WilCulture

I first learned of the the West Memphis 3 when I saw the premier of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. The film went on to win the Grand Jury Award in the documentary category, but more importantly it exposed a startling injustice. Much was written about the West Memphis 3 by the mainstream media following the film's release. Ten years later there is little coverage of the case . The following recap of the case is my contribution to the effort to keep the "Free the WM3" movement alive.

In 1993, three teenagers were convicted of the brutal sexual assault and murder of three 8 year old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. All three teens were tried by the same judge in separate trials, and all three were found guilty. The problem is that not a single eyewitness placed them at the scene of the crime and there was no physical evidence connecting any of them to the crime scene. One has been sentenced to death and the other two are serving multiple life sentences. Instead their trials consisted of a testimonies describing the boys’ black clothing taste, their taste for heavy metal music, and in Damien Echols’ case, for being a fan of Stephen King’s novels. While the WMPD and Judge Burnett are convinced that they have solved this crime and that justice has been served, many outside (and objective) observers, including attorneys, criminologists, FBI agents and polygraph experts have examined the evidence. They have all concluded that the teens, who are now grown men could not have been responsible for committing these crimes. Furthermore, many of these experts believe the true murderer is John Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the murdered boys. As startling as the lack of evidence used to convict the WM3, it pales in comparison to the evidence pointing to Byers as the real killer.

Convictions are supposed be made based on the prosecution providing evidence proving guilt beyond the shadow of a doubt, but in this case there is overwhelming evidence casting a shadow of doubt on their guilt. 13 years later, these three young men are sitting in a maximum security prison. The frightening part is that this could happen to any of us.