re: West Memphis 3.....33rd anniversary

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It was. They're guilty as hell.

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I go to bed happy every night knowing there are people like you who actually believe this and are seething at the fact that they are free.

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But, it wasn't Echols, Baldwin, and/or Misskelley.

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The US "solves" on average, about 50-60% of homicide cases in the US each year...which means if someone is charged with murder the state has somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% having the right person. In the last 37 years somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 people have been completely exonerated, after conviction, of the crime they were convicted of, based on DNA evidence alone. This includes 38 people exonerated from death row and 100 false confessions where dna evidence proved the person convicted based on their confession was not the perpetrator. There is a pretty damn good chance that whoever the state says committed ANY crime that the person is innocent of THAT crime based on loads of evidence.


I know that most of us don't give a frick BUT when the state wrongly accuses someone of a crime and then wrongly convicts that person of a crime not only is that person and their families lives significantly impacted but, and no matter how callous one is this is the disturbing part, the actual perpetrator is NEVER charged nor convicted and is, given the propensity in the case of violent offenders to commit multiple violent crimes, most likely guilt of committing other violent crimes. The whole "well, they may not have committed this crime but they certainly committed a crime and got away with it" and "who gives a frick if someone is wrongly convicted" crowd is providing cover in the court of public opinion for shoddy police work and shoddy prosecution. Those among us who treasure the idea of arrests and convictions over crime prevention are the worst offenders out there because that mentality drives that shoddy policework and shoddy prosecution. Its about as un-American an idea as one could hold and its completely responsible for the insanely high number of people in jail or on probation relative to other similarly situated first world nations.

I know many on these boards are of the opinion that arrests and convictions should have nothing at all to do with guilt or innocence and should be the bar by which police and prosecutors are measured but if you are of that opinion you should be aware that you are the reason crime is as high as it is AND why we have sooooooo many people in prison or on probation, many of whom, based on simple math, did not commit the crime they were convicted of.

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The US "solves" on average, about 50-60% of homicide cases in the US each year...which means if someone is charged with murder the state has somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% having the right person.

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That is...not what that means

The population who still thinks they did it is a strange mix.

You have the random "it was real to me, damnit" Satanic Panic people who just can't let go.

You have families of the victims who always have a tough time in these scenarios after thinking certain people were guilty for so long.

And then you have the people who made it political because the people who brought this to national exposure can be associated with the left, even though the case is pretty apolitical. There are SES factors and culture factors in play for sure, but it's not political in nature.

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Also, the 3 even though they are exonerated

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There were never exonerated. They were allowed to enter Alford pleas, which allowed them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them.

Baldwin did not want to do it, he hesitated, but Echols was literally dying in prison, and finally agreed to using the plea. It was a one or none deal.

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Care to present your evidence?

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The evidence is that the state accused them so they have to be guilty. The vast majority of people who will hold that up as the reason they are guilty will also say, in almost the same breath, that the state is incapable of doing anything OTHER than accusing, arresting, convicting and imprisoning correctly. If you hold that the state is incapable of filling a pothole in a timely manner but the state can strip away an individuals freedom and even their life in some cases and never makes a mistake or makes so few mistakes that they are unconcerning you are an idiot of rankest order...

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There were never exonerated. They were allowed to enter Alford pleas,

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You know what I mean. Yes you are technically correct but even then the fact that the state allowed Alford pleas to let them go shows the authorities knew they were factually innocent.

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You have families of the victims who always have a tough time in these scenarios after thinking certain people were guilty for so long.

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These people were victims as well and their hell has lasted longer than that of the kids murdered. I know that sounds harsh as hell but the families have had to live with that moment for years and years....no parent should ever have to bury a child. The actual victims deserve more from the state and their families do as well. I can't begin to imagine what the victims went through or what the family is still going through....

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These are the only members of that camp that I can give a pass. That is a nearly impossible situation to have your assumed closure ripped away. I have empathy for them, not scorn or contempt.

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I think this came up in that recent doc on the Yogurt Shop Murders

The podcast lays out the geography of the crime scene in relation to the Bojangles restaurant and dissects the unliklyhood that an offender would have gone there of all places. It's a bit further on foot and out of the way than most assume.

They also play the court testimony of the restaurant manager and all his statements to police showing there were inconsistencies.

For example, he said the man was dirty, covered in blood, and had soiled himself. But, he never said he was "wet and muddy" as the real offender would assuredly be after climbing out of the ditch where the boys were drowned.

The "wet and muddy" angle probably came from the police or possibly even media.

As is, the cop who showed up that night came thru the restaurant DRIVE-THRU and never entered the building. Other police showed up a few days later, after the bathroom had been cleaned, to pursue the lead.

The manager didn't know about the boys that night, so he was just trying to do his job by cleaning. He did keep the man's sunglasses, but the police promptly misplaced them along with any other swabs they took.