From the book I'm reading...
On the evening of May 5, 1993, in the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas, three 8yearold boys disappeared. The next afternoon, the naked bodies of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were found submerged in a nearby strem. The boys had been bound from ankle to wrist with their own shoelaces and severly beaten. Christopher had been castrated.
The crime scene had yielded few clues, and despite Christopher's castration, there was a remarkable absence of blood. The police were stymied, and citizens' alarm mounted as weeks passed without an arrest. Finally, a month after the murders, detectives announced three arrests - and a startling theory of the crime: that the children had been killed by members of a satanic cult.
Detectives attributed their break in the case to a former special education student, 17yearold Jessie Misskelly Jr. Although Jessie insisted he knew nothing of the crime, after 8 hours of questioning, police announced that he had implicated himself and accused two other teenagers, 18yearold Damien Echols and 16yearold Jason Baldwin. Damien and Jason both denied Jessie's account, and Jessie himself recanted it within hours, but by then all three had been charged with the murders.
With no physical evidence connecting anyone to the crime, prosecutors contended that the murders bore signs of "the occult" and that the three accused teenagers possessed a "state of mind" that point to them as the killers. As proof of the defendants' mental states, they introduced items taken from their rooms - such as books by Anne Rice and album posters for the rock group Metallica. Jurors found all three teenagers guilty. Jessie and Jason were sentenced to life in prison. Damien was sentenced to death.
While the verdicts were popular in Arkansas, an HBO documentary raised questions about the lack of evidence in the case, and a Web site was formed to support the inmates, now known as "The West Memphis Three." When the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the verdicts, state officials insisted that anyone who questioned the trials simply did not know "the facts."
what a fucked up state we have here >< stupid Arkansas.
The crime scene had yielded few clues, and despite Christopher's castration, there was a remarkable absence of blood. The police were stymied, and citizens' alarm mounted as weeks passed without an arrest. Finally, a month after the murders, detectives announced three arrests - and a startling theory of the crime: that the children had been killed by members of a satanic cult.
Detectives attributed their break in the case to a former special education student, 17yearold Jessie Misskelly Jr. Although Jessie insisted he knew nothing of the crime, after 8 hours of questioning, police announced that he had implicated himself and accused two other teenagers, 18yearold Damien Echols and 16yearold Jason Baldwin. Damien and Jason both denied Jessie's account, and Jessie himself recanted it within hours, but by then all three had been charged with the murders.
With no physical evidence connecting anyone to the crime, prosecutors contended that the murders bore signs of "the occult" and that the three accused teenagers possessed a "state of mind" that point to them as the killers. As proof of the defendants' mental states, they introduced items taken from their rooms - such as books by Anne Rice and album posters for the rock group Metallica. Jurors found all three teenagers guilty. Jessie and Jason were sentenced to life in prison. Damien was sentenced to death.
While the verdicts were popular in Arkansas, an HBO documentary raised questions about the lack of evidence in the case, and a Web site was formed to support the inmates, now known as "The West Memphis Three." When the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the verdicts, state officials insisted that anyone who questioned the trials simply did not know "the facts."
what a fucked up state we have here >< stupid Arkansas.