The attorneys representing Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley filed legal briefs reviewing the breadth of evidence they wish to present in upcoming evidentiary hearings before Craighead County Court Judge David Laser. It is expected that Judge Laser will review the briefs and issue directions impacting the scope of new DNA testing, scheduling, and other matters raised by the defense and prosecution.
Among the issues the court will be asked to review in establishing whether Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley deserve a new trial include DNA evidence, both existing and new material to be tested, alibi evidence, false confession evidence, juror misconduct evidence, forensic evidence covering cause of death and cause of injuries (animal predation), new witness statements, motive evidence, night of murder evidence, etc.
The attorneys also ask the court to review existing evidence already presented during the previous court proceedings including the Rule 37 hearings for all the men, as well as materials presented to the Arkansas Supreme Court. New expert forensic witnesses will likely be called.
Echols’s defense team also expects to call Terry Hobbs, his friend David Jacoby (who is the DNA-indicated likely source of another hair recovered at the crime scene and who was with Hobbs on the day the victims disappeared) and a fair number of other witnesses to testify about Hobbs’s and Jacoby’s actions on the night of May 5, 1993 and in the days that followed.
Lonnie Soury