It's been 18 years and three men are freed from prison after convictions in a gruesome crime that put them behind bars for one-fifth their lives. To see freedom, they've got to enter a guilty plea while maintaining innocence, in the strangest legal scenario possible. There's lack of evidence "The West Memphis 3," Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr, committed Satanic ritual murders of three Cub Scouts.
During late hours, three Cub Scouts were killed in murders so gruesome that only Satanic rituals could fit the bill for police. Police may never know whether it was Satanic ritual that ended the lives of three young boys. They couldn't even figure out if they had the wrong men for the crime. Many believe they do -- including two of the victims' families whom have sided with Defense and want the men freed.
There's great doubt about evidence against Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr -- men whom have now spent at least one-fifth their lives behind prison bars. The lack of evidence proved so severe that prosecutors were already being threatened with the idea of putting on a second trial in 2012.
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Rather than a new trial slated for next year, the" West Memphis Three" were allowed to enter a guilty plea to murder -- in exchange for time served -- and ending a lengthy legal battle that's raised serious questions about DNA and key witnesses. The case has been so controversial that it's even attracted support from celebrities including Eddie Vedder and Johnny Depp.
The three men have entered the guilty pleas under a legal provision which allows them to maintain their innocence while, strangely, acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them.
Are the men at peace with that guilty plea? Not necessarily -- but it's looking a lot better than other options, like death by execution or sitting behind prison bars for life.
"Although I am innocent, this plea is in my best interest," Defendant Jessie Misskelley has said.
Damien Echols had been on death row on Arkansas, in 1994 -- just three weeks away from execution. And he's bitter. Perhaps very rightfully so. Echols continues to accuse prosecutors of using innuendo and faulty evidence to convict the 'West Memphis 3'. Damien Echols says that cops and prosecutors know that in a new, 2012 trial, "there would be more people watching, more attention on the [murder] case, so they [police or prosecutors] wouldn't be able to pull the same tricks."
Prosecution isn't too happy about the prospect of a new trial for the 'West Memphis 3'. Prosecutor Scott Ellington claims it to be "practically impossible" to put on a proper trial after 18 years following the questionable convictions. A witness' own mother publicly questions her daughter's testimony about Echol's confessions -- doubting her daughter's truthfulness. A crime lab employee responsible for collecting fiber evidence at two of three of the defendants' homes is deceased.
It's an unbelievable, unheard-of path. Since the original jury convictions of three men, 18 years ago, two of the victims' families have switched to join the other team -- declaring, along with the mens' legal defense teams, that these men on death row are innocent of the crimes.
The men -- just teenagers when convicted of the heinous murders -- have spent half their lives in prison as of now, and more than one-fifth of their total lifespan behind bars. They continue to try to clear their names.
Defendant Baldwin has told the media about his reluctance to plead guilty to crimes he's never committed -- but agreed to plead guilty in order to insure Echols be released from death row.
The prosecutor says he never considered any plea bargain that would throw out the verdicts of two juries.
"Today's proceeding allows the defendants the freedom of speech to say they are innocent, but the fact is, they just pled guilty," says Ellington.
By entering guilty pleas, the three have lost any and all rights to file a lawsuit against the state pertaining to the case.
"I can't say that wasn't part of my thinking in resolving this case," Ellington added. Nice. It's good to know a prosecutor can be so open about a lack of ethics or correcting a wrong in society.
Not every family of the three murdered Cub Scouts is happy about the new plea. While two families joined forces with Defense, in order to help free the men they say are innocent, one father does not believe in that innocence. In the courtroom, the father of victim Steve Branch spoke in court, shortly after the three previously-convicted men entered their August 19, 2011, pleas: "Your honor, if you go through with this, you're going to open Pandora's box," pleaded Steve Branch before deputies removed the man from the courtroom. "You're wrong, your honor. You can stop this right now before you do it."
All three men are now subject to 10 years' unsupervised probation -- meaning any future legal trouble could send each man back to prison instantly, for up to 21 years.
Circuit Judge David Laser says there's been suffering on behalf of all the families and complexities, adding that the current deal will help serve justice "the best we can." The formerly-convicted men were led out of the courtroom to cries of "Baby killers" by at least one onlooker.
Police were under pressure to find the persons responsible for some of the most gruesome killings not only in the state, but across the nation: Three 8-year-old boys — Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore — were discovered to have been stripped naked and hogtied. Cub Scouts Michael Moore and Steve Branch were found drowned in a drainage ditch holding about two feet of water. Christopher Byers literally bled to death, his genitals mutilated and even partially removed. Rumors of Satanism ran rampant through the small, tightly-woven community of just 30,000 people that lies across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee.
Desperate to break the case, police had few leads. Then, it seems, cops suddenly got a tip that Police had few leads until receiving a tip that Echols had been seen covered in mud on the night of the boys' disappearance. The big break came when Misskelley unexpectedly confessed and implicated the other two.
"Then they tied them up, tied their hands up," Misskelley told police in a statement. Parts of that statement were tape-recorded -- it's just unclear which parts were recorded by police. The lack of evidence doesn't seem to indicate a confession or evidence the prosecution is secure in using a second time around.
Supposedly Misskelley described sodomy and violence, adding: "And I saw it and turned around and looked, and then I took off running. I went home. Then they called me and asked me, 'How come I didn't stay? I told them, I just couldn't.'" The then-17-year-old later recanted his police statement -- with defense lawyers arguing the teen had gotten several parts of the story incorrect. To the certain dismay of police and prosecutors, an autopsy in fact revealed there was no definite evidence of sexual assault -- directly contradictory to Miskelley's statement. The facts simply didn't match up: Miskelley stated the older boys abducted the Cub Scouts during morning hours, when in fact the murdered boys had actually been in school all day.
Eventually tried separately and convicted -- sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years -- Misskelley refused to testify against the other two men, his confession never used as evidence. Baldwin was convicted, receiving a sentence of life without parole. Echols' conviction and death sentence was upheld in the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1996 -- with the court claiming there was still enough other evidence to sustain execution. But last fall in 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a new hearing for the three men -- asking a judge to consider allegations of juror misconduct, and to consider whether new DNA science could help the men or uphold the prior convictions of nearly two decades ago.
The case got celebrity status 15 years ago -- when a 1996 HBO documentary was released, titled "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills." Celebrities including Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, as well as Johnny Depp and other stars began funding a legal team which has been seeking a new trial for the three men. Responding to the question of innocence with the Associated Press in 2010, Vedder replied: "Why are they innocent? Because there's nothing that says they're guilty."