Please Pardon and Free the West Memphis Three , Then Maybe Justice Can Prevail

There comes a time in every person's life where they are faced with a difficult decision. It's all to clear in a world and time of 'political correctness' to choose your battles wisely. There's a fine line and one should know when to cross and when to turn around and run. We all know not to talk about politics or religion, as they are two very engaging topics where your stand is guaranteed to hurt or hinder you and alienate some of your following. That said, I just won't stay silent any longer and I really don't mind if it hurts my career or reputation in any way, shape or form--as I've decided to take a stand.

I'm not the only one, it seems. Many just like me are wondering why, something that seems so unjust and cut and dry, is not being dealt with as such. It is almost 17 years ago now that three little boys were found brutally murdered in the woods of Robin Hood Hills in West Memphis Arkansas. A senseless crime, surely something one could only imagine out of a horror movie. Three teenagers (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessee Miskelley) were swiftly taken into custody and charged with the crimes . Now referred to as The West Memphis Three, these once-teens have grown into men subsequently wasting the last 17 years of their life in prison--one on death row. Two of the parents of the late children have spoken out over time, in fact, one of the most vocal supporters is John Mark Byers ,adoptive father to victim Christopher Byers. (The other victims were Michael Moore and Stevie Branch).

Three weeks ago to the day I emerged myself in the entire case files that were readily available on line. I read everything, from the good to the bad and the ugly. This included investigative reports and interviews. It included psychiatric evaluation records of Damien Echol's to the so-called confessions of Jessee Misskelley. I reviewed documents and on line photographs of available exhibits, crime scene photos, and items recovered from Damien's room. Recanted testimonies due to coersion. It took me just about every waking minute of twenty one days as there are so many on line documents readily available, and updates from the official sites, which is just wonderful for someone studying the case. The more I read the more upset I became because I couldn't make sense of why they are sitting in jail. What seemed pretty cut and dry to me, (and many others) apparently isn't to the legal system, pursuant to this case, but why?

For those of you who will challenge me, and leave awful comments, threaten me and get upset over this, please know this is your right to do so. We shall then agree to disagree as I'm not here to argue, but I am here to state my opinions and that is my right to do so. I want to interject that I've never seen any movies (Paradise Lost) and I've never read any books on the subject. I really don't want to, because then one may say I'm swayed by the media when in fact I don't base any opinions on made-for-TV movies or on famous people's endorsements.

I chose to base my opinion on the facts presented in the case and the lack of physical and forensic evidence and what I consider a rush-to-judgment police investigation that leaves me with too many questions. I base my opinion on things that just don't make sense to me, like the twenty odd knives entered into evidence (which I find odd that so many of the 20 knives were found in or around the neighborhood-- does everyone just use a knife and fling it in the creek? ) In my opinion there was more time spent collecting knives in a a full fledged Salem witch hunt but not enough time spent on the true identification and whereabouts of Mr. Bojangles, who is of course my #1 suspect?

Yes, that's right, they call him Mr. Bojangles, who iis the infamous bloody and mud covered disoriented African American man who may have been a highly qualified match to the crime if the tip was taken seriously. Wintnesses attest he went into the bathroom of the Bojangles, being only a mile from the crime scene and left his blood to prove it. ( Now being that the actual scene of the crime being a muddy woodsy area by a drainage ditch and needless to say bloody, this is a huge connection). All I can say is if you know of anyone out there bragging about being the actual Mr. Bojangles, here's the confidential tip line to call to report him 501-256-1775. Because the crimes happened so close to a truck stop, it wouldn't suprise me if Mr. Bojangles was a cross country trucker on a killing spree--sound like anyone you know?

Sad we won't learn Mr. Bojangles' real name or if indeed this was the case, because he was gone before the police actually responded --which I read was through a drive through window 45 minutes later, which made me wonder if they actually got the call or were just stopping through for dinner. Only after two more calls from the Manager the following day, urging them his beliefs on the possible murder suspect, was what the police considered a "thorough" investigation and collection of possible evidence done (such as the collection of blood scrapings left by Mr. Bojangles all over the wall.) This could have cinched the case, but sadly, this evidence was then lost according to more testimony . Lost?

Would I feel differently if every single lead had been exhausted (which it wasn't) and these three boys not have been taken into custody almost immediately? No, I truly wouldn't because I still believe they have been victims of the legal system for the past 17 years and the real killer (I believe to be Mr. Bojangles) is somewhere lurking around our children and grandchildren.

Three precious boys were brutally murdered and but how many more have been in the past 17 years? I wish someone would take the initiative to cross reference the actual characteristics of the crime and compare wtih others nationwide containing simliar characteristics and children in that age range over the past 17 years. I'm curious what would come up. Would any implicate Mr. Bojangles? Other people have projected opinions on other possible suspects but I like to think blood and mud (and a later recovered hair from the sheet used to cover one of the victims as identified as "African American" ) would indeed count for something.

Here's my number one issue with this case. The whole so called motive!

When I was a teen I admit I listened to Ozzy Osborne and Alice Cooper, thinking it quite the cool thing that Ozzy used to bit the heads off of bats. I wonder now what was I thinking and it pains me now to admit it, because not only is that flat out grotesque, but dark and morbid actually. Where was PETA when Ozzy was biting the bat heads? I don't know. Still, it was a time in my growing up years that I had to find out who I was and I identified with the loners. Dark clothing was a must and painting your nails black was a plus. Writings of someday song lyrics, odd poetry or wacky drawings of upside down crucifixes were drawn by everyone in my little "goth group" who listened to this type of music in the 80's and 90's. We all wanted to be rock stars.

I do remember neighborhood kids in the back of Lillian Holt park hanging out late at night in the wooden bridges that went over the creek and buried us into the wooded area. Bonfires and seances- crazy things we did to try to see if the "Spirit of Lillian Holt" was lore or legend, fact or fiction. One girl whom I'm calling Tracie thought she could do so with her "magical rabbit foot" to raise the spirit, of course nothing happened so she took it a step further and checked out a crazy "Spells" book courtesy of the local library. (Not only were we acting out in our misguided adolescence, but we liked to read too.)

To us, it was not only the thrill of following some crazy library book but the mere fact of keeping it past it's actual due date was big excitement. Fast forward two months, when none of the contained hundred spells actually worked, and there were no more plausible explanations as to the lucky rabbit foot, we were onto some new adventures like going ghost hunting or to a haunted house.

Misguided we were, but killers we were not. In fact, I'm happy to report that one of my group grew up to be a Veterinarian, one a Plumber, one is a Lawyer, and last I heard Tracie was a Special Education Teacher . As for me, well, I'm just a writer and artist with a big imagination. Killer no, journalist yes, guilty as charged.

I should add I do remember finding a deer skull in the woods and thinking it was cool - it now sits atop a rain stick in my home all these years and I have never eaten a deer and wouldn't even if you paid me. However, if one was to see the skull in my room back then and didn't know me, they may think something altogether different. I say this because when I think the whole case was based on the fact these three kids who are now men were supposedly in a Satanic Cult and bones found in the woods were a topic of discussion it makes me laugh. What else is there to do in a small town? Heck, we lived in a big town and did the same kind of crazy stuff - camp in the woods, spray paint up the place and of course tell dark and dingy tales scaring the crap out of each other at night.

Now that I look back, if this crime would have happened in our woods, being falsely convicted and sitting on death row could have happened to any of my friends including myself back in the day had they gone by the same criteria. We all fit the profiles of The West Memphis Three ! This whole "profile" is really a joke if you ask me-if they delved a little bit more into our lives they would have found all of us had parental problems and misguided childhoods. Damien, Jason and Jessee could have fit the profile of any of my friends back then.

I do remember the local cops back in the day pressuring us to rat out our friends if something strange happened (like someone rode their dirt bike across the school yard, or firecrackers were being shot off, someone dented up the mailbox on the corner, etc) and they had a way of getting what they considered truth out of us, like it or not. I can't imagine who would have made up what had they found three children like they did in Arkansas. I think everyone I hung out with would have been so scared out of their minds they would have said or did anything to give the story the police wanted to hear, probably fingering the others in the group just to get out of a punishment. You see, although we were tight in our groups, our parents could still punish us and there was nothing wose than missing your place in line at the Sam Goody for purchase of Iron Maiden's new record album. No mall visits to the record store equated to no life.

What I'm really laughing about is the reference to Damien Echols and talks of drinking blood and vampirism- this really "gets my goat." I can only wish the case took place in today's world when Twilight is a #1 show with movie spin offs, (Can you imagine the additional hillbilly meets vampire True Blood HBO Series supporters?) It makes me wonder if the case would have actually made it to court with such a bogus Satan-meets-Vampire-Bone-Colllector-Goth-Dark-Poetry angle today, when the public thinks vampires are cool and they spend millions of dollars on DVDs, books, movie tickets, and memorbilia. Give me a break!

It just goes to prove that the public can easily be conned and manipulated in any way shape or form, from marketing to advertising or by presenting absurd things that are so far-fetched that one has no choice but to embrace them. Of course if you hire a good enough lawyer you could convince a jury the sky is not blue it's actually red, and many of them will leave thinking they are indeed colorblind. To this day, police can still abuse their power and force confessions. I don't condone it but I've seen the pressure put on cops who are overworked to close cases-can you imagine a brutal murder like this and the public's panic? Perhaps all the more reason to do open-and-shut-quickly case and a make-it-up-as-you-go drama makes for good entertainment and silence the public's fears. While I'm on the soapbox, am I the only one who feels cops, teachers, and firefighters are so very important and so very under appreciated? Oh, wait, that's another story.

What I can't fathom is how do the people in the state of Arkansas feel about The West Memphis Three in light of the new "lack of" evidence, (IE: According to the DNA Status Report filed on July 17, 'none of the genetic material recovered at the scene of the crimes was attributable to Mr. Echols, Echols co-defendant, Jason Baldwin, or defendant Jessie Misskelley.') Not one, not two, but three guilty convictions. I wondered why.

The only viable conclusion I could come up with after three weeks of reading all of this information, was that perhaps a visit from some aliens resulted in subliminal messaging coming though a television infomercial to brainwash everyone back in the day, to vote guilty and believe that this Satanic Cult thing was a viable and believeable option. Ive heard about many crop circles in Arkansas, so this seems like a good theory.

All I can say is it surely doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy inside believing there was a rush to judgement when instead of three victims there are now six. I wonder if it about covering up a few mistakes made 17 years ago? Perhaps to act on it and do something about it would admit some sort of wrong doing. Who cares? It's never too late to do the right thing. Certainly to have the Governor pardon them, (which incidentally on Tuesday December 18, 2007 he commented that he had no intentions of doing), would be the best form of vindication.

I'm being cynical when I say surely no one in politics ever makes mistakes-so I want to propose a solution to the Governor. Governor, if you are listening, you could certainly introduce my alien theory which makes perfect sense while letting these three go. In fact, you could then reopen the "real case" looking for Mr. Bojangles, and I strongly suggest calling up David Caruso when doing so. It is in my firm opinion, even though he is just an actor who plays Horatio Caine, he may do a more thorough investigation than the previous team. Additionally, the taxpayers would get more bang for their buck because you could market him in the process. Or, if you don't like my idea, why don't you just pardon them now and that way you won't have to hire David Caruso to make back all that wasted taxpayer money over the next couple appeals.

So last week I read a Governor Beebe site and it asked very excitedly for people to , "Tell your story about Governor Beebe!"

I wrote this response:

My story is one only Governor Beebe can write, and one that he will be remembered for. It's about morality and courage. It's about a new era, a time of recognizing when past mistakes are made, there is no time like the present to correct them. I beg him to pardon three people your state calls "The West Memphis Three" but the rest of the nation see as "victims."

Do the right thing in a time of new technology. I beg you Governor Beebe, think if it was your kids on death row? (What if it were) your kids getting the legal runaround? What if it was your kids fighting statues and political mayhem? (What if ) your State was wasting taxpayers' money? {oh wait, it is...}

How many more minutes, hours, days, or years are you going to rob them of? Use your power to be the one who made a difference, not the one who kept overwriting past administrations' mistakes.

Where is your courage?

When I signed my name to this letter, I knew I had found mine. I believe these three men in prison are NOT guilty BEYOND a reasonable doubt and something should be done. I see that other peole have spoken out over the years, from Johnny Depp to the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, numerous rock stars and movie stars, and lots of every day people too. A force that's growing, with momentum. A movement of smart people who have taken the time to review everything and find it unacceptable. Yes, this is America, but things like this injustice remind me we are somewhat broken. This is our country and these are our mistakes and we need to fix them. Swiftly!

It's bad enough knowing three children's killer may never be brought to justice, but three more victims are losing their lives now. I urge the public to form your own opinions but never rush to judgment. I urge the people of Arkansas to make sure the taxpayer money you are paying to support your State in this endeavor means you actually do agree with them in this case, and if not, I urge you to exercise your rights and do something about it. You have options. You have a voice. Write the Governor if you don't agree with the case. Almost 4000 people have signed an on line petition, so that must mean you would not be alone....

What can you do to help? Go to the official West Memphis Three website, where there is a legal fund that you can donate to, or send some commissary money to the boys in jail. Online sites like SkeletonKeyAuctions are currently involved in raising money for the WM3 legal fund also. I'm now on a quest to sell artwork out of my RetroChaletStudio store and raise money to help support the legal fund-and raise awareness in the case itself. I've met a lot of people in just the past week alone who are on the same page--and you can do the same. Donate, amplicate, and review the case. Tell two friends and they can tell two, and so on and so forth. It seems a lot of people I talk to (much like myself) hadn't even heard of this case before. If perhaps you didn't, and now you did, then I've done my job.

There you go, that was my courage. Where's yours?