Episode 11 - West Memphis Three - 29 Years Later

Based in Fact

In Episode 11, Kyle and Lisa talk about the May 5, 1993 murders of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore, in West Memphis, Arkansas. Their bodies were found bound and naked in a ditch in an area known to locals as “Robin Hood Hills,” a patch of woods bordering the boys’ subdivision. On June 3, 1993, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. were arrested after Miskelley confessed to West Memphis detectives. The three were convicted after two separate trials in 1994. Their campaign in the court of public opinion started with Paradise Lost: The Child Murders in Robin Hood Hills and continues today with press releases alleging that the State of Arkansas has an obligation to allow re-testing of DNA evidence. Kyle and I will talk about the evidence against the three killers, their direct appeals and state post-conviction claims and outcomes, the inconclusive DNA testing conducted between 2005 and 2011 and the Alford pleas, which were entered instead of the three killers presenting their allegedly exculpatory evidence at new trial hearings that were set to begin in December, 2011.