Thread by @roaringrapids22

It is incumbent on us as citizens to stand up to injustice. It's incumbent on law enforcement, the court system to make sure justice is served. If DNA can determine the real murderers of Steve Branch, Michael Moore & Christopher Byers, then a court should grant it.

https://twitter.com/damienechols/status/1541489550287147008

As many know, Johnny Depp & other influential public figures, stood up to the injustice Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., & Jason Baldwin endured while convicted & incarcerated unjustly for the murderers of these three boys.

Arkansas doesn't care about justice & the...

history of this case proves that. Therefore, as Johnny Depp stated, it is incumbent upon all of us to stand up against an injustice like this & demand justice.

I could do a whole thread on the injustices in the case from 1994 to the present, but at this time will just focus...

on a few things of importance with regard to Mr. Echols' post for those unfamiliar with the case.

In 1994 & after, there are multiple suspects for the murders of these young boys.

There has been widespread criticism of how the police handled the crime scene.

The coroner's investigation "extremely substandard."

Police refused an unsolicited offer of aid & consultation from the violent crimes experts of the Arkansas State Police, & critics suggest this was due to the West Memphis Police Department being under investigation by the...

Arkansas State Police for suspected theft from the Crittenden County drug task force.

Brent Turvey, a forensic scientist & criminal profiler, stated in the film 'Paradise Lost 2' that human bite marks could have been left on at least one of the victims. However, these...

potential bite marks were first noticed in photographs years after the trials & were not inspected by a board-certified medical examiner until 4 years after the murders....it was concluded that if these marks were bite marks, they did not match the teeth of any of the three...

convicted.

In 2007, Mr. Echols petitioned for a retrial, based on a statute permitting post-conviction testing of DNA evidence due to technological advances made since 1994 which might provide exoneration for the wrongfully convicted. However, the original trial judge,...

Judge David Burnett, disallowed presentation of this information in his court. This ruling was in turn thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court as to all three defendants on November 4, 2010.

In October 2003, Vicki Hutcheson, who had played a part in the arrests of...

Mr. Misskelley, Mr. Echols, & Mr. Baldwin, gave an interview to the Arkansas Times in which she stated that every word she had given to the police was a fabrication. She further asserted that the police had implied that if she did not cooperate with them, they would take away...

her child. She said that when she visited the police station, employees had photographs of Mr. Echols, Mr. Baldwin, & Mr. Misskelley on the wall & were using them as dart targets. She also claims that an audiotape the police said was "unintelligible" (and that they eventually...

lost) was perfectly clear and contained no incriminating statements.

In 2007, DNA collected from the crime scene was tested. None was found to match DNA from Mr. Echols, Mr. Baldwin, or Mr. Misskelley. A hair "not inconsistent with" Stevie Branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbs,...

was found tied into the knots used to bind one of the victims. The prosecutors, while conceding that no DNA evidence tied the accused to the crime scene, said: "The State stands behind its convictions of Mr. Echols and his codefendants." Pamela Hobbs' May 5, 2009, declaration...

in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Western Division indicates that "one hair was consistent with the hair of [Terry Hobbs'] friend, David Jacoby" (Point 16), and: "Additionally, after the Murders my sister Jo Lynn McCauhey & I found in...

Terry [Hobbs'] nightstand a knife that Stevie carried with him constantly & which I had believed was with him when he died. It was a pocketknife that my father had given to Stevie, & Stevie loved that knife. I had been shocked that the police did not find it with Stevie when...

they found his body. I had always assumed that my son's murderer had taken the knife during the crime. I could not believe it was in Terry [Hobbs'] things. He had never told me that he had it. Also, my sister Jo Lynn told me that she saw Terry [Hobbs] wash clothes, bed linens...

and curtains from Stevie's room at an odd time around the time of the murders."

In 2013, written statements from two men, Billy Wayne Stewart & Bennie Guy, were introduced in the court. They both claimed to have had information on the case linking Terry Hobbs to the murders...

but were ignored by police initially.

In July 2008, it was revealed that Kent Arnold, the jury foreman on the Echols-Baldwin trial, had discussed the case with an attorney prior to the beginning of deliberations. Mr. Arnold was accused of advocating for the guilt of the West...

Memphis Three & sharing knowledge of inadmissible evidence, like the Jessie Misskelley statements, with other jurors. At the time, legal experts agreed that this issue could result in the reversal of the convictions of Jason Baldwin & Damien Echols.

In September 2008,...

attorney (now judge) Daniel Stidham, who represented Mr. Misskelley in 1994, testified at a postconviction relief hearing that during the trial, Judge David Burnett erred by making an improper communication with the jury during its deliberations. Mr. Stidham overheard...

Judge Burnett discuss taking a lunch break with the jury foreman & heard the foreman reply that the jury was almost finished. He testified Judge Burnett responded, "You'll need food for when you come back for sentencing," & that the foreman asked in return what would happen...

if the defendant was acquitted. Mr. Stidham said the judge closed the door without answering. He testified that his own failure to put this incident on the court record and his failure to meet the minimum requirements in state law to represent a defendant in a capital murder...

case was evidence of ineffective assistance of counsel & that Mr. Misskelley's conviction should therefore be vacated.

On October 29, 2007, papers were filed in federal court by Mr. Echols's defense lawyers seeking a retrial or his immediate release from prison. The filing...

cited DNA evidence linking Terry Hobbs (stepfather of one of the victims) to the crime scene, & new statements from Mr. Hobbs' now ex-wife. Also presented in the filing was new expert testimony that the supposed knife marks on the victims, including the injuries to Byers'...

genitals, were in fact the result of animal predation after the bodies had been dumped.

On September 10, 2008, Circuit Court Judge David Burnett denied the request for a retrial, citing the DNA tests as inconclusive. That ruling was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court,...

which heard oral arguments in the case on September 30, 2010.

On November 4, 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a lower judge to consider whether newly analyzed DNA evidence might exonerate the three. The justices also instructed the lower court to examine claims of...

misconduct by the jurors who sentenced Damien Echols to death and Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin to life in prison.

In early December 2010, David Burnett was elected to the Arkansas State Senate. Circuit Court Judge David Laser was selected to replace David Burnett and...

preside in the evidentiary hearings mandated by the successful appeal.

After weeks of negotiations, on August 19, 2011, Mr. Echols, Mr. Baldwin & Mr. Misskelley were released from prison as part of a plea deal, making the hearings ordered by the Arkansas Supreme Court...

unnecessary. The three entered into unusual Alford plea deals. The Alford plea is a legal mechanism that allows defendants to plead guilty while still asserting their actual innocence, in cases where defendants concede that prosecutors have sufficient evidence to secure a...

conviction. Stephen Braga, an attorney with Ropes & Gray who took up Mr. Echols's defense on a pro bono basis beginning in 2009, negotiated the plea agreement with prosecutors.

Under the deal, Judge David Laser vacated the previous convictions, including the capital murder...

convictions for Mr. Echols & Mr. Baldwin & ordered a new trial. Each man then entered an Alford plea to lesser charges of first- and second-degree murder while verbally stating their innocence. Judge Laser then sentenced them to time served, a total of 18 years and 78 days,...

and they were each given a suspended imposition of sentence for 10 years. If they re-offend, they can be sent back to prison for 21 years.

Factors cited by prosecutor Scott Ellington for agreeing to the plea deal included that two of the victims' families had joined the...

cause of the defense, that the mother of a witness who testified about Mr. Echols's confession had questioned her daughter's truthfulness, and that the State Crime Lab employee who collected fiber evidence at the Echols and Baldwin homes after their arrests had died. As part...

of the plea deal, the three men cannot pursue civil action against the state for wrongful imprisonment.

Damien Echols is now seeking justice for these three young murder victims, in addition to anything DNA testing would do to benefit him & the other three men...

wrongfully convicted in 1994.

Why the Arkansas court, this current Judge is so unwilling to grant the DNA testing? Why thwart the real killer or killers from being brought to justice?
#IStandWithDamienEchols
#IStandWithJohnnyDepp who helped free the West Memphis Three.