West Memphis Three are freed after 18 years

[HMFIC]

Maybe so but you could also look at it like they've been there for 18 years and so what does it hurt to stay a few more months if the chance is VERY good that you'll be completely acquitted.

Then again, I've never been locked up... I'm sure the guarantee of freedom vs. the chance of it would tend to make one forget about anything else.

 

[Dave70968]

I still don't fully understand the case or the trial itself, but if these 3 are innocent, then I'd say an even greater injustice has been done since it looks as if they've been railroaded and the real killers escaped.

Quoted for basic, fundamental truth. Between releasing the guilty, and convicting the innocent, the latter is always, fundamentally, and invariably the greater sin. Think about it for just a moment: when we convict somebody, we stop looking for the person who did it. The question isn't "release the guilty" or "convict the innocent," it's "release the guilty" or "release the guilty and compound the sin by convicting the innocent." Shall we fail once, or shall we fail twice?

 

[J.P.]

Maybe so but you could also look at it like they've been there for 18 years and so what does it hurt to stay a few more months if the chance is VERY good that you'll be completely acquitted...

I dunno', I'm pretty sure I'd choose a few less months of being ass-raped over the possibility of things going haywire in court....
I mean particularly if I were those guys considering both things have happened to them already....

 

[J.P.]

wow... the whole "Mr. Bojangles" part of it is wild. How come they weren't looking for THAT guy?

IIRC, someone who fit that description was later incarcerated in California after being found guilty of a similar crime.

 

[saddlebum]

"The big break came when Misskelley unexpectedly confessed and implicated Baldwin and Echols in the killings." never understood why he confessed if he wasn't involved

 

[RidgeHunter]

"The big break came when Misskelley unexpectedly confessed and implicated Baldwin and Echols in the killings." never understood why he confessed if he wasn't involved

He was a 17 year old with an IQ of 72 that was interrogated alone for 12 hours (of which less than an hour was recorded). Think Forrest Gump here. His confession didn't even match the details of the crime scene at all.

The right people could make a 17 year old retarded kid confess to killing Kennedy in 12 hours.

 

[HMFIC]

I dunno', I'm pretty sure I'd choose a few less months of being ass-raped over the possibility of things going haywire in court....
I mean particularly if I were those guys considering both things have happened to them already....

True. Especially with their feelings about the justice system anyway.

He was a 17 year old with an IQ of 72 that was interrogated alone for 12 hours (of which less than an hour was recorded). Think Forrest Gump here. His confession didn't even match the details of the crime scene at all.

The right people could make a 17 year old retarded kid confess to killing Kennedy in 12 hours.

True. Sounds like they didn't have very good lawyers in the first place. It would be interesting to see an investigation on their attorneys as it pertained to all of this. Did the documentaries focus on that aspect of it at all? Did they get interviews with the attorneys?

 

[J.P.]

Like I said earlier, I've never been able to come to a comfortable conclusion about their guilt/innocence either way.

Being in the same age group as the three, listening to Metal, having passing interest in occult, and living in a small town as a teen, I can however identify with the persecution
Baldwin/Echols were facing.
I've commuincated with Echols about the topic in the past.

 

[HMFIC]

Ya, there is no possible way to really KNOW the truth. I had never really heard of this case so it's all fresh to me.

I found this concerning the plea... it certainly explains the question that I had regarding them going ahead with this arrangement:

Not all of the three welcomed the deal. During the 1994 trial, prosecutors offered to reduce Mr. Baldwin’s sentence if he pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Echols. He refused then and initially resisted this deal, insisting as a matter of principle that he would not plead guilty to something he did not do.

But, he said, his refusing this deal would have meant Mr. Echols stayed on death row.

“This was not justice,” he said of the deal. “However, they’re trying to kill Damien.”

The lawyers for the men said they would continue to pursue full exoneration. Other than that, none of the men said they had any immediate plans. ​

 

[J.P.]

Something curious about the deal tho' is that all three were offered the Alford Plea but there were two separate trials.

Miskelly was tried alone first, and then Baldwin/Echols were tried together.

See what I'm getting at?