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For Immediate Release
New DNA and Forensic Evidence and Juror Misconduct Cited in Plea to Overturn Wrongful Conviction
(Little Rock AR, September 30, 2010) – In oral arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court, attorneys for Damien Echols will contend that DNA testing and other powerful forensic evidence — combined with a sworn affidavit that the original jury foreman engaged in blatant misconduct that contributed to the jury”s decision — now prove that Damien Echols was wrongfully convicted of the murders of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. Based on this newly discovered evidence, Echols is seeking a new trial.
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in 1994 for a crime they did not commit and have served 17 years in prison. There was no physical evidence, eyewitness testimony or motive tying the three local teens to the murders. They were arrested based on nothing more than a coerced, false confession from Misskelley which he immediately disavowed. Damien Echols was sentenced to death; Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Echols”s appeal before the court seeks to overturn the decision of Judge DavidBurnett who interpreted Arkansas”s DNA testing statute so narrowly that it drastically limits the possibility of any wrongfully convicted person of obtaining justice using DNA results. In 2001, the Arkansas Legislature passed a law granting post-conviction access to DNA testing. The law passed largely as a result of widespread doubts about the convictions of Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin. In denying Echols a new trial, the state essentially declared that unless the new DNA conclusively establishes the actual innocence of the defendant it is not relevant. In fact, according to the Arkansas law (Ark. Code 16-112-201, et seq.) “A person is entitled to a new trial insofar as he can demonstrate that the DNA test results, when considered with all other evidence in the case, regardless of whether the evidence was introduced at trial, establish by compelling evidence that a new trial would result in an acquittal.”
Crime Scene DNA Does Not Match Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley
DNA testing of dozens of pieces of evidence found at the crime scene conclusively shows that no DNA from the murders matches Echols or the other two men. DNA testing does, however, link Terry Hobbs, stepfather of murder victim Steven Branch, to the crime scene. A hair found in the knot used to bind Michael Moore matches Terry Hobbs. DNA also links a hair at the murder scene to another man, David Jacoby, who was with Hobbs on the day of the crimes and who provided Hobbs with an alibi. Of the scores of people the three victims were seen with on the day of their murders, the only DNA matches are Terry Hobbs and the man Hobbs was with on the day of the murders.
Additionally, three eyewitnesses have come forward and provided sworn statements that they sawSteven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, with Terry Hobbs, at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, 1993, before the boys disappeared and were murdered. According to sworn affidavits by the three witnesses, Hobbs was hollering at the children and ordering them to return to his house. The new evidence establishes that Terry Hobbs was the last person to have physical custody of the three boys before they disappeared and were murdered.
Experts Repudiate the Prosecution”s Claims about Forensic Evidence
According to the nation”s leading forensics experts, scientific evidence also demonstrates that most of the wounds on the victims were caused by animals at the crime scene, after their deaths – not by knives used by the perpetrators, as the prosecution claimed and was the centerpiece of the prosecution”s case. Moreover, these experts also completely discredited the prosecution”s insinuation that a knife recovered from a lake near Jason Baldwin”s home caused the wounds on the victims. As well, these forensic experts deemed the testimony of a jailhouse informant and a faux “expert” in “occult studies”-a man who admitted on the witness stand that he had received his “Ph.D.” from a mail-order diploma mill without attending a single class-to be completely unreliable..
Jury Foreman Engaged in Shocking and Illegal Activity During Trial
Lloyd Warford, a prominent Arkansas attorney who is a former prosecutor and state official, has presented a sworn affidavit to the Arkansas Supreme Court detailing the contents of improper conversations that the jury foreman, Kent Arnold, had with him while the trial was in progress. In those conversations, the jury foreman told Warford that he had prejudged Echols”s andBaldwin”sguilt and that to ensure that the other jurors would convict the defendants, he exposed the jurors to news reports of Jessie Misskelley”s confession. During one conversation, the jury foreman told, “…the prosecution had presented a weak case, and that the prosecution had better present something powerful the next day (the end of the prosecution”s case) or it would be up to him to secure a conviction.”
Dennis Riordan, Echols”s lead attorney, said, “The jury foreman”s misconduct is shocking and convincingly proves that Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin could not possibly have had a fair trial. The jury foreman engaged in deceit and bias from his first contact with the court during jury selection, throughout the trial testimony, during jury deliberations and, finally, during the penalty phase after conviction, when Damien Echols was sentenced to death and Jason Baldwin to life without parole.
“With new evidence of juror misconduct, new DNA evidence which links others to the crime scene, as well as forensic evidence from the country”s leading pathologists, we are asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to right a terrible wrong, overturn their convictions and grant Damien as well as Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley a new trial.”
Move to Overturn the Convictions Supported by Two Major National Legal Organizations
The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth at Northwestern University School of Law and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers jointly presented an Amicus Curiae brief to the court, asking the justices to set aside Echols”s conviction because the jury foreman”s introduction of Jesse Miskelley”s confession into the deliberations — in direct violation of the judge”s orders — violated Echols”s and Baldwin”s constitutional rights and deprived them of a fair and impartial trial. According to the brief, “Echols”s conviction and death sentence have been gravely tainted by the jury”s consideration of this extraordinarily prejudicial – and extraordinarily unreliable – confession of Jesse Miskelley.”
Case History
Three eight-year-old boys were found dead in a drainage ditch in Robin Hood Hills, a local wooded area near their homes, on May 6, 1993. Less than a month later, 17-year-old Jessie Misskelley “confessed” to the crime and claimed Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin sexually abused and beat the victims. Misskelley, a mentally disabled boy with an IQ of 72, believed he would get a reward for confessing. In his “confession,” did not fit the evidence of what actually happened. Many of the details, including the time of day the crime occurred, the material used to tie up the boys, the claim of sexual abuse, that the boys were beaten before their clothes were removed, and that a victim had been choked, etc. – were patently incorrect. Misskelley was tried and convicted of first-degree murder in February 1994. Baldwin and Echols were tried together after Misskelley”s trial, and were convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. The following day, Echols was sentenced to die, and he has been on death row ever since.
At the time of Damien Echols”s trial, there was no scientific evidence to support the prosecution”s case. A poisonous atmosphere during trial contributed to his wrongful conviction. The prosecution alleged that Echols and two other teenagers committed the crimes as part of a satanic ritual and provided testimony from a faux “expert” whose words created a Salem Witch Trial atmosphere.
Echols was 18 years old and penniless at the time of his trial, and a court-appointed attorney representing him failed to challenge a pattern of inaccurate and inflammatory statements made by prosecutors and others during the trial, and failed to engage forensic experts who could have refuted the testimony that was used to convict Echols.
For more information see www.freewestmemphis3.org and www.wm3.org
For information about press access, contact Stephanie Harris,Arkansas Supreme Court (501) 371-2004, Stephanie.M.Harris@arkansas.gov