On November 4, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered evi­den­tiary hear­ings to con­sid­er whether new­ly ana­lyzed DNA evi­dence should result in a new tri­al for Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, who were con­vict­ed of the 1993 mur­ders of three West Memphis Cub Scouts. Echols was sen­tenced to death and the oth­er defen­dants received life. The results of the DNA tests on evi­dence from the crime scene exclud­ed Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley as the sources. The high court also ordered an exam­i­na­tion of claims of mis­con­duct by the jurors. According to defense lawyers, Misskelley’s con­fes­sion was not intro­duced at Echols’ tri­al, but the jurors con­sid­ered it any­way. The state Supreme Court had pre­vi­ous­ly upheld Echols’ con­vic­tion in 1996, when DNA test­ing was not avail­able because of tech­ni­cal lim­i­ta­tions. The case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” a name used by their sup­port­ers, has attract­ed atten­tion from the nation­al media and celebri­ties. In August, a ral­ly in Little Rock to sup­port Echols fea­tured actor Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks.

(J. Zeman, ​“Arkansas Supreme Court orders new hear­ing for Echols,” Northwest Arkansas Times (online), November 4, 2010). See Innocence.

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