Dear Friends & Supporters:
Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin have spent their entire adult lives in prison for a crime they did not commit. They were tragically convicted based on innuendo, fear, hysteria and a false confession.
Over the last several years we have been overwhelmed by the support and generosity of longtime friends and people just learning about this case. Shortly after we made the new evidence public, a group of supporters in Arkansas began organizing to educate our elected officials and civic leaders about the facts in this case, and to ask for a new trial. Thousands of people, many of them in Arkansas and Tennessee, have come forward to demand that the new evidence be fully considered.
In October ’07 a 500-page motion was filed in federal court. The federal court agreed to hear the case but asked that the state of Arkansas review it first.
This motion includes DNA testing on dozens of pieces of evidence, analysis from the nation’s leading forensic science experts, other solid scientific evidence and compelling witness affidavits—all evidence indicating that all three, now men, are innocent of the murders for which they were wrongfully convicted in 1993.
Now even more new evidence of their innocence has been brought to light, including a sworn affidavit by a prominent former Arkansas prosecutor that the jury foreman in Damien and Jason’s original trial lied to get on the jury and illegally introduced Jessie’s coerced false confession into deliberations.
With new crime scene DNA evidence that clears Damien, Jason and Jessie, and points to others, as well as the outrageous allegations of juror misconduct, Damien’s case is now being considered on appeal by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Jason and Jessie are in hearings in Jonesboro, seeking a new trial based upon ineffective legal counsel.
Thank you—to so many of you, thank you. Thank you for everything you have already done. Without your help, we would not be on the verge of finally securing justice for Damien, Jessie and Jason.
We urgently need more of you. We need your help to make sure this evidence is fully considered. With your help we can right a terrible, terrible wrong.
If you need more information to help you understand this tragedy, and to help convince others, a wealth of information awaits you via the links you’ll find here. Spread the word of this injustice.
Thank you so very much,
Lorri Davis and the defense teams for Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley.