Damien Echols

have been tortured prior to their death. As a result, the grieving and horrified West Memphis community, quickly and unfairly, began looking for closure. It was not long before they had suspects. The three men who were convicted of the crime were Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelly Jr., and Jason Baldwin. These men, however, were unfairly accused of the crime simply because of unjust stereotypes and prejudices. Furthermore, the incorrect convictions can be explained through the sociological…

deemed missing from their families. Not too long later they were found dead in a stream. They were bruised, mutilated and tied up like hogs. These three boys were Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steve Branch. Three young adults known as, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin, were eventually convicted in 1994 for 3 counts of capital murder each but not all of these young men were a part of the killings. They were all convicted based on circumstantial evidence and this made…

The Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three written by Mara Leveritt is a nonfiction story about a 1993 murder of three eight-year-olds and their three teenage killers. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr., better known as the West Memphis Three, abducted three children, Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steven Branch, on May 5, 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. The children were last seen playing together around 6:30 p.m. the evening they went missing.…

The West Memphis Three One late evening on May 5, 1993, three young 8 year old boys, Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers, went out for a bike ride in Crittenden County of Arkansas. The little boys lived in the large city of West Memphis, where they promised to be home in time to eat dinner. According to Pam Hobbs, the mother of Stevie Branch, “around 4:45, [Stevie and the boys] had… still hadn't arrived.” (Berg). After a night full of hope that the boys would return, Mike Allen,…

Years before the murder of the three young boys, Damien experienced being stopped and questioned by police for simply walking down the street. Many occasions a certain officer would visit his home, and bluntly state that his goal was to put Damien away. Damien suffered from depression and anxiety, and went to a psychological hospital on two occasions. He did not fit well into the community, as his all black…

Damien Echols’ experience as someone who has had the system flip on him and later guaranteed that it was going to kill him shows that one has a significant amount of time to reflect that’s practically forced since there are no other options in the last years before execution. Echols had shown repeatedly in his book said that he is constantly under stress and there’s not that much of an escape to his situation. His point-of-view may have changed since he had written much of the book in prison and…

emotion and leaving the facts aside. The small town of west Memphis wanted to rush in order for them to have someone to blame and alleviate the family’s tragedy. The jury really based their bias decision in pure looks, specifically the looks of Damian Echols. During all the trials, we were able to make our own opinion by combining what we watched and what we have…

West Memphis Three vs. The Crucible “It’ll be sorta like I’m the West Memphis Boogeyman”. This is what Damien Echols said right before he was arrested for the murder of three little boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien was wrongly accused along with two others, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. Another case similar to the West Memphis Three (WM3) is the fictional play, the Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible was based on the Salem Witch Trials, where hundreds of people were…

Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, were reported missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. The following day, their bodies were found in Robin Hood woods, tied and mutilated. In early 1994, three suspects named Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. were convicted of murdering the three boys. Damien, Jason and Jessie were referred to as the “West Memphis Three”. West Memphis was a very hard core fundamentalist conservative town. Those who did not fit the town’s ideology based upon…

The essay “How Long Has It Been Since You Smelled a Flower?” by Richard Shelton describes his experiences with prisoners. He begins by stating he’s worked at the “nexus where language intersects with the lives of prison inmates” for forty years (1). Shelton then begins to delve into the mistreatment of prisoners by the state, primarily by deprivation. Prisons were originally designed to isolate inmates and deprive them of the marvels of nature; this can still be seen in today’s prisons. Humans…