West Memphis 3 Free

[HibsMax]

Don't know how many, if any, of you are familiar with this case but after 18+ years, three men were released today. wm3.org (and pretty much any news site in the US) will have more details if you are interested.

[degenerated]

Excellent news. Hope they get some hefty compensation for that miscarriage of justice. After hearing the supersuckers mentioning their plight at a gig years back I've watched the two documentaries and read the book devils knot. Truly horrific crime and bizarre
circumstances that saw these guys locked up. I hope they catch the real villain of the piece.

Edit: just read the ny times article and the conditions of their release seem almost as bizarre as their incarceration. Why can't the courts just admit their mistake and admonish them.

[--------]

Excellent news. Hope they get some hefty compensation for that miscarriage of justice. After hearing the supersuckers mentioning their plight at a gig years back I've watched the two documentaries and read the book devils knot. Truly horrific crime and bizarre
circumstances that saw these guys locked up. I hope they catch the real villain of the piece.

Edit: just read the ny times article and the conditions of their release seem almost as bizarre as their incarceration. Why can't the courts just admit their mistake and admonish them.


I don't think that there will be compensation under the terms of the release - it seems that the defence is admitting that there's enough evidence for a conviction while still maintaining the defendants' innocence.

IMO they've done pretty well, innocent or guilty, to get what they have from the courts.

[degenerated]

I wrongly assumed that the release was as a result of the push for use of DNA testing. Having read quite a substantial amount about this case the evidence that was used to convict these guys would be laughed out of most court rooms. This trial was more akin to the Salem witch trials than any form of legal justice I have heard about.

[steakbake]

Three men who would have been dead and more families bereaved if capital punishment had been the sentence.

[HibsMax]

Three men who would have been dead and more families bereaved if capital punishment had been the sentence.

Agreed but that doesn't change my stance on capital punishment. Of course I live in a Utopia where nobody would be put to death without cast-iron evidence against the perp(s). There is nothing against the guys in this case.

They could get a new trial and clear their names totally but there is also a risk that they would end up back in jail. This path guaranteed their freedom but they are still officially guilty. Given the two choices of:
1. admit the prosecution has enough evidence for a guilty conviction but be freed,
2. risk another trial and go back to / stay in prison

I know which I would take. A part of me says that I would never admit guilt to a crime I didn't do but perversely enough, that's the only way these guys were guaranteed to get out and after spending half of their lives in prison, who would blame them?

[Sergio sledge]

Three men who would have been dead and more families bereaved if capital punishment had been the sentence. Did one of them not get a death sentence?

[HibsMax]

Did one of them not get a death sentence?

Damian Echols was on death row but nobody was executed.