West Memphis 3 Seek Right to Test Forensic (DNA) Evidence in 1993 Murder of Three Children
New M-Vac DNA Technology Could Point to Real Killer(S)
(West Memphis, Arkansas) After two years of lies, unnecessary delay and obfuscation by some Arkansas legal authorities that prevented the West Memphis 3’s Damien Echols from conducting state of the art DNA testing on the evidence in the murder of three children in 1993, a court hearing to establish the right to test forensic evidence will take place on Thursday, June 23, 2022 at the Crittenden County District Court, West Memphis, Arkansas at 9:30 am before Judge Tonya M. Alexander.
Although former Crittenden County Prosecutor Scott Ellington had agreed to allow the testing of DNA evidence in March of 2020, utilizing state-of-the-art and FBI approved M-Vac technology, legal authorities misled Echols legal team about the condition, whereabouts and availability of forensic evidence that could potentially solve the child murders. After numerous legal motions filed over a two-year period to obtain the evidence in the murders, and reports from current Prosecutor Keith L. Chrestman and others that the evidence was destroyed, lost, or damaged, the State Court finally ordered the West Memphis Police to allow Echols’ attorney to review the state of the evidence in the case.
What they discovered was a very organized, catalogued, and intact body of evidence.
Attorney Patrick Benca said, “We are pleased that the evidence is intact. We are planning to move ahead and test this evidence using the latest DNA technology available to hopefully identify the real killer(s) of the three children in 1993, and exonerate Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley.”
Current DA Refused Echols the Right to Test For DNA
After two years of trying desperately to ascertain whether the evidence existed, and after being pleased that it was preserved, rather than agree to release the evidence for further DA testing, the prosecuting attorney of Crittenden County, Keith Chrestman, denied Echols the ability to do so after two years of misleading Echols, possibly lying about the condition and whereabouts of the evidence and whether the evidence in the case even existed.
According to Echols motion requesting DNA testing, “Now that it is clear that the current Prosecuting Attorney has no intention of meeting the commitments made by the prior Prosecuting Attorney, at the time of the Alford plea and thereafter, to cooperate with the defend- ants’ efforts to develop further evidence of their innocence, it is up to this Court to afford the fairness and due process that justice requires on the instant Petition.”
Echols submitted a FOIA request last year seeking all records relating to the missing evidence in the WM3 case. That FOIA request had gone unanswered in violation of Arkansas state law. After being informed that evidence in the West Memphis 3 case had been inexplicably lost or destroyed, Damien Echols, who was freed from Death row ten years ago and was seeking to perform new DNA tests on the evidence, filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Crittenden County asking the court to “declare that the WMPD violated its statutory obligation to respond to the FOIA request” and “direct the WMPD to respond to the FOIA request within three days.”
Damien Echols said, “Ten years ago I had no choice but to take an Alford plea to get off death row. I needed to fight for my innocence, and that of Jason and Jesse, outside of the prison walls. And that is why I sought to test the evidence in the case to exonerate us and lead to the real killer(s). Once we made inquiries to the West Memphis Police to turn over the evidence in the case for advanced testing, we were told that the evidence disappeared.
Echols’ attorneys had filed a Motion for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in the Circuit Court of Crittenden County First Division, as well as seeking an expedited hearing.
Background
In May 2020, Echols, and his attorney Stephen Braga, of Bracewell LLP, contacted then Crittenden County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington who agreed to release evidence in the case for further DNA testing. In a series of email correspondence, Ellington contacted Kermit Channel at the Arkansas Crime Lab who informed Ellington that the trial evidence was located at the West Memphis police department. Ellington then contacted WM Police Assistant Chief Langston and Major Stacey Allen who also agreed to provide the evidence for DNA testing.
This was a very positive development, as it was recommended using the new M-Vac DNA system on the existing evidence to hopefully reveal a stronger DNA connection to the real perpetrator (s) in the killing of the three children. Testing had previously revealed that the DNA linked to Terry Hobbs, stepfather of one of the murdered children, was found in the ligatures on the sneaker of one of the boys. Ruff hoped to confirm that, as well as identify other DNA links to the killers. A recent FBI study found that the amount of DNA recovered with the M-Vac system was several‐fold greater—the vacuum system yielded an average of 12 times more nDNA and 17x greater mtDNA- than traditional methods.
According to the motion, “Braga subsequently reached out to Ellington, who said he had no problem with having the evidence so tested. Over the course of the next eight months, Braga and Ellington engaged in a series of communications designed to facilitate the transmission of specified items of evidence from the WMPD to the laboratory chosen to do the MVac DNA testing. The specified items of evidence were the victims’ shoes, socks, Boy Scout cap, shirts, pants, and underwear, as well as the sticks used to hold the clothing underwater and the shoelaces used as ligatures to bind the victims. The chosen laboratory was “Pure Gold Forensics, Inc.,” a California-accredited private forensic DNA laboratory specializing in the new MVac technology.”
“Damien Echols said, “We have been literally begging the state of Arkansas to allow us to do further DNA testing to clear our names for over a year. We were lied to repeatedly, and now we learn that much of the evidence was not destroyed or lost. We are innocent now; nearly 30 years ago when we were convicted; and ten years ago, when we accepted an Alford plea.”
Contact: Lonnie Soury, Lsoury@soury.com, (917) 519.4521