I have been reading a lot about the West Memphis 3 recently, especially with the newest information that has come to light. It is interesting to see what one small town can do without repercussions.
For those that don't know, the West Memphis 3 were three teenage boys that were charged and convicted in the murders of three young boys in the woods outside their small town in the early 1990's.
They were recently released from prison after nearly 20 years just before they were set for an appeals hearing.
The interesting part of the story, at least for me, is the lack of evidence. Actually the lack of "good" evidence that was used to convict them.
The prosecutors had no physical evidence linking them to the crimes. No DNA, fingerprints or anything else. There were also no witnesses. The biggest problem was the fact that the youngest of the three confessed but only did so after being interrogated for 8 hours. He was also not allowed to have a parent present despite the fact that he was only 16 at the time. Somehow the judge overlooked this and allowed his confession to stand.
The confession had a lot of holes, most of which would be easily disproved but everytime an objection was made it was overruled.
Anyway, what really frosts my lizard about this case is the evidence that the prosecutor did present that according to him, was evidence of guilt.
First off they determined that all three boys liked to listen to heavy metal music. This is obviously ****ing evidence. By these standards the millions of fans of this genre of music should be locked up. Crazy to say the least.
Then the prosecutor presented evidence that one of the boys had 11 black shirts in his closet. Wow! I counted the black in my closet and found 14 pieces of clothing. Better book me a room at the gray bar hotel.
Then comes the reading material. The DA presented the fact that one of the boys liked to read books by Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Anne Rice. Well this is certainly the best evidence I have ever seen. I personally have read everything ever written by Koontz and King. I have even read a few by Rice but I am not that into the vampire thing.
Finally the DA presented evidence that Damien, the boy that was sentenced to death, had once checked out a book at the library about the Salem Witch Trials. Again, I should be in prison if this is evidence of murder. I have studied the witch trials for many years and even wrote an article on it for a magazine.
Now I am not saying that they did or did not commit this crime. Afterall, I was not there. But judging by the trial transcripts there is no way that they should have been convicted in the first place. But it appears that they made the perfect fall guys. They stuck out in the small town where they lived making them easy targets.
Now that they are out there is some new evidence. They finally ran some DNA on hair found in the rope that was used to bind the three victims and found out that it belonged to the step-father of one of the victims. But they said that there is only a slim chance that something will be done about it.
