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Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
life in prison doesn't kill innocent people. innocent people die in prison, but the state isn't actively executing them. that's whats important.
I would rather be executed as an innocent man, than to rot away for 80 years in a prison cell. At least after all my appeals had been exhausted.
jmho
- IRISH OS1R1S
- Rep: 59
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
I just watched Paradise Lost and found it fascinating and also very emotional as I have a son of the same age as the victims. I never heard of these murders until i checked out this thread.
I cannot say they're guilty our not, I just have no clue. For those interested, I found this while researching the case.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40007255/ns … nd_courts/
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The three men convicted in the grisly murders of three West Memphis Cub Scouts won new hearings Thursday to argue their innocence, more than 15 years after they were sent to prison despite scant physical evidence linking them to the crime scene.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered the hearings to decide whether new DNA analysis — and other evidence not introduced at the 1994 trials — could lead a reasonable jury to acquit death-row inmate Damien Echols as well as Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, who are serving life sentences.
The ruling was a major win for Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley, who are known to sympathizers as the West Memphis Three and have gained the support of celebrities as well as legal scholars who say they were wrongfully convicted. Echols has been on Arkansas' death row since 1994, when he was 20, after being convicted in the deaths of 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. The three boys were found beaten, nude and hog-tied in an area known as Robin Hood Hills in West Memphis.
"Damien is thrilled with the court's decision," said his wife, Lorri Davis. "It is the best news he has heard in his case in the 17 years he has been on death row."
Echols' attorneys called Thursday's decision a "landmark victory" and praised the high court for allowing Echols to pursue his claims of innocence. Prosecutors sought to limit what evidence could be introduced under the state's DNA law, which the Legislature passed in 2001 to give inmates an avenue to pursue exoneration.
"The decision also will affect the case of every wrongly convicted Arkansas prisoner who files a DNA innocence petition in the future," attorneys Dennis Riordan, Donald Horgan and Deborah Sallings said in a statement.
The Supreme Court rebuked Circuit Court Judge David Burnett for not holding a hearing on the DNA evidence before rejecting Echols' request for a new trial in 2008. Burnett had ruled that the crime-scene DNA evidence — which shows no trace of Echols or the two other men convicted of the murders — was legally inconclusive and not enough to prove innocence.
"While there is a significant dispute in this case as to the legal effects of the DNA test results, it is undisputed that the results conclusively excluded Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley as the source of the DNA evidence tested," the court wrote Thursday.
Prosecutors maintained that the absence of their DNA wasn't enough to prove the three men are innocent and that a jury convicted them on other evidence.
"As I've stated before, it is a testament to the fact that our system affords inmates multiple opportunities to be heard that this matter remains in court," Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said. "We respect the decision handed down by the Supreme Court and my office intends to fulfill its constitutional responsibility to defend the jury verdicts in this case."
The court also said that the new hearings should focus on all evidence that could prove the men's innocence or guilt, not just the DNA results. Echols' lengthy appeal includes affidavits alleging juror misconduct, claiming that the jury considered a confession that Misskelley made to police. That confession was never introduced as evidence at trial because Misskelley recanted it and refused to testify against Echols and Baldwin.
It was not clear when the new hearings would occur, and the court ordered that a new judge be reassigned to the case because Burnett was elected this year to the state Senate. The district in which the cases will be heard has 11 judges — and two are the original prosecutors in the Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley murder trials.
Administrative Judge Ralph Wilson's office said Thursday that he was reviewing the order and the judges' schedules before deciding who gets the case.
Burnett, who was at the Capitol for freshman orientation for state senators, said he had not heard about the ruling Thursday.
"I made my opinion and they made theirs. That's the way the system works," Burnett said. "I did what I thought was appropriate at the time. Times change and circumstances change, and I guess they had a different view than I did."
Echols' attorneys also said they would ask the court to bypass the evidentiary hearing and grant a new trial.
"We would be prepared to present the compelling evidence of Mr. Echols' innocence to the circuit court at the hearing mandated by today's decision," they said. "It is clear, however, that the people of Arkansas will never be satisfied that a correct and just result has been reached in this case unless and until a new trial is granted to Mr. Echols and his codefendants."
The case has drawn interest far beyond Arkansas. In August, a rally in Little Rock to support Echols' legal fund featured Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, actor Johnny Depp and Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines and drew more than 2,000 people.
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
A rally in Little Rock featuring Eddie Vedder & Johnny Depp only drew 2,000? That's pitiful imo.
I grew up in a small town that drew more than that out at the high school football games.
Hopefully these guys can garner more attention to their cause than just the occasional "Dateline" or "48 Hours" segment every couple of years.
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
For those still lacking the docu, it can be viewed here:
- IRISH OS1R1S
- Rep: 59
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
Does anyone know if any, which would be the best and most unbiased book be on the case?
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt approaches the subject from the viewpoint of Satanic Ritual Abuse paranoia, a term well-covered by FBI agent Kenneth Lanning in his 1992 report.
Lanning's report is one of the most sobering accounts I've ever come across on the subject and should be recommended reading on text-books. If you're about to check out Devil's Knot, I recommend this text to get a better viewpoint on the argument in response to the atmosphere in Memphis, as well as the rest of the US.
Blood of the Innocent by Guy Peel, Marc Perrusquia and Bartholomew Sullivan is less defining by its own right and therefore, less conclusive, which is what you seem to be after more here.
- IRISH OS1R1S
- Rep: 59
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
Cheers man I will surely check it out.
I've been researching it alot the last few days and originally I thought they were innocent but the more I find out the more I lean to the guilty side. I mean most of the stuff I read first came from mostly "free the Memphis three" type sites as when you google for info its hard to get to unbiased material. The more I read of the actual court transcripts, confessions, etc the more I notice alot of what is said on those other sites is fairly twisted to align with their theories.
......but who knows, not me thats for sure.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
Somehow i never noticed this thread before. I also don't know about this case..but on the subject of lyrics:
I've always thought they were pretty pessimistic and depressing for the most part (with exceptions certainly)
There's definately a lot of negativity in some of them, yet somehow that's also what makes them positive to those of us who have experienced such feelings I think. It's sort of like an empathy thing I think - if you've felt similar thoughts and then you realise you are not the only person who has had them you feel less alone in the world or something.
I also think Axl has a really interesting turn of phrase. There's something about the way he writes that really captures the emotion and feeling in life - sometimes for love, hate, sorrow, joy...but there's something about the phrases he uses that I think is more colourful and three dimensional than a lot of of other lyrics. They're not always the best grammer even but the feelings convayed have a 100% authentic feel.
Also the ones that are positive are very positive. I think the lyrics to Scraped and Madagascar are both quite inspiring to not give up.
Re: Damien Echols from the West Memphis Three Interview
Axl used to be able to turn a phrase. Chinese Democracy is the least of his lyrical works. I think he could be helped letting some of the current GN'R members (Stinson anyone?) help him write some lyrics next time 'round.
If not him, call Desmond Child or something. But Axl needs some help on the next album imho.
