FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE!

By Andrew Williams

"That's what grown-ups do. They lie. Lie right to your face."-Eric Cartman, "South Park'

Anyone who's been checking out this page would think that I spend all my time ranting against the American police state. That's not true. I just spend most of my time ranting against the American police state. And of course the US Government doesn't have a monopoly on injustice-there's plenty to go around. Let's have a look, shall we?

In West Memphis, Arkansas, in May of 1993, three young boys-Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Christopher Byers--were found dead in an area known as Robin Hood Hills. I won't go into the gory details. The West Memphis Police Department, in the process of investigating the crime scene, managed to contaminate it with cigarettes as well as numerous footsteps from people milling around the bodies.

The investigators of the crime, after conversing about rounding up the usual suspects, quickly found three scapegoats. One, Damien Echols, had been investigated for numerous petty crimes for years, apparently because of his first name and wearing of dark clothing. Another, Jessie Misskelley, a mentally handicapped teenager (now adult), was coerced during a 12-hour interrogation-only part of which was apparently taped-in which he was clearly coached into confessing. The third, Jason Baldwin, apparently became a suspect because he was roughly the same age as the others and the cops needed a third party for their "satanic conspiracy" theory. No hard evidence was ever produced to prove this theory.

Writer Burt Sauls has described the arrests and the events that followed as examples of Satanic Panic. SP can be created from whole cloth with all sorts of rags and patches: black T-shirts, heavy metal, and certain kinds of jewelry and tattoos are the usual starting points. Once these bits of "evidence" are introduced, they are immediately embellished upon by the hysteria-driven populace. One hears talk of a suspect keeping pieces of human flesh in a jar of formaldehyde, and Satanic rituals requiring the sacrifice of children. Little or no evidence is ever found of such things, but the stories, once launched, have a life of their own. And they feed the panic and hysterical demands for instant justice.

The WMPD, with its reputation to protect, has maintained that the three suspects it has are guilty, even though there are numerous questions. For example, on the night of the murders, a local restaurant owner called police and reported that there was a black male on the premises acting strangely. According to the owner of Bojangles', the man was in the ladies' bathroom and was muddy, bleeding and mumbling. Officer Regina Meek responded to the call, but simply drove by the restaurant's drive-through window without stopping. It wasn't until the next day that an actual on-site investigation was made, and once again, much evidence was contaminated, since the investigating officers arrived at the restaurant from the crime scene without changing clothes.

So you'd think-with all these procedural errors on the part of the police-that the court would find insufficient evidence for conviction. Even prosecutor John Fogelman-now a circuit court judge in Crittenden County, AR--admitted in a phone interview to NewTimes reporter M.V.Moorhead that "There was a remarkable lack of physical evidence against anybody." Well, Judge David Burnett didn't. He found them guilty, and then denied their appeal. It's hard to have confidence in a judge who says, in open court, that he's never heard of forensic odontology (as Burnett did). Admittedly, most people probably don't know what it is. I didn't before I read about this case. But I'm not a judge. And I was able to figure out what it was just from context. But as a result of Judge Burnett's decision, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are serving life sentences (life plus 40 for Jessie), while Damien Echols sits on Death Row.

Fortunately for the WM3, there has been much media interest in this case. Two documentary films have been produced and have been shown on HBO. The second of these, titled Revelations 2, is now on DVD. Celebrity supporters of the West Memphis Three abound. Henry Rollins, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Exene Cervenka (X) and Wayne Kramer (MC5) played a benefit concert for them earlier this month. Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of South Park) are active supporters as well, having called for the release of the WM3 at the MTV Music Video Awards and on Access Hollywood.

Despite the legal controversy and protests, the WMPD maintains that it did good police work, and Judge Burnett is apparently convinced that the murderers of the three boys are in prison. Well, we all know that people hate to admit it when they're wrong. It's natural not to want to admit a mistake. And the police and the judiciary are just as capable of making mistakes as anyone. But they also have a special obligation, by the nature of their work, to disclose when they have made mistakes and make appropriate apologies and restitution. Like Henry Rollins, I don't know who murdered those three little boys. I just know-based on the lack of evidence and shoddy police work--it wasn't the West Memphis Three.

It seems that, in this country, that individuals in law enforcement and the judiciary are not only loath to admit mistakes, they will go to any length to cover them up. If we are to have respect for these individuals and institutions, then they must behave in a way that demonstrates they deserve such respect. I believe that, in this country, we have a situation where many people-at least a significant minority, perhaps a majority-do not trust police or judges, and will either withhold information from them or give false information to them. The more power one has over an individual, and the more unethically one wields it, the more resistance will occur.

If the police in this country want us to believe that they truly are our friends and protectors, then they must allow themselves to be held accountable for their actions. The "thin blue line" must be erased. Bad cops cannot be protected while good cops are hung out to dry. Otherwise, disrespect for the officers in blue will continue and grow as more and more citizens discover just what happens when we allow abuses of power to go uncorrected.

By necessity, this has been a brief capsulization of the case against the West Memphis Three. For more detailed information, please go to the website below:

www.wm3.org