I feel like I have a big family here on internet through blogs, discussion lists and from benefits and fundraisers and countless other events that so many people have created and managed. People who go WAY back with us to the very beginnings when we thought we were all alone and crazy sometimes with our big activist ideas. Having the nerve to think that we could make something happen with our limited resources. We're all part of this. I hope everyone here who has contributed their time, money, sweat, ideas, energy and support knows this. I hope that nobody feels overshadowed by the way things turned out - and I hope every one of you knows that all the benefits, fundraisers, concerts and events that you organized and managed were a huge part of the success.
You're not a celebrity or even wealthy, but maybe you stood out there in the cold in front of that ugly courthouse in Jonesboro hoping that someone in there would grow a conscience and be HONEST for once. Maybe you sent in $5 to the Defense Fund. Maybe you just wore your FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE t-shirt around town and told anyone who asked the whole story and got them interested enough to go home and look it up. Every single piece of the big puzzle is equally important to the whole thing.
And yes, if any of us had money, fame or power, maybe things WOULD have happened faster. Part of our job was to grab the attention of those that did and try to get them interested. We knew that if we could grab their ears for just a few minutes to review the case, they couldn't help but want to be involved. We sent our wm3.org press packages out to LOTS of people we thought would be interested and believe it or not, celebrities DO have hearts after all! We're so happy to have their support - and even though there are probably more than a few people who are involved in this case just because one of their idols or heroes is, it's still involvement, and your help is still very valuable. One person tells two people and each of them tells two, etc.. etc.. etc.. It was all part of our conspiracy! :)
There has always been a lot of discussion list action, and some of it would go on for days and days. Concerned people knocking ideas and speculation around, imagining scenarios, thinking up theories, engaging the unhinged in weird banter about demons and hell, engaging actual forensic scientists in rational talk about real science, throwing around ideas for how to help, accusing people, etc... It was all part of trying to understand what had happened. On one of our first trips out to Arkansas to visit Damien, Jason and Jessie, we stopped in West Memphis and walked around in the Robin Hood Hills area. It was when everything there still looked exactly as it did when the bodies of the children were pulled from the water by the WMPD. I remember looking around those woods trying to imagine what had happened there. It was frustrating and depressing to visualize what had gone on right there in that small clearing. Impossible for me to add it all up and make sense of it. To be perfectly honest I couldn't imagine ANYONE doing such a horrible thing to those kids, but everyone had a theory.
And as we drove up the highway towards Marion, it became even more clear to us how far away the neighborhoods where Jason, Damien and Jessie lived were from where the victims' bodies were found. Trying to get the image of these teenagers walking all that way to do their "devil rituals" in a chunk of woods beside a truck stop, and then walking all that way back home without leaving even one molecule of DNA in the form of blood or sweat or hair or ANYTHING was just too absurd to comprehend. And this conflicting nonsense that the police were calling a "confession" never rang true for any of us either. All of the trouble with the timeline and the location and the specifics of the attack.... everything about it was simply wrong. Combine the inaccuracies with the fact that the WMPD conducted perhaps one of the most blatantly irresponsible interrogations on record, and you have a statement that is precisely worthless. And yet they used it to push forward with their devil worshipping human sacrifice theory. And now even the witnesses who testified that they had heard "confessions" are admitting that they lied. Now that they can't be prosecuted for perjury. I can't fathom the lack of empathy that could keep someone quiet about something like that while three innocent men sat in prison for 18 years.
It all stared with hysteria and Satanic Panic. It's hard to believe it now, but instead of real crime solving or science, the West Memphis Police chose instead to imagine themselves in a horror movie chasing supernatural beings. Nobody talks about that anymore, either. The state of Arkansas presented THAT as their motive. Devil worshippers performing human sacrifice. They really did. That was their case, and they were serious. Devil worshippers. Human sacrifice. It sounds so ridiculous and stupid now, but back then the general feeling about such things in that area was very serious. People had been convinced by things like daytime talk shows including Geraldo, Sally Jessy and Oprah (yes, Oprah Winfrey) that devil worshippers were an active and insidious cult that operated in secrecy conducting the sacrifice of up to 60,000 children every year. Brainwashing, government conspiracies, secret cabals of witches and warlocks conspiring to take over the world through heavy metal music and zombie teenagers, women kidnapped and used as "breeders" to supply these cults with sacrificial victims... it goes on and on, and yes, grown ups believed these yarns. Idiots like Dale Griffis made a living pimping these absurd ideas to law enforcement and making gullible, superstitious police officers scared of spooky Satanists in hooded robes with swords and tattoos and heavy metal tour shirts. Grown up adults believed that nonsense. Now it's not as widespread as it was back then partly because of the visibility of this case, but trust me, it was a very real fear for a lot of people who didn't know better.
Judge Burnett - now Senator Burnett - was the most visible and blatant example of the biased corruption that tarnished the justice system through this ordeal. He made no attempt to hide his obvious contempt for Damien, Jason and Jessie and his friendship with the DA and the police. He had no interest in actual justice or honesty. No comprehension of doing the right thing. We watched the DA and police leaking rumors of devil worshipping and human sacrifice to the media, and the West Memphis Police doing exactly ZERO work to find out who killed Christopher, Steve or Michael. We were up against a brotherhood that hates real justice. What were we thinking?!
I remember Chris W., who beat us to the courthouse on that first day of the first post-trial hearing way back in the late 90s handing out T-shirts and talking to the press about what a miscarriage of justice this situation was. He was pretty much BY HIMSELF out there before we arrived. When we drove up and saw him with the shirts, talking to the hostile press and dealing with Mark Byers, who at the time was very much NOT on our side. I think Chris's speech out there near the courthouse doors in Jonesboro was one of the most courageous acts I have ever witnessed. Because at that point we didn't have ANY of the huge support network that exists today. Exactly ZERO celebrities had arrived yet to add their voices and their money, and barely even an internet presence at that point. You can see Chris in the second PARADISE LOST film bravely facing a very hostile unknown and not backing down.
I remember Joe and Bruce and their crew, Bill and Marcia and Cruecial, Greg, RheAnn, Ruth, Scot and Scary out there, too, and as I'm sure they all remember, a relatively small handful of others who KNEW something had gone terribly wrong with the justice system. I know I'm missing some really important names in there. I remember the feeling that we all had back then, and how some of us were thinking, "Am I crazy, or did this thing REALLY happen in an actual courtroom?!" and "Are we doing this the right way?" There were people like jivepuppi, Christian (callahan), alwysbtd, Darcy and Anje who have worked constantly in the background doing great things, and the many people who created and participated in the WM3 Awareness Day events, and all of our friends who did radio shows, blogs, podcasts and public talks about the case.
Those of us who got to know Jason, Damien and Jessie over the years knew we were on the right side, but it wasn't just their insistence that they were innocent, it was the facts around this case that convinced us. We absorbed as much information as we could possibly gather, and never once during all of these years was there anything that pointed towards them being guilty. When DNA technology finally got up to speed, many items were tested, and Jason, Damien and Jessie were demanding that EVERYTHING be tested. Every possible test of every possible item. This isn't something that guilty people would be so eager to have done.
Damien, Jason and Jessie (I'm not going to call them The West Memphis Three anymore) never let the prison system turn them into prisoners, either. When we were getting involved with this case, people would tell us to be careful. We were warned that prisoners were really good at taking advantage of kindness, and that they were manipulative and would lie, cheat and steal to get what they wanted. Not surprisingly, since they weren't criminals, Damien, Jason and Jessie never once even came close to taking advantage of us or lying to us. They didn't even exaggerate. It turns out that they were quite often the most reliable source of information about the case. We did our best to keep their commissary accounts loaded up, but there were a few times when we discovered that they'd been out of money for a while, and we'd ask, "Why didn't you tell us?!" They never liked the idea of asking for anything, so it was sometimes difficult to know what they needed. They all held on to their dignity throughout their ordeal. I can't stress enough how much respect we have for all three of these men. To endure what they've endured with hopeful attitudes and positive optimism took a lot of real strength. There were times when they would call and cheer me up when I was down about something, and I've always thought about how backwards that is.... A guy locked up in prison indefinitely for something he didn't do is telling me to look on the bright side.
I think with this post I just wanted to let everyone here (and you know who you are) that despite what's being said on the news and in various discussion groups, facebook posts and elsewhere, you are NOT being overlooked as being a part of this. Damien, Jason and Jessie know that you've been there all along and that you've done everything in your power to help.
The state of Arkansas hasn't heard the last of us, either. I'm not alone in being disgusted by their obvious trickery here. They figured out a way to give the majority of voters what they want - and wash their hands of a horribly botched criminal case by sidestepping all accountability for the evil they've perpetrated for 18 years. Clearly they don't really believe that Damien, Jason or Jessie are guilty, otherwise why in the world would they even CONSIDER a deal like this? Do they really believe we're falling for Dustin McDaniel's incredibly stupid quote that Jason, Jessie and Damien have now been "... convicted twice of this horrific crime,"? No. It's nonsense. The state of Arkansas is the entity that made the deal. They're like kidnappers who accepted a deal of immunity for releasing their hostages alive, and they're acting like they want people to see them as heroes for doing it. If Damien, Jason and Jessie were really convicted twice of these murders, why in the world would the state of Arkansas let them free? What is Dustin McDaniel's answer to that big question? There's no hiding the sleaze this time.
And despite what you may have heard, we are NOT done with this. We still need to raise money to help our friends ease their way back into the free world. Thankfully the situation isn't as grim now for Damien, Jason and Jessie, but they still need your help and friendship, at least for a little while longer. And there's still a lot to be done in the investigation. They have an epic struggle ahead of them to clear their names, and those of us who have believed in them all these years are still here and ready to help.
Yes, Jason, Jessie and Damien are free, and that's an amazingly good thing, but now we have to ask the state of Arkansas when they're going to stop betraying three murdered eight-year old boys named Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers.
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