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If their names sound familiar, you may have seen the documentary called, “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills."
I remember one of my friends thought they were innocent. I never really paid much attention to the documentary or the books myself, but I find this all to be interesting.
I was wondering if anybody else here paid attention to the trial and had any opinion on this. Other opinions are welcome too. I found the following article is to be very interesting.
Apparently Eddie Vedder and some of the Dixie Chicks were there to support the release of these three men as well.
snip
I don't know much about the Wiccan religion, but I know it's not the same as satanism. Reading the article on, it says they were convicted mainly on witness testimony that they were heard around town bragging about the murders, which is pretty weak evidence. In fact, they had no real evidence linking them to the murders and for some reason Damien was given the death penalty.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/us/20arkansas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thoughts???
Opinions???
I remember one of my friends thought they were innocent. I never really paid much attention to the documentary or the books myself, but I find this all to be interesting.
I was wondering if anybody else here paid attention to the trial and had any opinion on this. Other opinions are welcome too. I found the following article is to be very interesting.
Apparently Eddie Vedder and some of the Dixie Chicks were there to support the release of these three men as well.
After nearly two decades in prison for the murder of three young boys, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., commonly known as the West Memphis Three, stood up in a courtroom here on Friday, proclaimed their innocence and, minutes later, walked out as free men.
The freeing of Mr. Echols, 36, was the highest-profile release of a death row inmate in recent memory. Mr. Baldwin, 34, and Mr. Misskelley, 36, had been serving life sentences.
snip
The grotesque nature of the murders, coming in the midst of a nationwide panic about satanic cult activity, led investigators from the West Memphis Police Department to focus on Mr. Echols, a troubled yet gifted teenager who wore all black and considered himself a Wiccan. Efforts to learn more about him through a woman cooperating with the police led to Mr. Misskelley, an acquaintance of Mr. Echols’s who has an I.Q. in the low 70s.
After a nearly 12-hour police interrogation, Mr. Misskelley confessed to the murders and implicated Mr. Echols and Mr. Baldwin, though his confession diverged in significant details, like the time of the murders, with the facts known by the police.
Mr. Misskelley later recanted, but on the strength of that confession he was convicted in February 1994.
I don't know much about the Wiccan religion, but I know it's not the same as satanism. Reading the article on, it says they were convicted mainly on witness testimony that they were heard around town bragging about the murders, which is pretty weak evidence. In fact, they had no real evidence linking them to the murders and for some reason Damien was given the death penalty.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/us/20arkansas.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thoughts???
Opinions???