Please watch this video.

[yehren]

If this is the wrong place for this I apologize.

wm3.vox.com/library/post/48-hours-a-cry-for-innocence---watch-here.html?_c=feed-atom

I know it's a bit long for an internet video, but when you get a chance please click the above link and give it a watch, especially if you're not familiar with the cases of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Misskelly, the West Memphis Three.

[Eric Donavan]

It's hard to select the right word for how this made me feel after watching it. Anger is certainly one sensation...anger that the very people who are employed to not only serve and protect, but to offer a fair hearing to even those of whom there is certainty of their guilt...can be so consumed with satiating a people's need for justice that they can ignore anything contrary to their first conclusion.

I had not heard of this case until now as I tend to not follow the news very much. But after watching this...my belief is that none of these three men did what they are being accused of. The lack of evidence, the inconsistent stories and a serious dose of tunnel vision on the part of all involved with the trial and prosecution is about as plain as it gets. What the state of Arkansas has in the case of this situation is a near-irreversible dose of tunnel vision and an inability to admit or even consider the possibility that they screwed up royally.

The nature of the crime alone should demand more than the reactions and actions that occurred in the aftermath of it. That more time and effort wasn't given to make certain that the evidence was undeniable and that every possible lead was explored, instead of relying on the fad of the times and stories that sound even more flimsy now than they did then...is irresponsible and not only is costing these three their lives, one more immediately than the others, but allowing the true culprit to possibly repeat its/their actions again and again if they so choose.

I don't claim to be an expert in any way, shape or form...I simply know what I believe. And in this case...I believe that these three are innocent.

[sjk]

Amen to that brother. Amen.
These boys need more than just our words at this point however. They need all of the support and backing that each and every one of us who has any respect for Justice can give.

[Michaelina Summers]

I don't know why this case hasn't been brought forward to the supreme court by now. If it has and it was not overturned due to lack of evidence, then obviously someone is ignoring the fact of mens rea. But then you wonder if there was an investigation to their alibis, and what autopsies of the children revealed, what suspicions led them to arrest the three that they did.

I didn't get to watch the whole thing because firefox won't stop CRASHING. I might have to reformat my computer and just reinstall everything again. So maybe all my questions are answered, I just didn't get to watch past the first segment before a necessary commercial crashed it.

Anyway, I did become a fan of their facebook to track it.

[aurorajansen]

This is another case much like that of Leonard Peltier, where they desperately needed a scapegoat to allay public fears and punish someone, ANYONE for a terrible crime.

There needs to be as much exposure on this as possible...most of my friends are already aware and do what they can. Bekka's got a good idea too - follow them on facebook, raise the visibility. The more people that know about this and cases like this, the better.

[yehren]

Being an unemployed college student, there's unfortunately not a ton of things I can do to directly help. But I do things like this to make more people aware, and I got one of the shirts from wm3.org and any time I'm at a public event where I'll be on camera or I'm at any non-formalwear function I make sure to wear it.

The one refreshing moment of the video I linked was John Mark Byers. I remember seething whenever he was on camera when I was watching "Paradise Lost," seeing him with the shirt, seeing him shaking hands of other supporters saying "I'm just here for the truth" is... a little surreal, but again it's refreshing.

Michaelina; early autopsies led investigators at the time to think a sirrated knife made some of the wounds, and a knife was brought in as an exhibit in court and somehow vaguely linked to the three. In later examinations, different experts all unanimously agreed that the marks were made post-mortem by animals. They were led to the three because a juvenlie probation officer thought Echols was a satanist. That plus Jesse Misskelly was brought in and confessed, then confessed again when the first confession was completely factually wrong, then one or two more times until they fed him enough information, over the course of hours with no parents or lawyers present, only recording part of the interrogation. There was an investigation of their alibis, not gone over in this video, but they did have alibis.