Behind the Release of the 'œWest Memphis Three'

An 18 year old triple murder for which three teens were convicted and sentenced has popped back into the headlines as the three men were released Friday in an unusual plea deal. The men known since 1994 as the "West Memphis Three" were in their teens when they were prosecuted for three grisly murders.

The eldest, 18 year old Damien Echols, was depicted as a messianic cult figure when he was arrested and convicted for the murders of three eight year old cub scouts whose nude and mutilated bodies were discovered along the banks of a shallow West Memphis, Arkansas creek.

The murder victims were believed to be the victims of a satanic ritual. If there was a better candidate than Echols to be assigned the role of a fledgling Charles Manson, no one informed the prosecutors in the case.

Echols' Gothic garb and long dark hair combined with a detached and superior manner to give him the appearance of a cold criminal mastermind.

If Echols was aloof, articulate, and contemptuous of the charges against the three teens, Jesse Miskelly was just the opposite. It was Miskelly who confessed that he was present at the murders but did not participate directly in killing the boys.

Miskelly later retracted his confession, saying it was coerced and that, owing to mental impairment, he was frightened and didn't understand the proceedings against him. A reporter of the original trial described Miskelly as having an IQ "on the short side of room temperature."

Miskelly originally testified that Echols and 16 year old Jason Baldwin murdered the children, although he says he participated by chasing down one of the victims who tried to escape.

The biggest problem for the prosecution and the issue that led to their release was the lack of DNA evidence. At the time of the convictions in 1994, DNA forensic analysis was in its infancy, and the crime scene was corrupted because it was not sealed off nor protected when police forensic investigators arrived to take evidence from the scene.

Missing evidence included the bodies of the children which were taken from the river bank before investigators arrived. The obscenity of the crime scene was perhaps overwhelming and one of the child victims was reported to be sexually mutilated.

Later DNA analysis of the evidence samples collected during the original investigation determined that the DNA could not be associated with samples taken from the three convicts. Although the "West Memphis Three" had become a cause celebre, it was the lack of direct evidence that led the Arkansas Supreme Court to order that the case be reopened.

The state Supreme Court also ordered that a lower court would decide whether the three should be retried in Arkansas.

Echols' lawyer realized that some of the prosecution witnesses and others related to the case had died and that the state might be open to an Alford Plea. The weakness of a new case against the men was obvious to state prosecutor Scott Ellington, who thought the plea deal was in the state's best interest.

Alford Pleas are rare and usually not successful. In this case, the state dropped further prosecution of the West Memphis Three" in exchange for an acceptance of the verdict of guilt already rendered by the Arkansas court.

It wasn't the perfect solution for Damien Echols, who was sentenced to death in 1994, and describes himself as tired of fighting to establish his innocence. The plea deal was a reprieve for Miskelly and Baldwin, also, both of whom had received life sentences.

Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent Yahoo contributor, concentrating in news and financial writing.