West Memphis 3 Murder Case Gets Court Review
Three boys died in horrific killing, but were defendants railroaded?
Nov. 6, 2010— -- The Arkansas Supreme Court breathed new life into a decades-old murder case by ordering new hearings for so-called West Memphis 3 -- a cause celebre for many who believe the men were wrongly convicted.
In an opinion issued on Thursday, the state's highest court ruled that the cases of all three defendants -- Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley -- must go back to a circuit court to determine whether evidence, including new DNA evidence, merits a new trial.
Attorneys for one of the defendants claim the new evidence might implicate a family member of one of the victims.
Donald Horgan, a San Francisco-based defense attorney representing Echols, called it a "watershed moment" for his client. Horgan said the decision means a new judge will consider all of the evidence in the case to decide "if a reasonable juror would convict Damien Echols today."
If the circuit court judge decides a reasonable juror would not convict Echols then an order for a new trial would be granted.
Horgan said the new DNA evidence consisted of biological material -- specifically a hair -- that, according to DNA testing, is "consistent with the stepfather of one of the kids" and not Echols.
Court documents show that person is Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Steven Branch.
"It is suggestive of someone else's involvement but we don't have to prove that ... only that my client should be granted a new trial," Horgan said.
Hobbs told a local Memphis news station that he had "nothing to hide."
Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were convicted in the horrific 1993 deaths of three 8-year-old boys from West Memphis, Ark.
The victims, Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and James Michael Moore were found naked, beaten and hogtied in a drainage ditch. They had been sexually abused and one of the boys had been partially castrated.
Echols, who was 19 at the time, was seen as the mastermind behind the crimes and was given the death penalty.
Baldwin, 16 at the time, and Miskelley, 17, were sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years.
