West Memphis 3 Confession Witness Corroboration and Physical Evidence
_http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/west-memphis-3-confession-witness
-corroboration-and-physical-evidence/_
(http://eassurvey.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/west-memphis-3-confession-witness-corroboration-and-physical-evidence/
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This is an old case that has been in the news recently.
copied with permission
These articles describe graphic crimes of abuse.
Death Penalty Recommended for Teen-Ager March 20, 1994 …Prosecutors
presented evidence suggesting Mr. Echols was a devil worshipper and the
younger
teen-ager his loyal follower.
_http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/us/death-penalty-recommended-for-teen-ager.html?scp=18&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=n
yt_
(http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/us/death-penalty-recommended-for-teen-ager.html?scp=18&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt)
Youth Is Convicted In Slaying of 3 Boys In an Arkansas City CORNING, Ark.,
Feb. 4 The teen-ager, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, was found guilty of
first-degree murder in the death of a boy whom he had admitted chasing
down. He was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of the other two
boys….Mr. Misskelley told the police in two tape-recorded interviews that
he had watched as his two friends beat the boys, raped two of them and
castrated one. The prosecution said the slayings might have been part of a
Satanic ritual.
_http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/05/us/youth-is-convicted-in-slaying-of-3-boys-in-an-arkansas-city.html?scp=11&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st
=nyt_
(http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/05/us/youth-is-convicted-in-slaying-of-3-boys-in-an-arkansas-city.html?scp=11&sq=west+memphis+3+murder+case&st=nyt
)
Jessie Lloyd MISSKELLEY, Jr. v. STATE of Arkansas CR 94-848 S.W.2d Supreme
Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered February 19, 1996
On June 3, 1993, the crime having remained unsolved, Detective Sergeant
Mike Allen sought the appellant out for questioning. The appellant was not
considered a suspect, but it was thought he might have knowledge about Damien
Echols, who was a suspect. Detective Allen located the appellant and
brought him back to the station, arriving at approximately 10:00 a.m. Later in
this opinion, we will address in detail the circumstances surrounding the
appellant’s interrogation. For now, it is sufficient to say that the
appellant was questioned off and on over a period from 10:00 a.m. until 2:30
p.m.
At 2:44 p.m. and again at approximately 5:00 p.m., he gave statements to
police in which he confessed his involvement in the murders. Both statements
were tape-recorded….
In the early morning hours of May 5, 1993, the appellant received a phone
call from Jason Baldwin. Baldwin asked the appellant to accompany him and
Damien Echols to the Robin Hood area. The appellant agreed to go. They went
to the area, which has a creek, and were in the creek when the victims rode
up on their bicycles. Baldwin and Echols called to the boys, who came to
the creek. The boys were severely beaten by Baldwin and Echols. At least two
of the boys were raped and forced to perform oral sex on Baldwin and
Echols. According to appellant, he was merely an observer.
While these events were taking place, Michael Moore tried to escape and
began running. The appellant chased him down and returned him to Baldwin and
Echols. The appellant also stated that Baldwin had used a knife to cut the
boys in the facial area and that the Byers boy was cut on his penis. Echols
used a large stick to hit one of the boys. All three boys had their
clothes taken off and were tied up….
The appellant was asked about his involvement in a cult. He said he had
been involved for about three months. The participants would typically meet
in the woods. They engaged in orgies and, as an initiation rite, killing and
eating dogs. He noted that at one cult meeting, he saw a picture that
Echols had taken of the three boys. He stated that Echols had been watching
the
boys….
Damien Echols was observed near the crime scene at 9:30 p.m. on May 5. He
was wearing black pants and a black shirt and his clothes were muddy. A
witness testified that she had attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and
the appellant….a witness from the State Crime Lab testified that she found
fibers on the victims’ clothing which were microscopically similar to
items in the Baldwin and Echols residences.
_http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996/cr94-848.html_
(http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996/cr94-848.html)
Damien Wayne ECHOLS and Charles Jason Baldwin v. STATE of Arkansas CR
94-928 S.W.2d Supreme Court of Arkansas Opinion delivered December 23,
1996
Where two witnesses testified that they overheard appellant Echols state
that he killed the three boys, this was direct evidence; a confession is
sufficient to sustain a conviction if it is accompanied by other proof that
the offense was committed by someone….
There was substantial evidence of the guilt of appellant Echols where,
among other things, the testimony of witnesses placed him in dirty clothes
near the crime scene at a time close to the murders; where two independent
witnesses reported Echols’s statement that he had killed the three boys and
was direct evidence of the statement; where a criminalist from the State
Crime Laboratory and a State Medical Examiner testified concerning the
similarity of fibers found on the victim’s clothes with clothing found in
Echols’s
home and the serrated wound patterns on the three victims that were
consistent with, and could have been caused by, a knife found in a lake behind
appellant Baldwin’s parents’ residence….
Echols admitted on cross-examination that he had delved deeply into the
occult and was familiar with its practices and where various items that had
been found in his room supported the State’s theory of motive that the
killings were done in a satanic ritual; where an expert in occult killings
testified that there was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings;
where
a detective testified that Echols had made a statement regarding the
mutilation of one of the victims that the jury could have reasonably concluded
he
would not have known about unless he had been involved in some manner; and
where Echols’s testimony contained additional evidence of guilt….
Echols admitted on cross-examination in the penalty phase of the trial
that he had an altercation with his father in which a knife was involved and
the police were called; where he admitted that he was hospitalized that same
day and that when his father came to the hospital, “I told him I would eat
him alive”; where headmitted that he tried “to claw the eyes out” of a
student; and where a psychologist who testified for Echols admitted that
Echols had “an all-powerful God-like image of himself,” that his parents were
concerned with his satanism or devil worship, and that Echols’s medical
records included notations of statements by Echols pertaining, among other
things, to his rage and the drinking of the blood of others….
Where one witness testified that appellant Baldwin had told him that he
had dismembered one of the boys, sucked the blood from his penis and scrotum,
and put the testicles in his mouth, and where an expert on ritual killings
stated that one of the facts that led him to believe that the killings
were cult-related was that one of the victims had been castrated and had had
the blood sucked from his penis, there was sufficient evidence of appellant
Baldwin’s participation in occult activities, and the trial court correctly
allowed the evidence….
Twelve-year-old Christy VanVickle testified that she heard Echols say he “
killed the three boys.” Fifteen-year-old Jackie Medford testified that she
heard Echols say, “I killed the three little boys and before I turn myself
in, I’m going to kill two more, and I already have one of them picked out.”
The testimony of these two independent witnesses was direct evidence of
the statement by Echols….
Dr. Dale Griffis, an expert in occult killings, testified in the State’s
case-in-chief that the killings had the “trappings of occultism.” He
testified that the date of the killings, near a pagan holiday, was significant,
as well as the fact that there was a full moon. He stated that young children
are often sought for sacrifice because “the younger, the more innocent,
the better the life force.” He testified that there were three victims, and
the number three had significance in occultism. Also, the victims were all
eight years old, and eight is a witches’ number. He testified that
sacrifices are often done near water for a baptism-type rite or just to wash
the
blood away. The fact that the victims were tied ankle to wrist was significant
because this was done to display the genitalia, and the removal of Byers’s
testicles was significant because testicles are removed for the semen. He
stated that the absence of blood at the scene could be significant because
cult members store blood for future services in which they would drink the
blood or bathe in it. He testified that the “overkill” or multiple cuts
could reflect occult overtones. Dr. Griffis testified that there was
significance in injuries to the left side of the victims as distinguished from
the
right side: People who practice occultism will use the midline theory,
drawing straight down through the body. The right side is related to those
things synonymous with Christianity while the left side is that of the
practitioners of the satanic occult. He testified that the clear place on the
bank
could be consistent with a ceremony. In sum, Dr. Griffis testified there
was significant evidence of satanic ritual killings….
Echols took the witness stand, and his testimony contained additional
evidence of guilt. When asked about his statement that one victim was
mutilated
more than the others, he said he learned the fact from newspaper accounts.
His attorney showed him the newspaper articles about the murders. On
cross-examination, Echols admitted that the articles did not mention one victim
being mutilated more than the others, and he admitted that he did not read
such a fact in a newspaper….
Jason Baldwin does not contend that there was insufficient evidence of his
guilt. This is, perhaps, in part, because of the testimony of Michael
Carson, who testified that he talked to Baldwin about the murders. Carson’s
testimony, in pertinent part, was abstracted as follows:
I said, just between me and you, did you do it. I won’t say a word. He
said yes and he went into detail about it. It was just me and Jason [Baldwin].
He told me he dismembered the kids, or I don’t know exactly how many kids.
He just said he dismembered them. He sucked the blood from the penis and
scrotum and put the balls in his mouth.
_http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996a/961223sc/cr94-928.html_
(http://courts.state.ar.us/opinions/1996a/961223sc/cr94-928.html)
