You mentioned planting evidence as a possible theory for innocence. What evidence were you referring to?
I didnt mean that. I was saying that unless you believe that the police planted evidence and created false notes then there is a lot of evidence pointing to their guilt. You alluded earlier that there was public pressure to solve the case. I dont think the police planted any evidence at all.
If they were truly guilty of killing 3 little boys THEY WOULD STILL BE IN PRISON...HELLOOOOO.
But an obviously unbiased website on the internet says they did it! I don't know what to believe!!!
unbiased website? Dude I am looking at the police records. Reality has a well known bias after all
The problem is the police focussed their investigation on Echols far too early. They had no physical evidence and realised they were unlikely to find enough to pin it on anyone. Rather than investigating John Mark Byers or Terry Hobbs ( as stepfathers they would be most likely to be involved in this type of crime) they go for the teenager who a jury is more likely to convict. Both the sheriff dept and the West Memphis Police were under investigation at the time by the Arkansas State Police for theft of drugs and guns from the evidence locker. One member of the drug task force had been found dead in his trailer home 4 months earlier after pawning his weapon and undercover vehicle for $300 of crack. They're a little too corrupt to have faith in their investigative abilities and integrity.There was plenty we didn't learn about Mr Byers in Paradise Lost, despite the amount of screen time he got. He was a drug informant for the local sheriff dept, had recently been bankrupted when his jewelry store in Memphis failed, yet was still able to afford a 2-storey home with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a swimming pool. He hosted parties attended by local law enforcement. He was on probation at the time of the murders for threatening to kill his ex-wife, under investigation for felony theft of two rolexes (valued at $11k) and had been arrested multiple times - once for holding his ex-wife hostage at gunpoint and a bunch of times for drug arrests.
His murdered stepson (the only one to have also been mutilated) had been heavily, heavily medicated for a couple of years due to behavioural problems (hyperactivity, destructiveness, 'social issues' - like flinging poop) and was on the verge of hospitalization.
This is not to say Damien Echols is definitely an innocent man. There just isn't enough evidence to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt, let alone sentence him to death.
There were multiple accounts of him bragging about the murders. A pretty stupid thing to do given the circumstances, but more likely stupid attention seeking than legitimate confessions IMO. If he had really committed the murders he would have kept quiet, rather than talking about them like everyone else around town.
Like Chris Byers, Echols was also heavily medicated and a diagnosed manic depressive. He had been hospitalized following a series of events which started with an argument with his ex-girlfriend, escalated into death threats against her new boyfriend and culminated in his arrest when discovered having sex with her in an abandoned trailer. A few months later he was arrested for violating his probation (these things will happen when you threaten to slit your parents throats) and when one of the other kids started bleeding echols grabbed the kids arm and started sucking his blood.
This and plenty of other incidents you wont hear about in the new Peter Jackson documentary are
all available in his 500 page psychiatric case file.
None of which proves he committed the crime or that the police investigation was completed with any competency.
Entire case is based on circumstantial evidence, for WM3 or any of the others, including Terry Hobbs the child abuser or John Byers the felonious drug dealer.
