Devil's Knot
Mara Leveritt
Simon and Schuster
<span>In 2011, one of the 
greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history was set right
 when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were released 
after eighteen years in prison. Award-winning journalist Mara Leveritt's
 <i>The Devil's Knot</i> remains the most comprehensive, insightful 
reporting ever done on the investigation, trials, and convictions of 
three teenage boys who became known as the West Memphis Three.<br><br>For
 weeks in 1993, after the murders of three eight-year-old boys, police 
in West Memphis, Arkansas seemed stymied. Then suddenly, detectives 
charged three teenagers, alleged members of a satanic cult, with the 
killings. Despite the witch-hunt atmosphere of the trials, and a case 
which included stunning investigative blunders, a confession riddled 
with errors, and an absence of physical evidence linking any of the 
accused to the crime, the teenagers were convicted. Jurors sentenced 
Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley to life in prison and Damien Echols,
 the accused ringleader, to death. The guilty verdicts were popular in 
their home state, even upheld on appeal, and all three remained in 
prison until their unprecedented release in August 2011.<br><br>With 
close-up views of its key participants, this award-winning account 
unravels the many tangled knots of this endlessly shocking case, one 
which will shape the American legal landscape for years to come.</span>
