I had the dubious fortune of living in Memphis, Tennessee for three years, beginning in October, 1993. That May, three beautiful boys were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, right over the state line. While I lived in Memphis three innocent young men were tried and convicted for these crimes, based on little or no evidence whatsoever.

This travesty of justice has left two young men (Jesse Misskelley and Jason Baldwin) in prison for life, and one young man (Damien Echols) on death row. They sit in prison after over a decade, waiting for someone, somehow, somewhere to undo the mess made of the trials and free them.

Jason Baldwin's significant crime was wearing hard rock t-shirts. Jesse Misskelley erred by being borderline retarded and being forced to confess by the police. Damien wore black and flirted with Wicca, the Goth lifestyle, and listened to heavy metal and rock and roll. These things obviously made him a suspect for something, anything, and this crime was as good a match for his wild ways as the police in the area were able to find. There was no other evidence linking them to the crime - just Jesse's error-ridden confession (extracted after twelve hours in interrogation, only a fraction of which was recorded) and the testimony of a few flaky kids who were said to have overheard Damien confess.

The cast of characters includes a crazy drug-addled stepfather of one of the murdered boys, himself a pretty nice looking addition to the "person of interest list", although he never was investigated. There was the bloody, mumbling man in a restaurant bathroom the evening of the murders, who the police refused to investigate at the time, but looked into a few days later. There was the cocky Chief Investigator who refused to consider there might have been a different murderer. There was an initial FBI profile that said they were looking for a Vietnam veteran based on the patterns of wounds on the children. There was the newspaper reporter who decided that since it was close to a "pagan holiday" (May 1, the murders happened on May 5th or 6th) and a full moon, it must have been a Satanic Ritual Murder. There was the local woman in trouble with the law who tried to get her young son (a friend of the murdered boys) to testify that he'd seen the whole thing from the woods. The same woman later convinced Jesse Misskelley to go to the police to give a similar story. There were the countless people in Arkansas and the surrounding area who allowed Satanic Panic to fill their hearts and make them grab at the first possible suspect: a kid who wore black and his friends.

Most of the trials hinged on the testimony of Jesse Misskelley. Jesse, with an I.Q. of 72, was subjected to God knows what by the police during those twelve hours. We know that he took and passed a lie detector test, yet was told by the police that he'd failed. An expert on coerced confessions heard the fraction of Jesse's interrogation that was recorded, and testified that it was a "classic example" of police coercion*. Jesse gave wrong piece of information after wrong piece - virtually everything he said that was right was coerced and led by the police officers. There was no physical evidence linking any of the three young men to the crime: in fact, the police department destroyed most of the physical evidence by incredibly improper crime scene behavior. There were no credible eye witnesses. There was no motive. There was nothing beyond the Satanic Panic and the rush to justice of the people in West Memphis. Nothing, yet three young men have had their lives stolen, not unlike those three young boys who were murdered.

I was not a mother when this happened, I had at the time no interest in children, yet every day as I read the Memphis Commercial Appeal I cried at the photos of those beautiful baby faces. I still cry, especially now that I look at my son, who is not that far from the age of riding a bike and hanging out with his buddies. I cry now, for the babies, for the people who love them, and for the young men in prison and their families. I cry because I think of six lives destroyed by this travesty, and so many others touched and ripped apart forever.

I don't understand why there isn't more outrage about this. I don't know if people haven't heard of it, I don't know if people are just jaded to yet another example of perverted justice. I don't know if it's just "old news" now, after almost 15 years. It breaks my heart.

Please, if this raises any of your hackles, investigate it on your own. The website is full of information regarding the case including recent news and transcripts, and two different synopsis of the case, one by an interested and devoted supporter of the WM3 (Burk Sauls) and another by one of the attorneys for the case. There are also two excellent HBO movies made, Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2 which I highly recommend. Both are available at Netflix. I can direct you also to an extensive Crime Library article regarding the case.

All that I ask is that, if you are so inclined, you share this with other people and help put this case out before the public in hopes that someday, some way something will happen to fix what has been broken. Meanwhile, say a prayer, light a candle, hold your thumbs - whatever it is you do, for the souls of the three boys, and the lives of the three men.

*1. From page 2 of Burk Sauls' case synopsis: http://wm3.org/live/caseintroduction/synopsis_burk.php?page=2