"West Memphis Three" freed after 18 years
Updated at 3:38 p.m. ET
JONESBORO, Ark. - Three men convicted in the nightmarish slayings of three Cub Scouts went free Friday, nearly two decades after they were sent to prison in a case so gruesome it raised suspicions the children had been sacrificed in a Satanic ritual.
Doubts about the evidence against the trio had persisted for years and threatened to force prosecutors to put on a second trial in 2012.
Instead, the so-called West Memphis Three were permitted to plead guilty to murder in exchange for time served, ending a long long-running legal battle that had raised questions about DNA and witnesses — and attracted support from celebrities such as Johnny Depp and Eddie Vedder.
Star support for the West Memphis 3
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley entered the pleas under a legal provision that allowed them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them.
"Although I am innocent, this plea is in my best interest," Misskelley said.
Echols had been on Arkansas' death row and in 1994 came within three weeks of execution. All three men were placed on 10 years' unsupervised probation. If they re-offend, they could be sent back to prison for 21 years.
Release "overwhelming" for West Memphis Three
Prosecutor Scott Ellington said it would be "practically impossible after 18 years to put on a proper trial in this case. I believe this case is closed, and there are no other individuals involved."
The victims' families were notified about the pact ahead of time but were not asked to approve it.
After Friday's hearing, Baldwin told reporters that he had been reluctant to plead guilty to crimes he didn't commit. But he agreed to the deal to get Echols off death row.
"That's not justice, however you look at it," he said.
Echols thanked Baldwin and called his release "overwhelming."
"It's not perfect," he said of the arrangement. "It's not perfect by any means. But it at least brings closure to some areas and some aspects."
He said the three would continue to work to clear their names.
Circuit Judge David Laser acknowledged the case was complex, and that both the victims' families and the supporters of the three men had suffered. He said Friday's deal would serve justice "the best we can."
"I don't think it will make the pain go away," Laser said.
One person yelled "Baby killers" as the three left the courtroom.
The killings were particularly shocking. The boys — Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore — were found naked and hogtied, and rumors of Satanism roiled the community in the weeks following their deaths. Branch and Moore drowned in about 2 feet of water; Byers bled to death and his genitals were mutilated and partially removed.
Because Echols wore black and listened to heavy metal music, investigators believed the murders were part of a satanic ritual, "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
More from "48 Hours"
Video: Depp says "Free the West Memphis 3"
Video: Damien Echols interview excerpts
Video: Damien Echols on cult theories
(At left, watch a "48 Hours" report on the West Memphis Three)
"Then they tied them up, tied their hands up," Misskelley told police in a statement, parts of which were tape-recorded. After describing sodomizing and other violence, he went on: "And I saw it and turned around and looked, and then I took off running. I went home. Then they called me and asked me, `How come I didn't stay? I told them, I just couldn't."'
Misskelley, then 17, later recanted, and defense lawyers said he got several parts of the story incorrect. An autopsy found there was no definite evidence of sexual assault. Misskelley had said the older boys abducted the Scouts in the morning, when they had actually been in school all day.
Misskelley was tried separately, convicted of first- and second-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years. He refused to testify against the others, and his confession was not used as evidence.
Defense lawyers for Echols and Baldwin alleged juror misconduct, saying they heard about the Misskelley confession anyway. Attorneys also said there wasn't enough physical evidence linking the three to the crime scene.
The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld Echols' conviction and death sentence in 1996, saying there was still enough other evidence to sustain it.
A 1996 HBO documentary, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," drew the attention of celebrities including Vedder and Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks. They and other celebrities helped fund a legal team that worked to win the three a new trial.
"Why are they innocent?" Vedder said in an interview with The Associated Press last year. "Because there's nothing that says they're guilty."
On Friday, Echols' wife, Lorri, sat in the front row of a crowded courtroom, next to the Pearl Jam frontman. Vedder put his arm around her during the proceedings.
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The prosecution pointed out that in interviews with a psychologist, Echols referred to himself as another Ted Bundy or Charles Manson and said "people will remember me."
ECHOLS: Yes. We are still on friendly terms.
KING: While you were in prison, awaiting trial, you wrote a number of letters containing things a lot of people would consider disturbing. Among them, you wrote to Gloria Shettles, an investigator for your defense team.
And you wrote: "Everyone will pay because everyone is too stupid to open their eyes. This is the final time and I am the new messiah. My body is changing but that medicine is making it happen a lot more slowly than normal. I am outgrowing my skin. I am eating packs of sugar and Kool-Aid to give my body extra energy it needs to make its change. Soon people will be able to know I am the Christ. I always knew I was different from other children."
How do you explain that?
ECHOLS: I don't know. I mean, like I said, that was 15 years ago. That could have been -- I'm not sure what that was. What I was talking about could have been a short story. I really don't know. You know, I write constantly, non-stop. I actually consider myself a writer. I have had several things published.
And some of it is hard to keep track of after all of these years. Even now I come across things that I read that aren't familiar to me. I will recognize my hand writing, but have no idea what it was, what context it was in, any of that.
hy were these three boys killed, according to the state?
ECHOLS: The state alleged that -- they couldn't come up with anything more tangible, you know, like robbery or anything like that. So basically what they threw out was that it was some sort of Satanic ritual murder -- that these children were killed as some sort of Satanic cult thing. I'm not -- you know...
KING: Were they...
ECHOLS: ...whatever sense that makes.
KING: Were they killed in a weird way?
ECHOLS: No, not particularly. Well, you know, any -- murder is always weird...
KING: Yes.
But I mean how?
Were they stabbed?
Were they shot?
How were they killed?
ECHOLS: The prosecution at the time alleged that they had been stabbed. Now we know that they weren't. We know that the wounds that the prosecutor was saying were stab wounds were actually inflicted by animals after they were dead.
From the best we can figure now, I believe they said two of them died from blunt force trauma. And if I'm not -- I'm positive about this now, but I believe the third one they said may have drowned.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fourteen-and-a-half years ago, the gruesome murders of three 8-year-old boys shocked West Memphis, Arkansas -- Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore -- second grade playmates -- were found beaten to death, naked and bound in shallow water. One of the boys was dismembered.
Police arrested three teenagers, including an alleged devil worshipping ringleader named Damien Echols. At trial, prosecutors used Echols' own words from his bizarre writings to convince the jury that the murders were part of a Satanic ritual.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Thirsty for blood and the terror of mortal men, look favorably on my sacrifice."
ROWLANDS: Echols and 16-year old Jason Baldwin denied involvement. But 17-year old Jessie Misskelley confessed, telling authorities on three separate occasion, they killed the boys after a chance encounter in the woods. Misskelley, who defense attorneys claim has low I.Q., now says the confessions were coerced.
But at the time, once again, I go back -- you know, I was a teenager. I was a very foolish kid, basically. There was that aspect of it and there was also the aspect of -- my behavior felt to me at the time sort of like defiance in the face of injustice.
ECHOLS: Even after I die, people are going to remember me forever. They're going to talk about me for years. People will tell their kids stories. It will be like I'm the West Memphis boogey man. Little kids will be looking under their beds before they go to bed. Damien might be under there.
Now all three have got away with murder, i hope all three rot in HELL.
another case which shows flaws in the American judicial sytem
"au revoir"
If the West Memphis Three truly are innocent, they should be free. But I'm sad because those three little boys are still dead.
It is sad the three children are lost, and innocent teenagers were thrown to the lions, and the people were in frenzy from the newsreels I've seen. I am almost inclinded to blame the police themselves for the killings...
In San Francisco, divorce attorneys were paying police officers to get the goods on people involved with their clients.
In addition to this, the also stalked their targets at bars and restaurants and arrested them on DUI to give thier clients the edge in courts.
I know this is a fact, and yet it has been swept under the carpet because there is no reporting on this any longer by the local media.
The night they were looking for the missing boys, there was a person at a local Bojangles in a restroom in blood soaked clothes tryingto clean himself off & when an employee tried to get a police woman going through the drive through to go and investigate she refused and pulled right out!
The state made this deal now because they were trying to save face, with a hearing set for December sometime, the state knew the defense team had enough new DNA evidence to prove the WM3 did not do it & would be granted a new trial, and they knew Damien, Jessie & Jason would win their case and walk out of prison free men with no criminal record. So the state trying to save face gave them this deal. I couldn't be happier for Damien, Jessie & Jason!!!!!
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These three either did the murders & deserve to, at least, spend the rest of their natural lives in a cell or they didn't do it and deserve to be released unconditionally, with apoligies, and compensation. This half-a$$ed compromise is a political solution to a criminal case. The result of which is either three people guilty of murder & mutilation of three children are being set free OR three innocent people have confessed to murdering three children and are now, no matter how much they proclaim their innocense or how many movie stars take up their cause, guilty of murder. They admitted committing murder in open court. The reality is that makes them guilty of murder. Guilt or innocense is not a question now, only how these three get on with their lives. Does anyone know if Arkansas has a law which prohibits convicted felons from profiting from their crime? If so, these guys can't even sell the movie rights. Said movie will probably be coming to a big screen near you in 2-5 years.