Associated Press: West Memphis 3 Update 4/15/08
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Judge in 1993 boys' slayings 'ready to get it over with'
By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press Writer
728 words
15 April 2008
17:03
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2008. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) - After almost 15 years, Judge David Burnett returned to the bench Tuesday to discuss appeals by the men convicted of killing three West Memphis second graders in a case that shocked Arkansas.
Burnett wasn't happy about it -- and made that much clear to attorneys.
"I want to wrap this up. It's been 15 years. I'm ready to get it over with one way or the other," Burnett told a packed Craighead County courtroom. "I don't care what the outcome is. I just want the attorneys to do their business so I can do mine."
Five lawyers for Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley -- known to sympathizers as the "West Memphis Three" -- have 45 days to file appeals and other motions to Burnett. Prosecutors will have time to respond before an Aug. 20 hearing to plan out a three-week slate of hearings in September on new DNA evidence in the 1993 murders of Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.
If held, the hearings would be more time than the 13 days it took for a jury in 1994 to convict and recommend death for Echols and a life sentence without parole for Baldwin. Misskelley received a life plus 40 year sentence for the killings in a separate trial.
Burnett barred lawyers working on the case from talking to reporters before the new hearings, issuing a gag order in the first minutes of the almost hourlong hearing.
"I'm tired of reading about this case in the newspapers," Burnett said. "If I see any reports attributed to attorneys, they will be held in contempt."
But talk about the case, popularized by two documentaries, Web sites and musicians like Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, likely will grow after a federal judge ordered a lengthy appeal by Echols to first be heard by Burnett.
Lurid details and accounts of Satanism filled their original trials. Police found the bodies of the 8-year-old boys a day after they disappeared from their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood May 5, 1993. Their hands bound to their legs by shoelaces, the boys showed signs of suffering severe beatings before being left in a drainage ditch.
A month passed and the community posted a $30,000 reward before police arrested the three teens. Misskelley told investigators how he watched Baldwin and Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys as he ran down another trying to escape. Misskelley later refused to testify against his co-defendants.
Documentaries shot about the case helped it garner more attention and donations for the trio's legal defense. A new appeal on Echols' behalf focuses on DNA evidence unable to be analyzed at the time of their convictions.
Echols' attorneys say that evidence shows no trace of the three convicted in the killings. Testimony from forensic experts in the appeal claim the mutilation of one of the boys likely came from an animal after their deaths -- rather than prosecutors' claims about satanic rituals.
John Philipsborn, an attorney for Baldwin, said he may want more testing done on fibers collected during the police investigation in the case. However, Burnett stressed the case must move forward and be heard in the time set aside in September.
"That should be ample time for you," Burnett said. "We're not going to dog around."
San Francisco-based attorney Dennis Riordan, who represents slugger Barry Bonds in his perjury case, now helms Echols' defense team. He declined to comment on his way out of the courtroom, simply telling a group of waiting reporters and videographers he would "obey the judge's order."
Prosecutor Brent Davis, who originally handled the men's prosecutions, also declined to comment.
Several uniformed sheriff's deputies stood near the courtroom before the hearing, scrutinizing those coming in. Sheriff Jack McCann sat in the front wooden bench in front of a group of supporters of the convicted men. Among them was Lorri Davis, Echols' wife.
Davis, who married Echols in a prison ceremony in 1999, perhaps for the first time found herself agreeing with the judge who sentenced her husband to death after the hearing.
"It's been a long time," Davis said. "We're tired."
By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press Writer
728 words
15 April 2008
17:03
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2008. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) - After almost 15 years, Judge David Burnett returned to the bench Tuesday to discuss appeals by the men convicted of killing three West Memphis second graders in a case that shocked Arkansas.
Burnett wasn't happy about it -- and made that much clear to attorneys.
"I want to wrap this up. It's been 15 years. I'm ready to get it over with one way or the other," Burnett told a packed Craighead County courtroom. "I don't care what the outcome is. I just want the attorneys to do their business so I can do mine."
Five lawyers for Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley -- known to sympathizers as the "West Memphis Three" -- have 45 days to file appeals and other motions to Burnett. Prosecutors will have time to respond before an Aug. 20 hearing to plan out a three-week slate of hearings in September on new DNA evidence in the 1993 murders of Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.
If held, the hearings would be more time than the 13 days it took for a jury in 1994 to convict and recommend death for Echols and a life sentence without parole for Baldwin. Misskelley received a life plus 40 year sentence for the killings in a separate trial.
Burnett barred lawyers working on the case from talking to reporters before the new hearings, issuing a gag order in the first minutes of the almost hourlong hearing.
"I'm tired of reading about this case in the newspapers," Burnett said. "If I see any reports attributed to attorneys, they will be held in contempt."
But talk about the case, popularized by two documentaries, Web sites and musicians like Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, likely will grow after a federal judge ordered a lengthy appeal by Echols to first be heard by Burnett.
Lurid details and accounts of Satanism filled their original trials. Police found the bodies of the 8-year-old boys a day after they disappeared from their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood May 5, 1993. Their hands bound to their legs by shoelaces, the boys showed signs of suffering severe beatings before being left in a drainage ditch.
A month passed and the community posted a $30,000 reward before police arrested the three teens. Misskelley told investigators how he watched Baldwin and Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys as he ran down another trying to escape. Misskelley later refused to testify against his co-defendants.
Documentaries shot about the case helped it garner more attention and donations for the trio's legal defense. A new appeal on Echols' behalf focuses on DNA evidence unable to be analyzed at the time of their convictions.
Echols' attorneys say that evidence shows no trace of the three convicted in the killings. Testimony from forensic experts in the appeal claim the mutilation of one of the boys likely came from an animal after their deaths -- rather than prosecutors' claims about satanic rituals.
John Philipsborn, an attorney for Baldwin, said he may want more testing done on fibers collected during the police investigation in the case. However, Burnett stressed the case must move forward and be heard in the time set aside in September.
"That should be ample time for you," Burnett said. "We're not going to dog around."
San Francisco-based attorney Dennis Riordan, who represents slugger Barry Bonds in his perjury case, now helms Echols' defense team. He declined to comment on his way out of the courtroom, simply telling a group of waiting reporters and videographers he would "obey the judge's order."
Prosecutor Brent Davis, who originally handled the men's prosecutions, also declined to comment.
Several uniformed sheriff's deputies stood near the courtroom before the hearing, scrutinizing those coming in. Sheriff Jack McCann sat in the front wooden bench in front of a group of supporters of the convicted men. Among them was Lorri Davis, Echols' wife.
Davis, who married Echols in a prison ceremony in 1999, perhaps for the first time found herself agreeing with the judge who sentenced her husband to death after the hearing.
"It's been a long time," Davis said. "We're tired."
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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on a side note, I feel bad for anyone that would have to appear before that judge. He sounds like a very reasonable person.