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Has anyone been following the West Memphis Three?

I haven't read this entire thread, but I saw Paradise Lost years ago, and I have to confess that I found the movie made me think they did it. Even though the creators of the film obviously were trying to make me think the opposite. That said I have no strong feelings about the case and I'm willing to learn more and change my mind.

Question: for those who support the WM3, what is the conventional wisdom about who ought to be a suspect instead (not that this is required to find that the case against the 3 wasn't sufficiently proven)?
 
I like your style Unabogie.

Confessin' that I'm not particularly familiar with this case. Although I'm assuming the reason I haven't heard a lot of compelling evidence pointing to their guilt is because such is lacking.

I do know there are other potential suspects. Including a stranger who was seen in the vincinity of the murders in a dishevelled state (covered in blood and mud), as well as the adoptive father of one of the victims (a knife belonging to the father was found to have blood on the blade, that, I believe, conceivably could have come from his murdered son).
 
Unabogie said:
I haven't read this entire thread, but I saw Paradise Lost years ago, and I have to confess that I found the movie made me think they did it. Even though the creators of the film obviously were trying to make me think the opposite. That said I have no strong feelings about the case and I'm willing to learn more and change my mind.

Question: for those who support the WM3, what is the conventional wisdom about who ought to be a suspect instead (not that this is required to find that the case against the 3 wasn't sufficiently proven)?
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Most people seem to think it was Terry Hobbs or John Mark Byers.

JMB is one extremely eccentric individual.
 
lane99 said:
I like your style Unabogie.

Confessin' that I'm not particularly familiar with this case. Although I'm assuming the reason I haven't heard a lot of compelling evidence pointing to their guilt is because such is lacking.

I do know there are other potential suspects. Including a stranger who was seen in the vincinity of the murders in a dishevelled state (covered in blood and mud), as well as the adoptive father of one of the victims (a knife belonging to the father was found to have blood on the blade, that, I believe, conceivably could have come from his murdered son).
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John Mark Byers had a knife that had traces of blood on it that could have come from either Chris Byers (one of the victims) or JMB himself or both.

There was very little sample, and was destroyed in the testing.

The man covered in mud and blood was another example of the WMPD incompetence. The WMPD never even got out of the car when taking a complaint at the Bojangles chicken restaurant. The next day, they came and collected blood samples from the rest room where the bloody man cleaned himself up, and then lost them.
 
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And is Mark Byers the guy who had his teeth removed? That's totally bizarre. But is there anything concrete that ties him to the murder, aside from being creepy? After all, that's what made people think the boys did it, right? They just fit the part.

As for the man who was thought to be covered in blood, was it ever confirmed to be blood? Was anything at all discovered about him?
 
Byers apparently gave two different stories about his teeth. One time he said they had been knocked out in a fight. Another time he said he was taking medication which caused his teeth to fall out.
 
Unabogie said:
And is Mark Byers the guy who had his teeth removed? That's totally bizarre. But is there anything concrete that ties him to the murder, aside from being creepy? After all, that's what made people think the boys did it, right? They just fit the part.

As for the man who was thought to be covered in blood, was it ever confirmed to be blood? Was anything at all discovered about him?
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Right. Byers had his teeth yanked right about the time it was announced that an examination of the autopsy photos revealed bite marks. Byers has given inconsistent reasons for why this was done.

I'm not aware of any evidence connecting Byers to the murders except for the knife he gave to HBO, and that's extremely tenuous.

The blood-covered man: AFAIK, it was confirmed that there was blood in the restroom where he cleaned himself up. At least the WMPD isn't disputing that blood was recovered - they just lost the samples. I have heard nothing about him since 1993 or 1994.
 
Accidental Martyr said:
Byers apparently gave two different stories about his teeth. One time he said they had been knocked out in a fight. Another time he said he was taking medication which caused his teeth to fall out.
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And losing teeth is not a reported side-effect of the drug in question. Tegritol?
 
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As for the knife, when questioned by police Byers claimed the knife had never been used at all. When told that blood was found on the knife that was consistent with his and his stepson's, he said he had no idea how it could have gotten there. No conclusive DNA could be obtained from the knife and police apparently took Byers' word about the knife story.
Byers' background, inconsistent statements, arrests, etc. are a story in themselves.
 
Accidental Martyr said:
As for the knife, when questioned by police Byers claimed the knife had never been used at all. When told that blood was found on the knife that was consistent with his and his stepson's, he said he had no idea how it could have gotten there. No conclusive DNA could be obtained from the knife and police apparently took Byers' word about the knife story.
Byers' background, inconsistent statements, arrests, etc. are a story in themselves.
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It's actualy a little worse than that. Byers claimed it had never been used, then maybe it had been used to clean some deer meat, then he didn't know how blood consistent with his and Chris Byers' blood types could have been on that knife.

But I'm not here to convict John Mark Byers.
 
Is there anything anyone can point to that precludes the 3 from having killed the kids, or is it more a matter of reasonable doubt? Is there anything that shows actual innocence?
 
Regarding the evidenciary hearing for the West Memphis 3:



There are a number of important issues that must be determined. First, who will be the judge? Circuit Judge David Burnett, a newly-elected state senator, will no longer hold that position. The administrative judge of the Second Judicial Circuit, Ralph Wilson Jr., will select one of the 11 judges from the district to hear the case as soon as the order for a new hearing becomes final on Nov. 25. Three judges will likely recuse themselves: John Fogleman, Brent Davis and Randy Philhours. Fogleman and Davis served as prosecutors during the original trial. Philhours served as deputy prosecutor under Davis at a time when he was handling the matter for the state.

Wilson could not mention specifics but said the process was underway.

[...]

Once a judge is selected, he or she will talk with legal counsel from each side about the best time to schedule an evidentiary hearing, which is no small task given the attorneys' busy schedules.

Jeff Rosenzweig is an attorney for Jessie Misskelley. He doesn't expect a hearing to begin until the second quarter of next year.
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Link: http://wm3org.typepad.com/blog/#tp

Mods, I'm sorry if I quoted too much. This is a long and complex case.
 
Unabogie said:
Is there anything anyone can point to that precludes the 3 from having killed the kids, or is it more a matter of reasonable doubt? Is there anything that shows actual innocence?
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How could one demonstrate actual innocence in a case like this? The WM3 weren't out of the country or in prison at the time or anything like that.

One of the versions of Jessie Misskelly's confession would tend to be impossible, if that has any merit.

He originally said the boys had skipped school that day, and that they were murdered around noon.

The timeline Jessie gave changed when it was proven that the boys were indeed at school that day.

Whatever the police believed at the moment, that's what Jessie witnessed/confessed.

The compromised autopsies contradicted the noon timeline as well - pointing to the incompetence of law enforcement.
 
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Unabogie said:
And is Mark Byers the guy who had his teeth removed? That's totally bizarre. But is there anything concrete that ties him to the murder, aside from being creepy? After all, that's what made people think the boys did it, right? They just fit the part.

As for the man who was thought to be covered in blood, was it ever confirmed to be blood? Was anything at all discovered about him?
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The West Memphis Police Department lost the blood evidence collected at the Bojangles Chicken restaurant the day after the murders occured.

Draw your own conclusions.
 
John Jones said:
The West Memphis Police Department lost the blood evidence collected at the Bojangles Chicken restaurant the day after the murders occured.

Draw your own conclusions.
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I'm trying to. Was it confirmed as a blood sample? I assume they can do a blood spatter test before swabbing, so they'd at least say "yes, it was blood, and not motor oil", or something like that.
 
John Jones said:
How could one demonstrate actual innocence in a case like this? The WM3 weren't out of the country or in prison at the time or anything like that.

One of the versions of Jessie Misskelly's confession would tend to be impossible, if that has any merit.

He originally said the boys had skipped school that day, and that they were murdered around noon.

The timeline Jessie gave changed when it was proven that the boys were indeed at school that day.

Whatever the police believed at the moment, that's what Jessie witnessed/confessed.

The compromised autopsies contradicted the noon timeline as well - pointing to the incompetence of law enforcement.
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They could come up with alibis, show some impossibility with the timeline, or find DNA not belonging to the WM3 that pointed to someone else. Has there been anything like that?
 
Unabogie said:
I'm trying to. Was it confirmed as a blood sample? I assume they can do a blood spatter test before swabbing, so they'd at least say "yes, it was blood, and not motor oil", or something like that.
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It was 1993. The best I can guess is that it was a blood splatter test the day after the rest room was cleaned.
 
Unabogie said:
They could come up with alibis, show some impossibility with the timeline, or find DNA not belonging to the WM3 that pointed to someone else. Has there been anything like that?
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Unabogie, they already found DNA not belonging to the WM3 that pointed to someone else. It pointed to Terry Moore, and one of his friends.
 
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