Hallelujah. I've been waiting and hoping for this for a very long time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/us/20arkansas.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/us/20arkansas.html
The West Memphis Three Are Free
- Thread starter Ristol
- Start date
Basically, three innocent teenagers were convicted of a heinous crime in 1993, and were so clearly innocent that the case got national attention. One of the convicted guys, Damien Echols, just got off death row today. There are two HBO documentaries about it with a third on the way.
It's a miracle to me. I'm incredibly happy about this and didn't think it would ever happen.
It's a miracle to me. I'm incredibly happy about this and didn't think it would ever happen.
Well, the state of Arkansas worked it rather nicely. They had them enter guilty pleas (they were about to be retried due to new DNA evidence), so they can't sue the state for the gobs of money they'd surely be entitled to. To quote Jason Baldwin, one of the Three:
"This is not justice. This is not justice at all, because we've been saying from the beginning: we're innocent! But the bottom line is, they were gonna kill Damien, and I couldn't let that happen."
Was that not clear?
Yesterday was seriously one of the happiest days of the year for me. The killings happened 30 minutes from my house so I have been following this story since I was 15 years old. Hell I even donated to help the cause years ago. I'm surprised you guys haven't heard of this considering all the celebrity supporters these guys have. They won't get money from the state of AR, but they will get money from the movie being made and I'm sure book deals are on the way. I'm sure there will be a trust set up soon and all the celebs will donate. It's truly sad that they had to spend half of their lives behind bars and Damien Echols has been on death row for the past ten years. I have been waiting for this day for 18 years. Was very emotional. I could not imagine losing half of my life over something I had nothing to deal with. You guys should watch the HBO docs if you get a chance. It's a pretty amazing story. I am so happy for them!
Attachments
The problem with this.... Is that someone got away with killing 3 little boys. And due to the guilty plea is never going to be charged?
Still, there's an important question they haven't answered yet....
Were they raped in prison?
Sadly the answer is yes, at least for Damien Echols. He's talked about it, I don't remember where. He was moved to solitary confinement because it was happening a lot.
The DNA found at the scene matched a guy named Terry Hobbes, step father of one of the victims, and a lot of suspicion has been thrown his way. A step father's DNA is not suspicious by itself, but the kid showed numerous signs of systematic abuse before the murders, etc.
Thanks for that, Jeremy. I can't begin to tell you how much that picture of Damien--free! hanging with Vedder!--warms my heart.
I read that on the Wiki.... They aren't going to charge him though are they? Do the Police even care who did it?
Do a Google search for a scumsucking son of a bitch named Gary Gitchell. That should answer your question.
Sad stuff.
Wow, Ristol feels really strongly about this. Kinda the exact opposite of Sebastian with anything else in the world.
The Ying to my Yang, I skeet skeet off,
I hits it from the back, Shawty like the front,
The Bonnie to my Clyde,
Both riding shotgun
Donate
Back in the day, we used to recieve donations sent as cash in fake birthday cards! Those were the days! I still have some of them, actually.
Now we have crypto.
Ethereum/EVM: 0x9c70214f34ea949095308dca827380295b201e80
Bitcoin: bc1qa5twnqsqm8jxrcxm2z9w6gts7syha8gasqacww
Solana: 8xePHrFwsduS7xU4XNjp2FRArTD7RFzmCQsjBaetE2y8
Now we have crypto.
Ethereum/EVM: 0x9c70214f34ea949095308dca827380295b201e80
Bitcoin: bc1qa5twnqsqm8jxrcxm2z9w6gts7syha8gasqacww
Solana: 8xePHrFwsduS7xU4XNjp2FRArTD7RFzmCQsjBaetE2y8
Members online
No members online now.