The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, and the 13,000 member National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers have jointly filed an amicus curiae brief with the Arkansas Supreme Court asking that the justices grant Damien Echols a new trial in his appeal currently before the court. The amicus briefs were filed on Thursday, September 17, 2009 along with the complete appeal file.
This unprecedented support from two of the country’s leading legal organizations sends a very strong message that many in the legal community believe a grave injustice has been perpetrated, and it must be rectified.
The brief cites the violation of Echols and Jason Baldwin’s constitutional rights when the jury was exposed to Jessie Misskelley’s false confession by jury foreman Kent Arnold, who not only lied about his knowledge of the confession but felt compelled to introduce the false confession into jury deliberations.
The amicus curiae brief states, “It is now known that Echols’ jury violated the constitution and the judge’s instructions by discussing Misskelley’s confession during deliberations, not long after one juror told his attorney that he was growing frustrated by the state’s weak collection of circumstantial evidence and that if prosecutors did not present something powerful soon, it would be up to him to secure a conviction.
“Echols’ conviction and death sentence have been gravely tainted by the jury’s improper consideration of the extraordinarily prejudicial – and extraordinarily unreliable -confession of Jessie Misskelley.
“Compounding the jury foreman’s misconduct is the fact that the Misskelley confession is highly unreliable,” said Steven Drizin, Legal Director of Northwestern University School of Law’s renowned Center on Wrongful Convictions, who co-authored the amicus brief. “Juveniles and the mentally retarded are much more likely than adults to falsely confess when pressured by police, and Misskelley’s confession bears all of the hallmark traits of a false confession.”
With all the new evidence of their innocence, including the blatant jury misconduct, DNA linking others to the crime scene, forensic testimony from the country’s leading pathologists and, what is universally recognized as a false confession, what more does the state of Arkansas need to free these innocent men? It is time for the justices on the Arkansas Supreme Court to right a terrible wrong. Overturn these convictions and find and prosecute those guilty of the murder of the three young boys in West Memphis in 1993.
http://freewestmemphis3.org/download/finalamicusbrief_signed.pdf
Lonnie Soury