Strangely enough though was a juvinile probation officer who speculated with an officer about who could commit such a heiness act.
The probation officer had been following the actions of a local teenager by the name of Damien Echols for years. He speculated with the officer that Damien was the only person "capable" of commiting such a crime. They then speculated that the three murders had been the workings of a satanic cult that Damien must have been the leader of. This probation officer had been harasing Damien for years. When a girl was murdered over a hundred miles away, Damien was questioned. When some comunications equipment had been reported missing from a passing train that did not even slow down in West Memphis, Damien was questioned. It seemed as if this juvinile officer was looking for a crime that he could pin on what he saw as a sinister teenager.
The next morning Damien was questioned again at his home. No evidence of a satanic cult or illegal activity could be found. That did nothing to stop the rumors, speculation, and theories from spreading throughtout the small truckstop town. Irresponsible police work, and the media had decided that Damien was guilty of the homocides long before the trial had begun.
A local woman stepped forward to assist police in getting evidence against Damien. She invited him into her home while wearing a hidden tape recorder. She got nothing unusual. Her motive could be to catch a true killer, or it could have been because she was in trouble for writing bad checks that the $30,000 reward might help with. She later convinced her five year old son to become an "eye witness". But his story was so far fetched and the drawings of Damien with red eyes were not enough for the police to make an arrest. She later convinced a handicapped boy with an IQ of 72 by the name of Jessie Misskelly to become the next "eye witness" in the case. Police questioned Jessie, and before the twelve hour session had been complete he had given police enough information to arrest Damien Echols, his best friend Jason Baldwin, and even himself. A very small portion of the "eye witness/confession" had been recorded. The portions that were recorded showed police "helping" Jessie with what happened. When Jessie said the murders took place in the morning, the police said it must have been evening because the boys were in school. He agreed. Was it because he was guilty or because the police had a baseball bat sitting in the corner that can be seen in the video? An expert on false witnesses and pulitzer prize winner Dr. Richard Ofshe reviewed the tape and declared it a fake and "classic example" of police coercion. His expertise was not listened in its entirety by the jury.
Portions of Jessie's statement was leaked to the press. The next day West Memphis newspaper "The Commercial Appeal" had a headline story covering it long before the trials began. Chief inspector Gary Gitchell later went on camera to say " Theres never been a moment that I ever doubted that we did not arrest the right individuals. Never in my mind. Theres never been a doubt". Gitchell believes that there is no room for doubt in his work and that his initial hunch was correct beyond question.
Angry locals waited outside the courthouse to throw rocks at the defendants and shout obscenities. Satanic human sacrifice was on the lips of everyone. They created rumors, lies, and incredible stories of the teenager Damien Echols. One such rumor was that Christopher Byers' testicles had been found in a jar of alcohol under Damien's bed. The predominitly christian people of West Memphis began experiencing "Satanic Panic"
When the trials began, Jessie Misskelly was tried seperately from Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin. His supposed "confession" had been brought up in the courtroom of Damien and Jason. It was inadmissible, but the jury still heard it. Three more witnesses stepped forward. Two girls aged twelve and fifteen and a juvinile delinquent aged 16. The two girls claimed that they overheard Damien bragging about the murders and that he had planned to murder again. Their initial story conflicted with facts because when this supposedly happened, Damien was already behind bars. The new and revised story was allowed in court as well as the delinquent's. No motive was ever found in the case other than satanic ritual (with no proof of satanism involved). No physical evidence was presented. Just heavy metal T-shirts, Steven King books, and lyrics to songs by Pink Floyd, Blue Oyster Cult, and Metallica. Surly if he could listen to such music and read bestselling books, then he must be guilty of triple homicide.
In March of 1994 Jessie Misskelly, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin were each convicted of three counts of first degree murder. Jessie and Jason were sentanced to life in prison without possibilty of parole. Damien was sentanced to Death. Judge David Burnette quoted that he was "Not suprised by the outcome".
Five years later the first board certifed pathologist and odontologist reviewed what little evidence was not destroyed by the West Memphis police department. Discoveries were made of human bite marks that were found on one of the victims. Damien, Jason and Jessie all submitted dental impresions. None matched. When Damien came up for his Rule 37 hearing before Judge David Burnette to prove ineffective counsel was held, forensic pathologist and odontologist testified. The judge denied the appeal and the experts testimony as he had never heard of forensic odontology.
Another suprising clue came in the form of a gift. During the recording of "Paradise Lost" a documenty about the West Memphis events, Christopher Byers' (one of the victims) stepfather gave filmakers a serated knife. The filmakers later found blood in the crevices of the knife. When they had it DNA tested, it matched the DNA of both Christopher Byers and his stepfather. On a side note Christopher's mother supposedy commited suicide by way of overdose.
There is an alarming ammount of facts and evidence that point to these three boys' innocence. Myself as well as many others believe in their innocence. I am not asking you to belive as I do, but look over the facts for yourself. And if you do happen to believe as I do, then please show your support. It might be you or a loved one who is wrongfully convicted next time. Please visit the Official website of the West MemphisThree to make contributions, and find out more events as they happen. Please come back here as we will be updating this site.
Thank you for your time.
Mike & Ali
