Free the West Memphis 3

[Dan]

OK, so this is sort of old news, but I wanted to see what some of you guys thought about this. I'm including a case summary from the official WM3 website, it seems a little biased, but try to look past the language and just look at the facts. I'd recommend the HBO documentary about the trial, 'Paradise Lost', it's really sad that these three kids are in jail for life, one heading to death, for basically wearing black T-shirts and listening to heavy metal. Let me know what you guys think.

Case Summary

 

[Johnney]

Dan, yes this was a biase article, but sympathy aside, these kids got rail roaded imo.

During the interrogation, Jessie managed to not only corroborate the unfounded suspicions that the West Memphis police had of Damien Echols, but he managed to incriminate Damien's friend Jason Baldwin, and himself.

does this not suprise anyone in a society where we execute mentally handicapped people?
this sounds like a case of the good ol' boy syndrome. but then again, what can you expect from a southern state about teens who want to be different.

true we do not know the whole story on either side, but shitty investigations happen all the time. is there more information from either side? it seems to me, being prior law enforcement, they should have thrown this one out. but with a crime like this, "some one has to pay" regardless of if they are innocent or not. dont get me wrong, criminals are lower than dirt and should be punished to the letter of the law, even past for some things. and crimes against children are crimes of the worst kind. but hey, its my opinion.

Despite testimony from several noted experts on forensic odontology and pathology, Burnett decided that the wounds identified by the experts as adult human bite marks were not bite marks. Burnett remarked at one point during the hearings that he'd never even heard of forensic odontology before, and yet he refused to acknowledge their expert testimony.

why bother paying prefessional wittness's if they arent going to listen to them in first place?
you cant even begin to tell me that 3 teens, one being a half wit, would be able to plan, not just one murder but three, and not leave any type of evidence. ( i charged a male in kansas city with grand theft becasue of a partial print i lifted from the back of the rear view mirror, and he was a carrer criminal).
you leave something there, and you take something with you. no matter how small it is. and considering the heniousness (sp?) of this crime, one would think they would handle all any evidence thy found with kid gloves.

but again, this is my opinion

 

[Dan]

is there more information from either side?

Well, the rest of the WM3 website I got that article from has lots of information about the case, plenty of images of evidence and testimonies and stuff like that. If you want a comprehensive look at the trial, I'd say watch 'Paradise Lost', the filmmakers do a pretty good job of staying balanced, though they do begin to lean toward the side of the teens, especially after the incident with the knife with the stepfather's blood on it. They made a sequel to Paradise Lost that pretty much goes as far as they legally could to prove that the stepfather was the killer, and it's amazing the amount of evidence the filmmakers amount against him.

you cant even begin to tell me that 3 teens, one being a half wit, would be able to plan, not just one murder but three, and not leave any type of evidence.

Exactly. All case specifics aside, it doesn't seem possible that three teenagers, one of them retarded, would be able to pull off a clearly violent murder without leaving any form of evidence.

The whole thing is just a really sad, angering story.