How old were the West Memphis Three when they were convicted in 1994?
West Memphis Three
At the time of their arrests, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was 17 years old, Jason Baldwin was 16 years old, and Damien Echols was 18 years old.
West Memphis Three
Vicki Hutcheson, a new resident of West Memphis, would play an important role in the investigation, though she would later recant her testimony, claiming her statements were fabricated due in part to coercion from police.
Joe Berlinger
The pair went on to direct the Paradise Lost Trilogy--"" (1996), "" (2000), and "" (2011), which earned the pair an Academy Award nomination. The trilogy, shot over two decades, focused on the West Memphis Three, a group of teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of the brutal murder of three children. The trilogy raised doubts about the legitimacy of the teenagers' convictions and spurred a movement to release them from prison, where one of the men was awaiting a death sentence. In 2011, the West Memphis Three were released from their respective death and life sentences after filing an Alford Plea with the Federal Court of Arkansas.
NatWest Three
The NatWest Three, also known as the Enron Three, are three British businessmen – Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew. In 2002 they were indicted in Houston, Texas on seven counts of wire fraud against their former employer Greenwich NatWest, at the time a division of National Westminster Bank.
West Memphis Three
The West Memphis Three are three men who – while teenagers – were tried and convicted, in 1994, of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the children were killed as part of a Satanic ritual.
West Memphis Three
Baldwin and Echols had been previously arrested for vandalism and shoplifting, respectively, and Misskelley had a reputation for his temper and for engaging in fistfights with other teenagers at school. Misskelley and Echols had dropped out of high school; however, Baldwin earned high grades and demonstrated a talent for drawing and sketching, and was encouraged by one of his teachers to study graphic design in college. Echols and Baldwin were close friends, and bonded over their similar tastes in music and fiction, and over their shared distaste for the prevailing cultural climate of West Memphis, situated in the Bible Belt. Baldwin and Echols were acquainted with Misskelley from school, but were not close friends with him.
Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four
In the summer of 1994, Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez were accused of sexually assaulting the seven and nine year-old nieces of Elizabeth Ramirez in San Antonio, Texas. The four openly gay women were charged after a week-long visit from the nieces at Ramirez's apartment. The 19 and 20 year-olds were indicted in an environment of ubiquitous homophobia and the idea that homosexuals are naturally prone to sexually abusing children. The incident was speculated to be "satanic-related" and had no accurate forensic evidence to support it. All were sentenced to 15 years in prison with the exception of 22 year old Ramirez, the supposed "ringleader," who received a 37.5 year sentence. At the time, Ramirez was pregnant and was forced to give up her newborn baby several days after the start of her sentence. Anna and Cassandra were also partners in the midst of raising two children.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky update the case of the West Memphis Three since the release of "Paradise Lost 2: Revelations" in 2000. Damien Echols's defense team has hired some of the most renowned forensic scientists to collect DNA and other evidence that had never been tested during the 1994 trials in hopes of getting a new trial. The defense teams and supporters of Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley have uncovered new details that occurred during the trial that led to guilty verdicts against them.
Wilmington Ten
The Wilmington Ten were nine young men and a woman, who were wrongfully convicted in 1971 in Wilmington, North Carolina of arson and conspiracy. Most were sentenced to 29 years in prison, and all ten served nearly a decade in jail before an appeal won their release. The case became an international "cause célèbre", in which many critics of the city and state characterized the activists as political prisoners.
Some Kind of Monster (film)
Directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky filmed a 1994 documentary called "" on the West Memphis Three, about three teenagers convicted of murder. Metallica allowed their music to be used in the movie, which was the first time Metallica let any film use their music and the band drew attention to the cases. Following success, the directors eventually were interested in a no-holds-barred look at Metallica, which the band later agreed to and became "Some Kind of Monster".
Life imprisonment in England and Wales
In June 1997, the High Court had already stripped the Home Secretary of the power to decide on minimum terms for life sentence prisoners who were convicted before the age of 18, following a legal challenge by solicitors acting for Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The pair had been found guilty of murdering Merseyside toddler James Bulger in 1993, when they were 11 years old. The trial judge's initial recommendation was that they should not be considered for parole for at least eight years. The Lord Chief Justice later ruled that the pair should serve a minimum sentence of 10 years, but following a petition by "The Sun" newspaper, Home Secretary Michael Howard had ruled during 1994 that the pair should not be released until they had spent at least 15 years in custody.
Wrongful execution
George Stinney, a 14-year old black boy, was electrocuted in South Carolina in 1944 for the murder of Betty June Binnicker, age 11, as well as Mary Emma Thames, age 8. The arrest occurred on March 23, 1944 in Alcolu, inside of Clarendon County, South Carolina. Apparently, the two girls rode their bikes past Stinney’s house where they asked him and his sister a certain type of flower; after this encounter, the girls went missing and were found dead in a ditch the following morning. After an hour of interrogation by the officers, a deputy stated that Stinney confessed to the murder. The confession explained that Stinney wanted to have intercourse with Betty, so he wanted to kill Mary to get Betty alone; however, both girls fought back and that is when he killed both of them. This case still remains a very controversial one due to the fact that the judicial process showed severe shortcomings. An example can be made out of this case by showing how the judicial system does not always properly orchestrate. He was the youngest person executed in the United States. More than 70 years later, a judge threw out the conviction, calling it a "great injustice."
Free the West Memphis 3
The liner notes, written by Burk Sauls, assert that the conviction of Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwinwas was a miscarriage of justice: "There is no physical evidence against them. No witnesses. Nothing aside from coerced statements and the vague, incomplete testimony of children", he wrote, stating that the three were limited by poverty to inexperienced public defenders and that "everything about the trials was biased against them, but it didn't matter to the jury because Damien, Jason, and Jessie looked 'evil' to the locals. They were teenagers who liked the kind of music that's on this [album]. They wrote poetry and read Stephen King and Shakespeare and wore black concert T-shirts. That was enough for the judge and jury." The notes advertised the Justice Project's Campaign Against Wrongful Executions and directed readers to wm3.org, a website devoted to freeing Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwinwas.
Matlock Mercury
Stephen Downing, was a 17-year-old with the reading age of an 11-year-old, who was imprisoned for the murder of Wendy Sewell in Bakewell in 1973. He served 27 years in jail. A long campaign by Downing's family and Don Hale, the then editor of the "Matlock Mercury" led to the conviction being declared unsafe by the Court of Appeal in 2001 and Downing was released. Hale was voted Man of the Year by "The Observer" newspaper, Journalist of the Year by "What the Papers Say" and was awarded an Order of the British Empire for his efforts, though he was also criticised for referring to Sewell as the "Bakewell Tart".
Gene Melchiorre
Melchiorre and two of his teammates (Bill Mann and Mike Chinakas) pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in New York. Though the players faced three years in prison, the assistant District Attorney praised the trio's cooperation, and they were given suspended sentences.
Terrible Trio
A second group of Terrible Trio were a young group of thugs who took on the identities of Batman's old foes. Batman soon realized that one of the members was Lucius Fox's son, Timothy Fox (the Vulture). He and two other friends co-opted the identities of the original trio and tried to rob guests of Bruce Wayne's penthouse, but they were subdued and captured by Batman.
In the "Doctor Mid-Nite" mini series, the three have moved their operations to Portsmouth instead of Gotham, and have become the industrial leaders Fisk, Shackley, and Volper, heads of the investment firm Praeda Industries (Praeda meaning "spoils" or "booty", and sharing a root with the word "predator"). In this story, the Trio adopt their guises as part of rituals they perform to bring good fortune to their endeavors, calling upon the spirits of earth, air, and water. The trio attempt to cause simultaneous disasters to much of the city and its coast, leaving only the property in the worst sections of the city - which they owned and could then resell to enormous profit. As part of their plan, the Trio also operate as drug lords, selling the Venom-based steroid A39 to create an army of superstrong zombie-like soldiers. When Doctor Cross begins investigating their affairs they attempt to kill him, but succeed only in apparently blinding him (unbeknownst to them, he gains the abilities that would make him Doctor Mid-Nite). Doctor Mid-Nite foils their plans for the city, and the members of the Trio are caught and sentenced to a total of 800 years in prison.
McDonogh Three
The McDonogh Three is a nickname for the three African-American girls, who, at the age of six, were the first black students to integrate an all-white school in New Orleans. Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost, and Gail Etienne lived in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood where black and white people lived separately by block. Even though segregated schools had been illegal since the "Brown v. Board of Education" case in 1954, no states in the American South had taken action to integrate their schools. Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost had all attended the black-only schools in their neighborhood, until November 14, 1960, when they arrived at a previously all-white segregated school called McDonogh No. 19. On the same day, another six-year-old African-American girl named Ruby Bridges integrated a second New Orleans public school called William Frantz Elementary.
Bill Carter (musician)
Bill and Ruth E. Carter began corresponding with the West Memphis Three's Damien Echols after seeing the documentary film. Echols' wife Lorri Davis brought the Carters a gift of three paper roses made by Damien in prison and representing each of the West Memphis Three. In return, they wrote "Anything Made of Paper" for Echols, its title alluding to the fact, as a death row inmate, Echols could only send and receive gifts made of paper. The song was recorded with Johnny Depp on guitar for the soundtrack to West of Memphis, the documentary film written and directed by Amy Berg and produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Carter performed the song, backed by a band that included Depp, on the Late Show with David Letterman in early 2013.
Benjamin Chavis
At the age of 24, Chavis rose to international prominence in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten, civil rights activists who were convicted with committing arson. As the oldest of the ten, Chavis received the longest sentence. Their convictions and sentences were appealed, and in 1980 all ten were freed due to "prosecutorial misconduct." Chavis returned to graduate school and the field of civil rights, and he became a Vice President of the National Council of Churches.
NatWest Three
On 6 September 2006, the trial date was set for February 2007 if witnesses could be obtained in time, failing that for 4 September 2007. Until that time the Three were required to wear monitoring devices and were forbidden from leaving the Houston area. On 1 August 2007, the trial date was moved back yet again to January 2008. This was following another earlier postponement to 22 October. This further delay was a significant blow to the three, and their supporters stressed again the problems they were facing with the scale of legal fees and further separation from their families in the UK.
West Memphis Three
Many songs were written about the case, and two albums released in support of the defendants. In 2000, The album "Free the West Memphis 3" was released by KOCH Records. Organized by Eddie Spaghetti of the band Supersuckers, the album featured a number of original songs about the case and other recordings by artists such as Steve Earle, Tom Waits, L7, and Joe Strummer. In 2002, Henry Rollins worked with other vocalists from various rock, hip hop, punk and metal groups and members of Black Flag and the Rollins Band on the compilation album "". All money raised from sales of the album are donated to the legal funds of the West Memphis Three. Metalcore band Zao's 2002 album "Parade of Chaos" included a track inspired by the case named "Free The Three". On April 28, 2011, the band Disturbed released a song entitled "3" as a download on their website. The song is about the West Memphis Three, with 100% of the proceeds going to their benefit foundation for their release.
West Memphis Three
Many of the men's supporters, and opponents who still believe them guilty, were unhappy with the unusual plea deal. In 2011, supporters pushed Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe to pardon Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley based on their innocence. Beebe said he would deny the request unless there was evidence showing someone else committed the murders. Prosecutor Scott Ellington said the Arkansas state crime laboratory would help seek other suspects by running searches on any DNA evidence produced in private laboratory tests during the defense team's investigation. This would include running the results through the FBI's Combined DNA Index System database. Ellington said that, although he still considered the men guilty, the three would likely be acquitted if a new trial were held because of the powerful legal counsel representing them now, the loss of evidence over time, and the change of heart among some of the witnesses.
Watkins Overton
Samuel Watkins Overton Jr. was born in Memphis on June 5, 1894 to Samuel Watkins Overton Sr. and Mary Hill Overton. Watkins Overton Jr. was also the great great grandson of Judge John Overton, the founder of Memphis. Watkins Overton Jr. graduated with his AB degree from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. During World War I, he served with the Ambulance Corps of AEF. He earned his LLB from the University of Chicago in 1921. He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Phi Delta Phi, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Order of the Coif. After completing law school, Overton entered the practice of law in Memphis.
Laura Nirider
Damien Echols was a member of the West Memphis Three who had been sentenced to death, but was released in 2011 with Nirider as co-counsel. Nirider uses the cases of Echols and Dassey both to highlight the potential benefits of media attention to cases of wrongful guilt. Featured on the documentary West of Memphis.
West Memphis Three
On August 19, 2011, Misskelley, along with Baldwin and Echols, entered an Alford plea. Judge David Laser then sentenced them to 18 years and 78 days, the amount of time they had served, and also levied a suspended sentence of 10 years. All three were released from prison that same day. Since his release, Misskelley has become engaged to his high school girlfriend and enrolled in a community college to train as an auto mechanic.
West Memphis Three
Atom Egoyan directed a dramatized feature film of the case, titled "Devil's Knot", released in U.S. theaters on May 9, 2014. The film stars Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth.
United States Penitentiary, Florence High
In 2000, seven federal correctional officers who the union called "The Cowboys" were charged with committing misconduct which occurred between January 1995 and July 1997, which included beating and choking handcuffed inmates, mixing waste into the inmates' food, and threatening other officers who objected to their actions. The case went to trial in 2003 and three of the officers, Mike Lavallee, Rod Schultz and Robert Verbickas, were convicted of violating the civil rights of inmate Pedro Castillo by beating him while he was in restraints. Lavallee and Schultz were also convicted of engaging in a conspiracy to commit civil rights violations. All three were sentenced to prison terms.
West Memphis Three
Baldwin was initially resistant to agree to this deal, insisting as a matter of principle that he would not plead guilty to something he did not do. But, he said, his refusal would have meant that Echols stayed on death row. "This was not justice," he said of the deal. "However, they're trying to kill Damien." Since his release, Baldwin has moved to Seattle to live with friends. He is in a relationship with a woman who befriended him while he was in prison. He has stated that he plans on enrolling in college to become a lawyer in order to help wrongfully convicted persons prove their innocence. Baldwin said in a 2011 interview with Piers Morgan that he worked for a construction company and he was learning how to drive.
Birmingham pub bombings
Following their transfer to the custody of the West Midlands Crime Squad, three other members of the Birmingham Six (Callaghan, McIlkenny and Walker) would sign false confessions on 23 November. In these three further false statements obtained by the West Midlands Crime Squad, Callaghan, McIlkenny and Walker each falsely claimed to be members of the IRA; to have conspired with McDade to cause explosions prior to his death; and to have planted the bombs at the "Mulberry Bush" and the "Tavern in the Town" public houses. As had been the case with William Power while detained at Morecambe police station, the three men would claim that, prior to and upon their being transferred to Birmingham, officers had coerced them into signing these confessions through severe physical, psychological and emotional abuse. This mistreatment included beatings, deprivation of food and sleep, being subject to mock executions, intimidation, being burned with lit cigarettes, and being forced to stand or squat in various stress positions. In addition, each man had heard threats directed against their families. Hill and Hunter both claimed they had been subject to the same mistreatment, and although both men had refused to sign false confessions, police would later claim both men had given verbal confessions as to their guilt. On 24 November, each man was initially charged with the murder of 17-year-old Jane Davis, who had been killed in the "Tavern in the Town" explosion. All six were remanded in custody at Winson Green Prison, and each man would only be assigned a solicitor the following day.
Henry Rollins
He has also been active in the campaign to free the "West Memphis Three"—three young men who were believed by their supporters to have been wrongfully convicted of murder, and who have since been released from prison, but not exonerated. Rollins appears with Public Enemy frontman Chuck D on the Black Flag song "Rise Above" on the benefit album "", the first time Rollins had performed Black Flag's material since 1986.
West Memphis Three
Echols self-published the memoir, "Almost Home: My Life Story Vol. 1" (2005), while still in prison. After his release, he has worked on a number of additional media projects.
West Memphis Three
Christopher Byers (June 23, 1984 – May 5, 1993) was born to Melissa DeFir and Ricky Murray. His parents divorced when he was four years old; shortly afterward, his mother married John Mark Byers, who adopted the boy. Byers was eight years old, 4 ft. tall, weighed 52 lbs, and had light brown hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, dark shoes, and a white long sleeved shirt. He lived with his mother, Sharon Melissa Byers, his adoptive father, John Mark Byers, and his stepbrother, Shawn Ryan Clark, aged 13. According to his mother, Christopher was a typical eight-year-old. "He still believed in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus". Christopher Mark Byers is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery East in Memphis, Tennessee.
Silver Spring Three
The Silver Spring Three refers to a Vietnam War era anti-draft action. On May 21, 1969, three young men walked into a Silver Spring, Maryland Selective Service office where they destroyed several hundred draft records to protest the war. Les Bayless (age 22), his brother John Bayless (age 17), and Michael Bransome (age 18) lived at a commune known as Blair House (7421 Blair Road) just down the street from the draft board. Files were mutilated with blood and black paint, office equipment was destroyed, and the office was completely ransacked. The three waited for police and FBI agents to arrive and were arrested.
John E. Douglas
Douglas was consulted in another controversial case known as the "West Memphis Three". In 1993, three eight-year-old boys were murdered and police and the prosecutor's office claimed the children died as a result of a Satanic ritual sacrifice. Three teens were later tried and convicted. Douglas was consulted by the defense in 2006-7, by which time there was new evidence of the three's innocence, and his report concluded that the killings were not related to Satanism but rather were unplanned homicides by a lone adult who knew the victims and felt rage against them. In 2011, the three men were released under an Alford plea.
West Memphis, Arkansas
The first automobiles began crossing the Mississippi River at Memphis in 1917 by special roadways constructed on the Harahan Bridge, which was built for rail traffic and opened in 1916. This heralded the growth of the future West Memphis as its main street, U.S. Highway 70, known as Broadway Avenue, brought an influx of automobile traffic through the area. U.S. Highway 61, named Missouri Street in West Memphis, was constructed at the same time and its juncture with Highway 70 would become the epicenter of downtown West Memphis.
West Memphis was officially incorporated in 1927 and continued to grow to become the largest city in Crittenden County. The availability of river and rail transportation transformed West Memphis into the manufacturing and distribution hub of the county. In the 1930s West Memphis, along with the rest of the Mississippi Delta, suffered due to the economic depression. However, the city grew and developed at a record pace. The most notable export of West Memphis from that era was its original blues music. At one time Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Lockwood, Jr., and B.B. King lived in West Memphis.
West Memphis Three
On June 3, the police interrogated Jessie Misskelley, Jr. Despite his reported IQ of 72 (categorizing him as borderline intellectual functioning) and his status as a minor, Miskelley was questioned alone; his parents were not present during the interrogation. Misskelley's father gave permission for Misskelley to go with police but did not explicitly give permission for his son to be questioned or interrogated. Misskelley was questioned for roughly 12 hours. Only two segments, totaling 46 minutes, were recorded. Misskelley quickly recanted his confession, citing intimidation, coercion, fatigue, and veiled threats from police. Misskelley specifically said he was "scared of the police" during this confession.
3 (Disturbed song)
In the July 2010 issue of "Metal Hammer" magazine, guitarist Dan Donegan talked about the song: "There's also a song about the West Memphis Three...these kids that came from this Bible Belt town and just because they wore black and listened to heavy metal they were found guilty of murder, even though there was no evidence!". "3" was not released along with the album.
Silver Spring Three
The Silver Spring Three were inspired by actions such as the Baltimore Four and the Catonsville Nine. At the time of the raid Les Bayless was out on bail for draft resistance. His trial was presided over by Judge Roszel Cathcart Thomsen (of the Catonsville Nine trial), who gave him a three-year sentence on top of his five-year sentence for draft evasion. Michael Bransome was sentenced to three years in federal prison, spent eight months when prior to a furlough to his home in D.C. he received a death threat from two violent inmates and fled to Canada in 1970. He received political asylum in Sweden in 1971.
West Memphis Three
In January 2010, the CBS television news journal "48 Hours" aired "The Memphis 3", an in-depth coverage of the history of the case including interviews with Echols and supporters. On September 17, 2011, "48 Hours" re-aired the episode with the update of their release and interviews from Echols and his wife, and Baldwin. "Piers Morgan Tonight" aired an episode on September 29, 2011, about the three's plans for the future and continued investigations on the case.
Crimes That Shook Britain
3. Fred and Rose West; in February 1994, police call at the Gloucester home of 52-year-old builder Fred West, investigating the disappearance of his daughter Heather, who was last seen alive in 1987 at the age of 16. They were already familiar with Fred West, having investigated him 18 months earlier for the alleged rape of another teenage daughter. Within weeks, police find the bodies of Heather West and seven other women and girls buried at the house. Fred is charged with the murders, and by the end of April the police have also arrested his wife Rosemary and charged her with the murders. Police had also discovered that Fred's first wife Rena and eight-year-old daughter Charmaine had both disappeared in the early 1970s without being reported missing. Rena's body was soon found buried in a local field, and Charmaine's was buried at the West's previous home in Midland Road, Gloucester. Fred was eventually charged with a total of 12 murders, and Rose with 10 murders. Fred committed suicide on remand at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham on 1 January 1995, and Rose went on trial that autumn at Winchester Crown Court. She was found guilty of all 10 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that she should never be released. At Rose's trial, police heard from a former lodger of the Wests, who told of the sexual abuse that she had suffered at their hands - and for which they had actually both been convicted - two decades earlier. During police questioning, Fred West admitted that he had committed around 30 murders since the 1960s, but police have so far been unable to establish a link between the Wests and any other unsolved murders or disappearances, even though the tabloid media have been to speculate over the years that various other missing women may have fallen victim to the pair.
Wilmington Ten
Each of the ten defendants was convicted of the charges. The men's sentences ranged from 29 years to 34 years for arson, considered severe punishment for a fire in which no one died. Ann Shepard of Auburn, New York, age 35, received 15 years as an accessory before the fact and conspiracy to assault emergency personnel. The youngest of the group, Earl Vereen, was 18 years old at the time of his sentencing. Reverend Chavis was the oldest of the men at age 24. The sentences totaled 282 years.
West Memphis Three
After weeks of negotiations, on August 19, 2011, Echols, Baldwin and 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 Echols's defense on a pro bono basis beginning in 2009, negotiated the plea agreement with prosecutors.
West Memphis Three
Police officers James Sudbury and Steve Jones felt that the crime had "cult" overtones, and that Damien Echols might be a suspect because he had an interest in occultism, and Jones felt Echols was capable of murdering children. The police interviewed Echols on May 7, two days after the bodies were discovered. During a polygraph examination, he denied any involvement. The polygraph examiner claimed that Echols' chart indicated deception. On May 9, during a formal interview by Detective Bryn Ridge, Echols mentioned that one of the victims had wounds to the genitals; law enforcement viewed this knowledge as incriminating.
Menominee Tribe v. United States
In 1962, tribal members Joseph L. Sanapaw, William J. Grignon, and Francis Basina were charged with violating state hunting and fishing regulations. All three admitted to the acts in open court, but claimed that the Wolf River Treaty gave them the right to hunt. The state trial court agreed and acquitted the three. The state was given leave to pursue a writ of error and appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to answer whether the Termination Act canceled those rights retained by treaty.
Westies
Shortly afterward, federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani announced a devastating RICO indictment against Coonan and others for criminal activities going back twenty years. Featherstone testified in open court for four weeks in the trial that began in September 1987 and concluded with major convictions in 1988. Coonan was sentenced to sixty years in prison on assorted charges. Other leading gang members were also sentenced to long prison terms, including McElroy, who was sentenced to 60 years, and Richard "Mugsy" Ritter, a career criminal sentenced to 40 years on loan-sharking and drug related charges.
Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth
In addition to its high-profile representation of "Making a Murderer" subject Brendan Dassey and West Memphis Three member Damien Echols, the CWCY has played a central role in more than twenty cases that have resulted in exoneration through the post-conviction and habeas process. In 2011, CWCY faculty and students used DNA evidence to help exonerate two groups of wrongfully convicted Chicago-area teenagers in widely followed twin murder cases known as the Dixmoor Five and Englewood Four.Both cases involved multiple false confessions from teens. Those cases were nationally noted because in each case, groups of children were convicted of rape-murder charges -- despite DNA evidence excluding all of them at the time of trial -- on the basis of false confessions. Also in 2011, Center faculty and students joined a team of attorneys who won the release of three Arkansas men who had been convicted as teens in the internationally-known case of the West Memphis Three.
Three 6 Mafia
At the same time, on the opposite end of Memphis, Tennessee, their hometown, Juicy J (Jordan Houston), at age 13, was learning how to DJ as well as rap. He had initially wanted to be a singer, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s he fell in love with the gangsta rap style, and he, like his future founding group members across town, wanted to make music like popular artists at the time such as N.W.A. and Geto Boys.
NatWest Three
The NatWest Three were sentenced on 22 February 2008 to 37 months of imprisonment. They were given no remission for the time they had spent in the United States awaiting trial. They were also required to repay $7.3 million to Royal Bank of Scotland, the successor bank to Greenwich NatWest, of which $1.25 million would be due when the men surrendered themselves to prison authorities. During sentencing, the three each made brief statements to the judge. Mulgrew said that he had shown a "lack of integrity" and "exercised poor judgement", concluding that "I have no one to blame but myself". Darby admitted that he was "wrong", and said "I deeply regret my involvement in this whole affair."
West Memphis Three
Damien Wayne Echols (born Michael Wayne Hutchison, December 11, 1974) was on death row, locked-down 23 hours per day at the Varner Unit Supermax. On August 19, 2011, Echols, along with Baldwin and Misskelley, was released from prison after their attorneys and the judge handling the upcoming retrial agreed to a deal. Under the terms of the Alford guilty plea, Echols and his co-defendants accepted the sufficiency of evidence supporting the three counts of first degree murder while maintaining their innocence. DNA evidence at the scene was not found to include any from Echols or his co-defendants.
Music of Arkansas
West Memphis, just across the Mississippi river from Memphis, Tennessee, has its own thriving music scene. When Beale Street would shut down for the night, performers like BB King, Ike Turner, Junior Parker, and Elmore James came to 8th street in West Memphis. Wayne Jackson even said once that "the Memphis sound was born over the river". Jackson was born and raised in West Memphis as was Chicago blues artist Junior Wells. The West Memphis R&B scene was an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Joe Berlinger
After a 2010 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding newly produced DNA evidence, attorneys for the West Memphis Three negotiated with prosecutors an Alford plea allowing them to assert their innocence while acknowledging enough evidence to convict them; the result, on August 19, 2011, was acceptance of the pleas by Judge David Laser, and his reduction of sentence of the three to time served, and their release with 10-year suspended sentences (after 18 years, 78 days in prison).
West Memphis Three
Michael Moore (July 27, 1984 – May 5, 1993) was the son of Todd and Dana Moore. He was eight years old, 4 ft. 2 tall, weighed 55 lbs, and had brown hair. He was last seen wearing blue pants, a blue Boy Scouts of America shirt, and an orange and blue Boy Scout hat, and riding a light green bicycle. Moore enjoyed wearing his scout uniform even when he was not at meetings. He was considered the leader of the three. He lived with his parents and his nine-year-old sister, Dawn. James Michael Moore is buried in Crittenden Memorial Park Cemetery in Marion, Arkansas.
West Memphis Three
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.
M25 Three
The M25 Three were Raphael George Rowe, Michael George Davis, and Randolph Egbert Johnson, who were jailed for life at the Old Bailey in March 1990 after being found guilty of murder and robbery. The name was taken from the location of the crimes, which were committed around the M25, London's orbital motorway, during the early hours of 16 December 1988. The original trial took place between January and February 1990, resulting in all three being convicted of the murder of Peter Hurburgh, causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Timothy Napier and several robberies. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and given substantial sentences for the other offences. Davis also pleaded guilty to separate charges of robbery and Johnson to robbery and rape, offences committed during the commission of an earlier burglary several days before the murder. For these crimes, Davis was sentenced to ten years and Johnson to twelve years. All sentences were concurrent. Rowe also had previous convictions, including malicious wounding.
Video game controversies
Later video game controversies centered on whether some murderers were inspired by crime simulators. In February 2003, 16-year-old American Dustin Lynch was charged with aggravated murder. He pleaded insanity in that he was obsessed with "Grand Theft Auto III". Jack Thompson, an attorney and an opponent of video games, offered to represent Lynch. Thompson encouraged the father of the victim to pass a note to the judge that read "the attorneys had better tell the jury about the violent video game that trained this kid [and] showed him how to kill our daughter, JoLynn. If they don't, I will." Lynch later retracted his insanity plea. His mother, Jerrilyn Thomas, said,
On 7 June 2003, 18-year-old American Devin Moore shot and killed two policemen and a dispatcher after grabbing one of the officers' weapons following an arrest for the possession of a stolen vehicle. At trial, the defense claimed that Moore had been inspired by the video game "". On June 25, 2003, two American step brothers, Joshua and William Buckner, aged 14 and 16, respectively, used a rifle to fire at vehicles on Interstate 40 in Tennessee, killing a 45-year-old man and wounding a 19-year-old woman. The two shooters told investigators they had been inspired by "Grand Theft Auto III". In June 2007, 22-year-old Texan Alejandro Garcia shot and killed his cousin after arguing over whose turn it was to play the game "". He pleaded guilty at his murder trial on 6 April 2011, and was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Following a successful decision in 2010 by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding recently uncovered DNA evidence, the West Memphis Three reached a deal with prosecutors. On August 19, 2011, they entered Alford pleas, which allow them to assert their innocence and were sentenced to time served, effectively freeing them.
Three Investigators
For the original series, the specific ages of the investigators were never revealed, but contextual information indicates that they were likely 13 or 14 years old. They were not old enough to drive a car legally, but were said to be just a few years younger than their nemesis Skinny Norris, who had a driver's license from a state where the required age for a license was younger. On one occasion it was mentioned that Pete was part of the high-school wrestling team. In the later Crimebusters series, it was stated once that the Three Investigators team was initiated when the boys were 13.
West of Memphis
As with the film and its two sequels, "West of Memphis" follows the events of the West Memphis Three, a case in which three teenagers (Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin) were arrested for the murders of three 8-year-old children.
West Memphis Three
Brent Turvey, a forensic scientist and 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 and were not inspected by a board-certified medical examiner until four years after the murders. The defense's expert testified that the mark in question was not an adult bite mark, while experts put on by the State concluded that there was no bite mark at all. The State's experts had examined the actual bodies for any marks, and others conducted expert photo analysis of injuries. Upon further examination, it was concluded that if the marks were bite marks, they did not match the teeth of any of the three convicted.
West Memphis Three
Misskelley was tried separately, and Echols and Baldwin were tried together in 1994. Under the "Bruton rule", Misskelley's confession could not be admitted against his co-defendants; thus he was tried separately. All three defendants pleaded not guilty.
Mayra Dias Gomes
Mayra made a name for herself in Rolling Stone Brazil magazine when she published an article about Damien Echols, an American boy falsely accused, convicted and sent to death row for the murder of three children, in the case known as The West Memphis Three. She later wrote the forward to the Brazilian version of “Devil’s Knot”, by Mara Leveritt, the most important book about the case. Rolling Stone also published her interviews with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, amongst others.
Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth
Since its founding by Steven Drizin in 2009, the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth's faculty and students have helped free more than twenty wrongfully convicted youth through the post-conviction and habeas process, many of whom were serving life sentences. Its clients have included Brendan Dassey, whose case rose to international prominence via the Netflix series "Making a Murderer," and Damien Echols of the so-called West Memphis Three, whose case rose to prominence via a series of documentary films including HBO's "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" and Sir Peter Jackson's "West of Memphis."
West Memphis Three
Echols' mental stability during the years immediately prior to the murders and during his trial was the focus of his appellate legal team in their appeal attempts. In his efforts to win a new trial, Echols, 27 at the time of the appeal, claimed he was incompetent to stand trial because of a history of mental illness. The record on appeal spells out a long history of Echols' mental health problems, including a May 5, 1992, Arkansas Department of Youth Services referral for possible mental illness, a year to the day before the murders. Hospital records for his treatment in Little Rock 11 months before the killings show a history of self-mutilation and assertions to hospital staff that he gained power by drinking blood, that he had inside him the spirit of a woman who had killed her husband, and that he was having hallucinations. He also told mental health workers that he was "going to influence the world."
The Flairz
The Flairz played their first show in December 2003, Dion recalled, "We played at the Arts Centre. We supported Little Birdy. And it was lots of fun... It was like we made real music like a real band." The cousins were ten-years-olds and Stevens had just turned eleven. In April 2004 they appeared on "George Negus Tonight" with Brendan Hutchens declaring, "[they] have been playing together for 5 months now and are causing quite a stir not just because they sound so good but because their average age is 10.5." They won the Primary Category in September 2004 at the West Australian Music Industry Awards for their track, "Sidewalk Surfer".
Will Mastin Trio
The Will Mastin Trio (also Will Maston Trio on some bills) was a troupe of dancers and singers formed by Will Mastin, Sammy Davis Sr., and Sammy Davis Jr. The original members were Sammy Davis Sr., Howard M. Colbert Jr., and Will Mastin, although Sammy Davis Jr. would join them on stage when he was a little boy. Howard M. Colbert Jr. was the tap-dance teacher of Sammy Davis Jr., who treated him much as an uncle. Colbert left the Trio in December 1941 to join the United States Army when the United States declared war on Germany during World War II. Sammy Davis Jr. was 16 years old at this time and became part of the main vaudeville act, replacing Colbert.
West Memphis Three
On February 5, 1994, Misskelley was convicted by a jury of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The court sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison. His conviction was appealed, but the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the conviction.
Dixie Chicks
At a December 2007 rally in [[Little Rock, Arkansas]], Maines expressed support for the [[West Memphis Three]], three men convicted of a 1993 triple murder who many believe to be innocent. Maines cited a recent defense filing implicating Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the victims, and posted similar comments in a letter on the Dixie Chicks' web site. In November 2008, Hobbs sued Maines and the Dixie Chicks for defamation as a result of her statements. On December 2, 2009 a U.S. federal judge dismissed the defamation case on the grounds that Hobbs had not shown the statements were made with [[actual malice]].
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is a 2011 American documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and sequel to their films "" (1996) and "" (2000). The three films are about West Memphis Three, three teenage boys accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas. "Purgatory" offers an update on the case of the West Memphis Three, who were all recognized guilty of the murders in 1994 but kept on claiming their innocence since then, before culminating with the trio's attempt at an Alford plea.
West Memphis Three
Echols spent several months in a mental institution in Arkansas and afterward received "full disability" status from the Social Security Administration. During Echols' trial, Dr. George W. Woods testified (for the defense) that Echols suffered from:
Devil's Knot (film)
These four documentaries center on the West Memphis Three:
West Memphis Three
In September 2008, attorney (now judge) Daniel Stidham, who represented Misskelley in 1994, testified at a postconviction relief hearing. Stidham testified under oath that during the trial, Judge David Burnett erred by making an improper communication with the jury during its deliberations. Stidham overheard Judge Burnett discuss taking a lunch break with the jury foreman and 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," and that the foreman asked in return what would happen if the defendant was acquitted. 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 and that Misskelley's conviction should therefore be vacated.
Meadville, Mississippi
In 1998 Thomas Moore, the older brother of Charles, began to re-investigate the murders of his brother and Dee. With the aid of journalists who found the 1964 FBI files thought to have been lost, he discussed the case with the local district attorney. Contacted by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer David Ridgen, Moore worked with him on a documentary film about his search for justice, called "Mississippi Cold Case" (2007). With the FBI files and new evidence, the US Attorney Dunn Lampton re-opened and prosecuted the case. James Ford Seale, a former police officer who had been arrested in 1964, was indicted and prosecuted; he was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to three life terms.
Richard Ofshe
Ofshe gave testimony in the case of the West Memphis 3, three boys tried and convicted for the murders of three children in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis, Arkansas, United States during 1993. Damien Echols, the alleged ringleader, was sentenced to death. Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin were sentenced to life in prison. The case has received considerable attention. Many critics charge that the arrests and convictions were a miscarriage of justice inspired by a misguided moral panic and that the defendants were wrongfully convicted during a period of intense media scrutiny and so-called "satanic panic" of the 1980s and '90s. During Jessie's trial, Ofshe testified that the recording was a "classic example" of police coercion. The West Memphis Three were finally released from prison.
West Memphis Three
John Mark Byers, the adoptive father of victim Christopher Byers, gave a knife to cameraman Doug Cooper, who was working with documentary makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky while filming the first "" feature. The knife was a folding hunting knife manufactured by Kershaw. According to the statements given by Berlinger and Sinofsky, Cooper informed them of his receipt of the knife on December 19, 1993. After the documentary crew returned to New York, Berlinger and Sinofsky were reported to have discovered what appeared to be blood on the knife. HBO executives ordered them to return the knife to the West Memphis Police Department. The knife was not received at the West Memphis Police Department until January 8, 1994.
West Memphis Three
Three weeks later, Echols and Baldwin went on trial. The prosecution accused the three young men of committing a Satanic murder. The prosecution called Dale W. Griffis, a graduate of the unaccredited Columbia Pacific University, as an expert in the occult to testify the murders were a Satanic ritual. On March 19, 1994 Echols and Baldwin were found guilty on three counts of murder. The court sentenced Echols to death and Baldwin to life in prison.
Benjamin Chavis
Chavis worked in the civil rights movement, leading a march in 1970 to the state capital in protest after three white men were acquitted of killing Henry D. Marrow in Oxford. He was a leader of the Wilmington Ten, who all were convicted of arson during a civil rights protest in the city for school desegregation. The oldest at 24, he was sentenced to 34 years in prison and served two years. The convictions and sentences were appealed. In 1980 the federal appeals court overturned the convictions, citing "prosecutorial misconduct." and ordering a new trial. The city decided against a trial.
Rectify
Damien Echols, who as one of the West Memphis 3 was convicted and served nearly two decades in prison before being released in part based on DNA evidence, wrote about the series in "The Huffington Post:" ""Rectify" is the story of a man who was sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit, and spent 19 years on death row before getting out. Much like my own real life case, the local politicians refuse to admit he's innocent even after DNA testing points towards someone else. In fact, there was so much about this show that mirrored my own life I began to wonder how much of my story had crept into the script." And, "I can tell you from first hand experience that "Rectify" is a very realistic show."Abigail Spencer was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2013. For the 67th Writers Guild of America Awards, Kate Powers and Ray McKinnon were nominated for Best Episodic Drama for "Donald the Normal". For the 5th Critics' Choice Television Awards, Aden Young was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama Series.
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
On May 5, 1993, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steven Branch went missing from their homes in West Memphis, Arkansas. The next day, their bodies were found in the woods near their homes with evidence showing they had been brutally beaten and savagely murdered. In Byers' case the evidence revealed that he had been castrated, and his private part had been skinned before he was killed. News of the boys' deaths and the manner in which it happened soon reached the inhabitants of the small community. The rumor then spread that the nature of Byers' death, in particular hinted that the deaths may have been related to a Satanic ritual.
Miami Showband killings
A third person, former UDR soldier John James Somerville (aged 37, a lorry-helper and the brother of Wesley), was arrested following an RUC raid in Dungannon on 26 September 1980. He was charged with the Miami Showband murders, the attempted murder of Stephen Travers, and the murder of Patrick Falls in 1974. He was given a total of four life sentences (three for the murders of the Miami Showband members and one for the Falls murder) on 9 November 1981; he had pleaded not guilty. The three convicted UVF men, although admitting to having been at the scene, denied having shot anyone. None of the men ever named their accomplices, and the other UVF gunmen were never caught. The three men were sent to serve their sentence in the Maze Prison, on the outskirts of Lisburn. "Fortnight Magazine" reported that on 1 June 1982, John James Somerville began a hunger strike at the Maze to obtain special category status. Crozier, McDowell, and Somerville were released after 1998 under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Walking in Memphis
Marc Cohn was inspired to write "Walking in Memphis" by a 1985 visit to the Memphis, Tennessee area: he was then based in New York City working as a session singer while pursuing a recording contract - "One night while listening to all of my demos, I came to the realization that I shouldn't be signed, because I didn't have any great songs yet. My voice was good and the demos were interesting, but the songs were only just okay. I was 28 years old and not in love with my songs. James Taylor had written 'Fire and Rain' when he was 18, and Jackson Browne wrote 'These Days' when he was only 17. I thought: 'I'm already ten years older than these geniuses. It's never going to happen for me.' So it was a pretty desperate time, and I went to Memphis with that struggle at the forefront of my mind." Cohn made his first excursion to Memphis after reading an interview with James Taylor in which Taylor stated he overcame writer's block by "go[ing] somewhere I've never been, hoping to find some idea I wouldn't get just by sitting at home": Cohn emulated Taylor, choosing Memphis as his destination - "I always knew it was a place I had to visit because so much of my favorite music came from there. From Al Green, Ann Peebles, and everything on Hi Records, to Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, David Porter, and the Stax catalog, an almost endless stream of brilliance and soul came out of Memphis. I was aware early on that ... there was something going on in Memphis that was utterly inexplicable. It was part of what made me want to be a musician in the first place."
Gerard Ouimette
In autumn 1995, Ouimette and Deluca were convicted on both counts of extortion. At the sentencing on February 1, 1996, U.S. District Judge sErnest C. Torres said, "There is no suspense left here," and sentence Ouimette to life imprisonment without parole. Ouimette was the first criminal in New England, and the fourth in the United States, to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, the mandated sentence for criminals convicted of three or more violent offenses under the "three strikes and you're out" provision of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Deluca was sentenced to 10.5 years for his role.
West Memphis Three
Three films, "", "", and "", directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, have documented this case and are strongly critical of the verdict. The films marked the first time Metallica allowed their music to be used in a movie, which drew attention to the case.
Nine Trey Gangsters
In February 2014, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced that following a trial that began on February 11, 2014, three members of the gang, including Thaddaeus Snow, were convicted by a federal jury for racketeering, robbery, cocaine distribution, sex trafficking and firearms-related offenses. Upon this conviction, 24 individuals named in the initial September 2013 indictment were also subsequently convicted.
NatWest Three
US arrest warrants for the Three were issued in June 2002. They were indicted by a grand jury in Houston, Texas in September of the same year on seven counts of wire fraud. The warrants were among the first issued by Enron prosecutors and media reports speculated that their main purpose was to induce the Three into a plea bargain whereby they would testify against Kopper and Fastow (seen as more important prosecution targets) in exchange for reduced sentences.
West Memphis Three
Arrested in Oceanside on May 17, 1993, Morgan and Holland both took polygraph exams administered by California police. Examiners reported that both men's charts indicated deception when they denied involvement in the murders. During subsequent questioning, Morgan claimed a long history of drug and alcohol use, along with blackouts and memory lapses. He claimed that he "might have" killed the victims but quickly recanted this part of his statement.
John Thanos
John Frederick Thanos (March 28, 1949 – May 17, 1994) was convicted in 1992 of the September 1990 murders of three teenagers: Billy Winebrenner, Gregory Taylor, and Melody Pistorio.
West Memphis Three
The citing of a black male as a possible alternate suspect was implied during the beginning of the Misskelley trial. According to local West Memphis police officers, on the evening of May 5, 1993, at 8:42 pm, workers in the Bojangles' restaurant located about a mile from the crime scene in Robin Hood Hills reported seeing a black male who seemed "mentally disoriented" inside the restaurant's ladies' room. The man was bleeding and had brushed against the restroom walls. Officer Regina Meeks responded to the call, taking the restaurant manager's report through the eatery's drive-through window. By then, the man had left, and police did not enter the restroom on that date.
West Memphis Three
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. Arnold was accused of advocating for the guilt of the West Memphis Three and 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 and Damien Echols.
West Memphis Three
On or about June 1, 1993, Hutcheson agreed to police suggestions to place hidden microphones in her home during an encounter with Echols. Misskelley agreed to introduce Hutcheson to Echols. During their conversation, Hutcheson reported that Echols made no incriminating statements. Police said the recording was "inaudible", but Hutcheson claimed the recording was audible. On June 2, 1993, Hutcheson told police that about two weeks after the murders were committed, she, Echols, and Misskelley attended a Wiccan meeting in Turrell, Arkansas. Hutcheson claimed that, at the Wiccan meeting, a drunken Echols openly bragged about killing the three boys. Misskelley was first questioned on June 3, 1993, a day after Hutcheson's purported confession. Hutcheson was unable to recall the Wiccan meeting location and did not name any other participants in the purported meeting. Hutcheson was never charged with theft. She claimed she had implicated Echols and Misskelley to avoid facing criminal charges, and to obtain a reward for the discovery of the murderers.
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
Author Mara Leveritt makes numerous comparisons of the Memphis Three trials to the Salem Witch Trials, stating that the three Memphis defendants were convicted based on the "Satanic Craze" the community was surrounded by after the murders. Actual evidence used by the prosecution during the trials included pictures of Metallica T-shirts worn by Jason Baldwin and books checked out by Damien Echols at his public library; the prosecutions' cases offered little more than circumstantial evidence. Eventually, all three defendants were convicted of the murders, with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley receiving life sentences without parole, and Damien Echols receiving the death penalty.Atom Egoyan directed the 2013 film adaptation, starring Colin Firth as Ron Lax and Reese Witherspoon as Pamela Hobbs, mother of Steven Branch.
NatWest Three
Darby's lawyer stated that "Andy Fastow and the culture of greed at Enron corrupted everybody and everything it came in contact with", and added that the Three "are as much victims as anybody else." The Three requested to be assigned to the low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. In April 2008, each was assigned to a different prison: Mulgrew was ordered to surrender to the facility in Big Spring, Texas on 30 April; Giles Darby to the Allenwood facility on 7 May; and David Bermingham to the prison in Lompoc, California, on 9 May.
West Memphis Three
Jessie Misskelley Jr. (born July 10, 1975) was arrested in connection to the murders of May 5, 1993. After a reported 12 hours of interrogation by police, Misskelley, who has an IQ of 72, confessed to the murders, and implicated Baldwin and Echols. However, the confession was at odds with facts known by police, such as the time of the murders. Under the ""Bruton" rule", his confession could not be admitted against his co-defendants and thus he was tried separately. Misskelley was convicted by a jury of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The court sentenced him to life plus 40 years in prison. His conviction was appealed and affirmed by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Amy J. Berg
Berg has directed the 10-minute-long documentary film "Polarized" (2007) for Al Gore's Live Earth Pledge. She also produced "Bhutto", a documentary feature that played at Sundance 2010. "West of Memphis" (2012), produced by Peter Jackson and Damien Echols, documents the story of the West Memphis Three, who were convicted as teenagers of the 1993 murder of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The film has received critical acclaim and won numerous awards at film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival, where the film premiered in January 2012, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
West Memphis Three
The appellate legal team argued that Echols did not waive his assertion that he was not mentally competent before his 1994 trial because he was not competent to waive it. To assist in the appeals process, Echols' appellate legal team retained a Berkeley, California-based forensic psychiatrist, Dr. George Woods, to make their case.
West Memphis Three
Stevie Branch (November 26, 1984 – May 5, 1993) was the son of Steven and Pamela Branch, who divorced when he was an infant. His mother was awarded custody and later married Terry Hobbs. Branch was eight years old, 4 ft. 2 tall, weighed 65 lbs, and had blond hair. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt, and riding a black and red bicycle. He was an honor student. He lived with his mother, Pamela Hobbs, his stepfather, Terry Hobbs, and a four-year-old half-sister, Amanda. Steve Edward Branch is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery in Steele, Missouri.
M25 Three
They were released from prison on 17 July 2000 when their convictions were overturned after being ruled "unsafe" by the Court of Appeal. In the ruling, Lord Justice Mantell, Mr Justice Blofeld and Mrs Justice Rafferty were emphatic that although the convictions were unsafe, they were not declaring the men innocent: "[T]he case against all three appellants was formidable. The evidence against Rowe was overwhelming... For the better understanding of those who have listened to this judgment and of those who may report it hereafter this is not a finding of innocence, far from it." On his release, Davis stated that it had been "a very long and hard battle to prove my innocence", and that they were "innocent" regardless of what the judges had said. Rowe said: "I know the judges were involved in a damage limitation exercise. But what they said was diabolical. They didn't say I was guilty, but that's how everyone interpreted it. I have battled every day of the last 12 years to prove I was set up by the police, to prove I am not a murderer. It has been my passion. I am free now, but it's as if I'm still inside. I'm still trying to get my voice heard."
Ricky Jackson, Ronnie Bridgeman, and Wiley Bridgeman
Ricky Jackson (born 1957), Ronnie Bridgeman (born 1957) and Wiley Bridgeman (born 1954) are African Americans who were wrongfully convicted of murder as young men in Cleveland, Ohio in 1975 and sentenced to death. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment in 1977. They were imprisoned for decades before each of the three was exonerated in late 2014. Jackson and Wiley Bridgeman were released that year. (Ronnie Bridgeman, by then known as Kwame Abuja, had been paroled in 2003 after 28 years in prison, and had been successful in his new life.) 
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Jackson was imprisoned for 39 years on this wrongful conviction. This is believed to be the longest record for someone who has been exonerated. Wiley Bridgeman served nearly as long.
NatWest Three
After a high-profile battle in the British courts they were extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States in 2006. On 28 November 2007, each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in exchange for the other charges being dropped. On 22 February 2008 they were each sentenced to 37 months in prison. Initially they were jailed in the US, but were later repatriated to UK prisons to serve out the rest of their sentences and released from custody in August 2010.
West Midlands Serious Crime Squad
At least 40 convictions failed in the 1980s as a result of likely malpractice. Beginning with the case of Paul Dandy in 1987, new forensic techniques were used to show when statements had been tampered with, usually adding incriminating phrases. As cases began to regularly collapse in the late 1980s, pressure mounted to investigate the squad. Clare Short raised the issue in Parliament in January 1989. The Birmingham Six's convictions were quashed in 1991. A series of other less high profile convictions based on the squad's investigations were quashed on appeal, including the cases of George Glen Lewis, Keith Twitchell, and on 17 October 2014, Martin Foran who had been wrongly convicted in 1978 for four counts of robbery. As of January 2017 a total of 60 appellants have had their convictions quashed. A total of over 100 cases either collapsed or were quashed on appeal.
West Memphis Three
Three eight-year-old boys—Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers—were reported missing on May 5, 1993. The first report to the police was made by Byers' adoptive father, John Mark Byers, around 7:00 pm. The boys were allegedly last seen together by three neighbors, who in affidavits told of seeing them playing together around 6:30 pm the evening they disappeared, and seeing Terry Hobbs, Steve Branch's stepfather, calling them to come home. Initial police searches made that night were limited. Friends and neighbors also conducted a search that night, which included a cursory visit to the location where the bodies were later found.
West Memphis Three
Police initially suspected the boys had been raped; however, later expert testimony disputed this finding despite trace amounts of sperm DNA found on a pair of pants recovered from the scene. Prosecution experts claim Byers' wounds were the results of a knife attack and that he had been purposely castrated by the murderer; defense experts claim the injuries were more probably the result of post-mortem animal predation. Police believed the boys were assaulted and killed at the location where they were found; critics argued that the assault, at least, was unlikely to have occurred at the creek.