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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm CST.
Join Equal Justice USA in Support of the West Memphis Three
by Nancy A. Heitzeg with Equal Justice USA
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the long-anticipated film about the West Memphis Three, will premiere on HBO on January 12. The movie is a comprehensive examination of one of the most notorious child murder cases in U.S. history and its aftershocks (and promises that viewers don’t need to have seen the first two in the series to get the full story).
The movie is already buzzing around the Oscar circuit! Get in on the action by watching the film with your friends.
Check out our Paradise Lost 3 Watch Party page for everything you need to get started.
EJUSA is also partnering with the film to seek a pardon for the West Memphis Three, so they can get the full exoneration they deserve.
Please share the petition on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks!
Background
The Paradise Lost films helped launch a successful movement to free the West Memphis Three. Two decades later, the three men are free, but with the stain of a criminal conviction on their record for something they did not do. Together, we can ensure that stories like this live beyond the media’s short attention span so that disasters like this never happen again.
It all started in 1993, when three 8-year-old boys were found murdered and seemingly mutilated in West Memphis, Arkansas. The small town, ripped by horror and hysteria, believed the crime was part of a satanic ritual. Damien Echols, an 18-year-old who dressed in black and listened to heavy metal, suddenly seemed suspect.
Police interrogated one of his acquaintances, Jessie Misskelley – a borderline mentally retarded 17-year-old – for 12 hours. He ended up confessing to the crime himself, and implicating Echols and another teenager, Jason Baldwin.
Misskelley’s confession diverged in significant details with facts known by the police, like the time the crime was committed. He also later recanted. Still, he and Echols and Baldwin were convicted.
Misskelley and Baldwin received life sentences. Echols got death. All based on a vacillating confession and the hearsay testimony of other local teenagers. And, as in the more recent case of Cameron Todd Willingham, the defendant’s clothing and music choices were, in the climate of grief and terror, transformed from unusual choices to incriminating evidence (Willingham was executed in 2004 for arson – even though experts now say his conviction was based on junk science).
All in all, the case against the West Memphis Three was a house of cards in a community desperate for the shelter of a conviction.
Years of appeals were denied and the three languished in prison. Meanwhile, the doubt around their guilt began to attract attention and even celebrity support. Henry Rollings of Black Flag and Rollins band, actress Winona Ryder, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines, and members of Metallica all called out for their release. Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, and Peter Jackson donated some of their personal fortunes to the legal fund.
In 2007, a new burst of national attention focused on the case when DNA tests of evidence at the crime scene turned up no genetic material belonging to any of the three convicted men.
Then finally, last summer, the prosecuting attorney, Scott Ellington, offered the three what is known as an Alford plea, which would pave their way to freedom. Alford pleas let defendants maintain their innocence and admit frankly that they are pleading guilty because they consider it in their best interest.
Why would a prosecutor offer a deal allowing the three men to walk free if they were child killers?
When asked this very question, Ellington acknowledged the state didn’t have much of a case against them. He also expressed concern that if the men were exonerated at trial, they could sue, possibly for millions.
This appears to be a classic case of the state covering it’s you-know-what. And, for everyone involved, the outcome falls short of true justice.
During his trial, Jason Baldwin could have had his life sentence reduced if he testified against Echols but he refused. And he was resistant to accepting the Alford deal as he felt it was unprincipled to plead guilty for something he didn’t do.
But, he said, he couldn’t live with the possibility that if he didn’t accept the deal, Mr. Echols would remain on death row. Echols at one point came within three weeks of execution.
Take Action
The story of the West Memphis Three isn’t over. The lawyers for the three men say they continue to seek full exoneration. But the broader significance of their case is already clear. Do your friends and family know about it?
If not, invite them over to watching the gripping movies about it. Rent or buy the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and/or its sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations.
Host a Paradise Lost 3 Watch Party.
Discuss what you saw. It’s a great way to spread the word about the failings of our criminal justice system in a fun setting with your friends and big bowl of popcorn.
Together, we can ensure that stories like this live beyond the media’s short attention span and have a broader impact on the way we do criminal justice.
Contact your lawmakers and tell them that you think that what happened to the West Memphis Three is enough of an example to prove that we are too error-prone to be in the business of taking of life.
Or simply take this chance learn more about the death penalty and sign up to receive news and action opportunities from EJUSA.
Eventually, hopefully, we can make sure disasters like this never happen again.
Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) is a national leader in the movement to halt executions. We work state by state to train and empower grassroots leaders to advocate for a more fair and humane criminal justice system. Will you help us build this movement?
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