Thread: Men Convicted in '93 Cub Scout Slayings Go Free

i remember watching a show about this a long ago and thinking these boys didn't do it. there was a dad or stepfather of one of the boys that seemed like a nut job on the show. i figured he was more than likely the one that did it. i wonder if he is the guy who's dna they found at the scene... hmmm. those guys have to be monumentally pissed. the stepfather's interview was just never done? how does that even happen?

US men convicted of triple child-slaying set free
By Joseph Krauss (AFP) – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — Three US men convicted as teenagers of kidnapping, torturing and mutilating three eight-year-old Cub Scouts in May 1993 were set free on Friday after serving nearly 20 years in jail.
The "West Memphis Three" -- Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley -- were convicted in a 1994 trial marked by local hysteria over allegations that the grisly killings were part of a Satanic ritual.
The three boys -- Steve Branch, Chris Byers, and Michael Moore -- were found in a ditch, stripped naked and hog-tied. Byers had bled to death after his penis was cut off and the other two had drowned in the muddy water.
The three convicts have always maintained their innocence, however, and a 1996 documentary questioning the conviction led actors Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder to embrace their cause.
Investigators found no physical evidence to connect the three to the murders, and recent DNA testing -- which did not exist at the time -- found only inconclusive evidence pointing to two completely different individuals, leading the Arkansas state supreme court to set Friday's hearing.
Fearing a new trial following nearly two decades of knotted legal appeals, prosecutors agreed to a deal in which the three pleaded guilty in return for their being sentenced only to the 18 years they had already served.
"Today's proceeding allows the defendants the freedom of speech to say they are innocent, but the fact is, they just pled guilty," District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said.
"I strongly believe that the interests of justice have been served today... The legal tangle that has become known as the West Memphis Three case is finished."
The three teenagers insist they are innocent, and Baldwin said he was opposed to the plea deal but agreed to it to save Echols from death row.
"In the beginning, we told nothing but the truth that we were innocent and they sent us to prison for the rest of our lives for it," Baldwin told reporters.
"Then we had to come here, and the only thing the state would do for us was to say: 'Hey, we'll let you go, but only if you admit guilt.' That's not justice no matter how you look at it.
"They're not out there trying to find who really murdered those boys."
The original case was based on an apparent confession by Misskelley, then 17, in a tape-recorded interview with police, a statement he later recanted.
He then refused to repeat the confession even when he was offered a more lenient prison term than the life sentence he eventually received.
The confession led to the conviction of Echols, then 18 and the alleged ringleader, who was sentenced to death, and Baldwin, who received a life sentence.
Prosecutors sought to present the murders as part of cult ritual, pointing out -- during the trial in the conservative southern town -- that Baldwin wore black tee-shirts and listened to heavy-metal bands like Metallica.
The 1996 documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" presented the teenagers as having been unfairly singled out because they were nonconformists and raised questions about the trial.
One key prosecution witness later said she had fabricated her testimony under police pressure, and her son, a friend of the deceased boys who was eight at the time, has said police "messed with my words," according to the Arkansas Times, which has closely followed the case since 1993.
The DNA evidence, while inconclusive, linked a hair found at the scene of the crime to the stepfather of one of the victims and another hair to a friend of the stepfather, according to the Arkansas Times.
Family members of two of the victims have in recent years come out in support of the three, saying they were wrongfully convicted.
"They did not kill my son," John Mark Byers, the adoptive father of one of the boys, told reporters outside the courthouse on Friday.
"This is not right, and the people of Arkansas need to stand up and raise hell, because three innocent men are going to have to claim today they are guilty... and that's bull(expletive)."

it pisses me off when stuff like this happens and people say our legal system is so great. no it's not. there are huge problems... it's like saying a brownie with a little bit of dog shit in it is still a great brownie. i prefer my justice with no shit in it please.

The justice system in this country is like all other branches of government. It only works for those with money, power and priviledge. The rest of us have to depend on the luck of the draw. Never understood why this reality escapes so many in this country. It's as if the very idea of challenging the quality and effectiveness of these systems is somehow un-american. Unbelievable.

Originally Posted by MDR

The justice system in this country is like all other branches of government. It only works for those with money, power and priviledge. The rest of us have to depend on the luck of the draw. Never understood why this reality escapes so many in this country. It's as if the very idea of challenging the quality and effectiveness of these systems is somehow un-american. Unbelievable.

the scales of justice are not blind, they definitely see the color green...this is so painfully obvious

I was out of country in '93 when all this went down so this case is new to me. parents tell their children there is no such things as monsters, but there are. and whomever did this to this boy's is a monster.

I've seen a coupld of TV shows on this case (I'm visiting US) and it seems like a horrible trial. No evidence, no hearsay, no witnessing, no nothing really.

All of a sudden these guys that were a little gothic in this town (different) were "into Satanism" because the bodies were mutiliated - but no, they were partially eaten by animals.

And then they had to plead guilty - just to satisy to dumbshit D.A.

And the hair in the rope and leg of the boy was of the step-father, although it could have been there before.

What a bunch of idiot in that town.

making them say they are guilty is equal to, if not worse than, stealing half their lives. it sounds like they were forced to say there was enough evidence to convict them to avoid lawsuits. it pretty much looks like the real perp is known to the authorities and they don't want to admit how bad they fucked up.

"Hobbs seemed more confident with Jacoby than anyone, the man Amanda mentions in her journal as "messing with" her. Hobbs was accused of assaulting Mildred French, molesting his son Bryan (from a previous marriage), Amanda, and Stevie, though; so, does "birds of a feather" apply here?"

it seems both hairs came from pedophiles and the justice system is only worried about saving face.

Originally Posted by Little Wing

making them say they are guilty is equal to, if not worse than, stealing half their lives. it sounds like they were forced to say there was enough evidence to convict them to avoid lawsuits.

Yes, adding insult to injury.

I have never heard of a deal where someone would have to plead guilty, to be released.

I hope there are lawsuits, regardless.

Some compensation is needed for 17 years that they'll never get back.

Does anyone else think a lynching is on order

Originally Posted by tommygunz

Does anyone else think a lynching is on order

lynching when done properly is quick and painless...

perpetrators of crimes like this need to be taken down to Africa in the jungle when the leptanilloidinae are migrating. these are the legendary army ants in Africa, they would eat them alive, very slowly.

Originally Posted by Big Smoothy

I have never heard of a deal where someone would have to plead guilty, to be released.

There's a legal precedent for it, apparently. Mentioned in one of these YouTube videos or an article I read.

Agreed that there should also be some kind payoff, but for the fact that they admitted their guilt.

This is the biggest downside (outside of innocent people being executed of course) of the death penalty, innocent people plead guilty all the time to avoid the possibility of being put to death.

The sickest part of the ordeal is that the guy(s) that actually tortured three 8 year old boys to death appears to have gotten away with it. Unless, he/they are locked up for something else right now, that means that there is a sexual sadist, who preys on little boys, roaming around in the free world.

I was always leery of small town Cops and Judges. I rather stay in the big city they seem to be a bit more sophisticated.

Yep, let's just convict someone by god and get this shit off our books.

i have a theory. the kids had backpacks cuz they were running away. the kid that lived with the child molesting stepfather told the other two and when he caught up with them in the woods one of them told why they were running away and the guy killed them in a rage.

my brothers tried to run away when they were little in the middle of the winter with nothing but some baggies they put water in. they headed for a fire tower deep in the woods and were not a lot older than those little boys. they were scared of getting spanked for not completing chores. i read that one of the little boys was spanked shortly before they headed for the woods... i'm betting they had a plan to run away.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I was always leery of small town Cops and Judges. I rather stay in the big city they seem to be a bit more sophisticated.

It is true. Small town cops and judges are the scum of America. Not only does money talk in small towns, but bloodline is even more powerful than money.