New DNA Evidence in West Memphis Three Case

[Miss Anthrope]

Finally some news in the West Memphis Three case. For fourteen years, three young men (two were juveniles at the time of their incarceration) have been sitting behind bars. One, Damien Echols, is on death row. Three young children were murdered in the most unthinkable way. Six lives, lost or otherwise ruined.

I'm among those that have thought this case was a travesty. I have always suspected one of the victim's step father, John Mark Byers, was someone who needed to be looked at.

Now, the DNA evidence is related to another father. I do realize there could be a lot of explanations...and this is hardly a smoking gun, but the complete lack of DNA evidence found for any of the West Memphis Three is questionable. This flimsy bit of DNA is stronger than anything that put those men in jail, or kept them there on appeal.

More interesting info in the article:

Pam Hobbs, who lives in Blytheville, said a lieutenant for the West Memphis Police Department also questioned her about her family’s activities around the time of the slayings. In the last couple of months, she has stated publicly that she now believes that the men convicted of the murders — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr . — are not guilty.

“We have stages of grieving that we go through,” she said. “I guess I came to forgiveness. I’ve always wanted to know the truth, and when I was called by the defense — knowing the DNA was being retested — I guess that was the big eye-opener.”

Pam Hobbs said she “chose to believe all those years” that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were guilty, despite her realization during the trials that the prosecutors “didn’t have anything” and persistent doubts afterwards that the defendants “were smart enough or hateful enough to have done it by themselves and clean it up.”

The state medical examiner ruled that Stevie and Michael died by drowning and that Christopher, who’d suffered stab wounds to his groin, died from loss of blood.

Pam Hobbs said that in 2002, at a point when she and Terry Hobbs were separating, she sent a package containing “14 or 15 knives” owned by her husband to one of the defense lawyers.
Pam Hobbs said that she had done so after discovering among the knives “a little pocket knife” that her father had given to Stevie.

She said Stevie “carried it around with him all the time, because it was like part of his granddaddy. He would have had it May the fifth. He carried it with him from the day my daddy gave it to him until the day he was murdered.”

Asked why, five years ago, she had given the knives to a lawyer for the defense, she said it was because she “didn’t trust the prosecution ... because of the evidence that was not presented at the trials.”

So now we have two parents of the murdered children coming forward to say they believe the West Memphis Three are not guilty. Christopher Byer's biological father and now Hobbs. It's not that I would discount that she's angry...but again--this is still more compelling than the case against them. And it certainly could equal reasonable doubt.

ETA: If you want to learn just how much of a travesty this case is, read The Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt, the reporter who authored this article. Also check out www.wm3.org

The documentaries Paradise Lost and it's sequel, are graphic and disturbing. I think, especially the second one, certainly have their pro-defendent bias. Leveritt's book is much more informative, has many source notes for research, and started out from an objective search for the facts. Paradise Lost certainly brings color and animation to the story, especially with respect to John Mark Byers. He must be seen to be believed.

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Oh, thank you Youtube.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I can't believe that in a case where the murderer left bitemarks on the victim, and the suspects' bitemarks don't match, and the father of the victim had his teeth removed during the investigation, nobody thought that was worth redirecting suspicion.

 

[Beerina]

Well, it's stuff like this that shows the excruciatingly slow pace of death penalty cases can be worth it.

 

[billydkid]

I saw the Paradise Lost movie years ago and have checked in on the case from time to time. The whole thing is completely appalling. Clearly, that Byers guy was completely out of his mind. It's truly frightening.

 

[Miss Anthrope]

Well, it's stuff like this that shows the excruciatingly slow pace of death penalty cases can be worth it.

In Echols' case, yes. What bothers me the most, is that these guys are rapidly approaching the point where they've spent more of their young lives in Prison than free.

 

[Miss Anthrope]

I can't believe that in a case where the murderer left bitemarks on the victim, and the suspects' bitemarks don't match, and the father of the victim had his teeth removed during the investigation, nobody thought that was worth redirecting suspicion.

Yes!! Even after he gave the film crew a knife that he said had never been used, yet had blood on it that could have belonged to his son. Even after the multiple arrests of this person. Even after it was discovered the man made horrid death threats to his first wife that were recorded, and called terroristic threatening until his record was magically expunged. And even after his wife, Chris Byer's mother, died under suspicious circumstances.

I often wonder, what could Byers possibly have known or done as a drug informant to keep him out of jail so often?