Misskelley, Baldwin and EcholsWhen it comes to such matters as top pedophile rings, child murders, and satanism, the Law likes to protect the 'bad guys', it seems.
(Anger of Baby P's family as lodger jailed for his death is freed ... / CHILD ABUSE AND TOP PEOPLE?)
1. In 1993, three eight-year-old cub scouts, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers, were found dead in a muddy creek in West Memphis, a small town in eastern Arkansas.
The boys had been tied up and there were reports of satanic ritual and sexual mutilation.
The police arrested three teenagers - Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley junior and Damien Echols, a Goth teenager who liked vampire books and heavy-metal music.
Misskelley, who is reported to be 'mentally backward', temporarily confessed to the crimes.
In 1994, the three teenagers, the West Memphis Three, were found guilty of murdering the cub scouts.
(The West Memphis Three) t
Many people believe that the West memphis Three were framed.
In August 2011, the West Memphis Three were released.
Arkansas accepted an 'Alford plea' from the Three. This allows a person to maintain his innocence while technically pleading guilty.
Misskelley, Baldwin and Echols2. In 2007, it emerged that none of the DNA collected at the crime scene matched the defendants.
But the DNA did match Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the victims, Stevie Branch.
The DNA did match David Jacoby, a friend of Hobbs, whom Hobbs had been with on the day of the murders.
("Second Amended Writ of Habeas Corpus".)
3. The three murdered cubs were Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers.
According to "West Memphis Three - Wikipedia":
The first report to the police that the boys were missing was made by Byers' adoptive father, John Mark Byers, around 7 pm.
John Mark Byers was a frequent paid informant for the West Memphis Police Department.
Byers was abusive to his stepson, and admitted to whipping Christopher with a belt only a few hours before the boys went missing.
Michael Moore was the son of Todd and Dana Moore. Of the three murdered boys, Michael's parents were the only ones who were still married and had never had any criminal charges made against them.
4. The West Memphis Three are Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols.
According to "West Memphis Three - Wikipedia":
Echols had run off with an early girlfriend.
The Police had heard rumors that the young lovers had planned to have a child and sacrifice the infant.
They had had Echols temporarily institutionalized for psychiatric evaluation.
Dr. George W. Woods testified (for the defense) that Echols suffered from:
"... serious mental illness characterized by grandiose and persecutory delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, disordered thought processes, substantial lack of insight, and chronic, incapacitating mood swings."
The police interrogated Jessie Misskelley Jr., whose IQ was reported to be 72.
Dr. Richard Ofshe, an expert on false confessions and police coercion and Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, testified that the brief recording of Misskelley's interrogation was a "classic example" of police coercion.
Critics have also stated that Misskelley's "confession" was in many respects inconsistent with the particulars of the crime scene and murder victims.
Terry HobbsTerry Hobbs is the stepfather of Stevie Branch.
Terry Hobbs comes from a strict and religious family.
His father, Joe Dean Hobbs, was a minister at the Apostolic Pentecost Church.
Terry's father became a skilled butcher while in the military.
DNA testing in 2007 has identified a hair fragment found on Michael Moore's bindings to be consistent with Hobbs.
Terry Hobbs - West Memphis 3 murders Wiki
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. (Terry Hobbs was the stepfather of murdered cub scout Stevie Branch)
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.'
New Dna Evidence In Arkansas Satanic Murder.
