THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE

THE CLAIM

That three teenagers were convicted of murder because of a moral panic about satanism, on evidence that would not sustain a conviction today, and that the real killer has never been identified.

THE THEORY, AS ITS PROPONENTS TELL IT

This file sits directly downstream of OSA-120, and the connection is not rhetorical.

Three eight-year-old boys were found dead in a drainage ditch. The investigation quickly focused on Damien Echols, a local teenager who wore black, listened to metal and had an interest in Wicca, on the theory that the killings were a satanic ritual. This was 1993, at the height of the panic documented in OSA-120.

The case rested substantially on a confession by Jessie Misskelley Jr, who had an IQ measured around 72, obtained after roughly twelve hours of questioning of which only about forty-six minutes were recorded. It contained significant factual errors about the timing and the injuries. He recanted, and it was not admissible against his co-defendants, who were convicted largely on the satanic-motive theory and on witnesses who later recanted.

DNA testing in 2007 found no genetic material from any of the three at the scene. It did find a hair consistent with the stepfather of one victim in a ligature, and another consistent with his friend, neither of which is conclusive.

Injuries originally described as knife mutilation were reassessed by forensic pathologists as consistent with post-mortem animal predation in water, which removed the ritual element that had driven the whole prosecution.

WHAT IS KNOWN

No physical evidence has ever linked any of the three to the crime.

The Alford plea in 2011 allowed them to plead guilty while asserting innocence, in exchange for time served. It also foreclosed civil claims against the state and avoided a retrial that new evidence had made likely.

The Arkansas Supreme Court had ordered in 2010 that the new DNA evidence be considered, which is what produced the plea negotiation.

No alternative suspect has been charged. The case is not being actively investigated as unsolved, because formally it is closed.

EVIDENCE FOR

• Absence of any defendant DNA at a violent crime scene, on modern testing.
• A confession from a defendant with significant intellectual disability, largely unrecorded, containing factual errors, and later recanted.
• Forensic reassessment attributing the key injuries to animal predation rather than ritual mutilation.
• Witness recantations, and the documented satanic panic context of the prosecution.

EVIDENCE AGAINST (FULL EXONERATION)

• The convictions have never been vacated. The Alford plea is a guilty plea in law.
• Absence of DNA is not proof of absence, particularly for a scene in water where three bodies had been submerged.
• Misskelley confessed again after his conviction, against his lawyer's advice, which supporters attribute to his suggestibility and prosecutors do not.

ASSESSMENT

Contested in law and, in this office's reading, effectively resolved in fact. There is no physical evidence, the confession that drove the case is unreliable by any modern standard, and the ritual theory that supplied the motive was dismantled by forensic reassessment. The Alford plea was a device that let the state release three men without admitting error and without reopening the investigation, which is why the actual question, who killed three children in 1993, has not been asked by anyone official in over a decade.

WHAT WOULD CHANGE THE GRADE

• Contested in law and effectively resolved in fact. No physical evidence has ever linked any defendant to the scene, and 2007 DNA testing found no genetic material from any of the three.
• The confession that drove the case came from a defendant with an IQ around 72, after roughly twelve hours of questioning of which about forty-six minutes were recorded, contained factual errors, and was recanted.
• The ritual motive was dismantled: injuries described at trial as knife mutilation were reassessed as post-mortem animal predation in water.
• The Alford plea let the state release three men without admitting error and without reopening the investigation, which is why nobody official has asked who killed three children since.

FURTHER READING

• West Memphis Three · Wikipedia
• Arkansas Supreme Court, order for evidentiary hearing (2010)
• Paradise Lost (1996) and West of Memphis (2012) · documentary records of the case