Exonerate the WM3 Official Blog

Memorial remodel marks 20th anniversary of murdered West Memphis Three boys

From Fox13

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (FOX13) -

The plans for a West Memphis Three memorial makeover are truly a community effort. After seeing a picture of the memorial in the local paper, community members made the plans and set up a fundraiser for Weaver Elementary School, where the memorial is located.

The improvements come just before the 20th anniversary of the murders of 8-year-old Cub Scouts Michael Moore, Chris Byers and Steve Branch in West Memphis.

Plans for the memorial, formerly called the Weaver Reading Grove Memorial, include building a flower bed with 20 yellow rose bushes to commemorate the anniversary.

Other renovations to the memorial include repairing damaged benches, repainting the brown gazebo in brighter colors, repairing the gazebo roof to cover exposed nails and install permanent trash cans.

All of the renovations and landscaping will cost $2,800; so far donors contributed $545.

If you would like to make a donation in memory of the young West Memphis Three victims for the improvements of the Weaver Elementary Reading Grove Memorial, please send your donation to the school at the following address.

Weaver Elementary Reading Grove/Playground Fund
1280 East Barton Ave.
West Memphis, AR 72301

Bomb suspect at large is Cambridge teen | Mission Hill Gazette

The Boston Marathon bombing suspect currently on the run has been identified as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, according to the Boston Police Department.

via missionhillgazette.com

Judge Denies Family Request To See West Memphis Evidence

Posted on: 5:05 pm, April 2, 2013, by George Brown and Michele Reese, updated on: 08:44am, April 3, 2013

 

(West Memphis, AR) On Tuesday, a judge decided family members of the three boys who were murdered in West Memphis 20 years ago cannot see all the evidence in the case.

The judge said they can’t have access to all of it since it may be needed in a future trial.

The attorney for Pam Hicks and Mark Byers, the parents of two of the victims, told News Channel 3 that judge’s decision “was not a big deal.”

“They would have like to have had all the evidence. That would have been the icing on the cake. But the ending goal was answering questions,” attorney Ken Swindle said. “The primary reason the parents hired me was to find answers, and they feel like for the first time in 20 years they have answers about what happened in those woods.”

The parents started their hunt for information last year, but Swindle said, after a prosecutor ignored their request to see all the evidence in the case they hired him and they sued.

They were then given them limited access to evidence in the prosecutors file. That file, Swindle said, included a key piece of information.

Long path to justice for man at the center of WM3 revelations

Posted: Mar 28, 2013 2:20 PM PDT Updated: Apr 04, 2013 2:20 PM PDT

By Les Smith

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (FOX13) - Things haven't changed much in the 18 years since Bennie David Guy walked the streets of Earle, Arkansas as a free man. But, soon the now 53-year-old Guy may get that chance as he awaits parole after serving less than half of a 40 year sentence for a crime DNA evidence indicated he didn't commit, the rape of an 11-year-old girl at a motel in 1995.  That evidence was available to Crittenden County prosecutors and his defense attorney just two months after he went to prison.

 "I get to looking at the evidence that's in the writ and the DNA evidence says he didn't commit the rape. His semen was not found in the victim. That it's someone...It's someone else's," said Project Innocence attorney Phillip Allen in 2008.

Bennie's brother Bobby also believes him innocent, "They sent a letter said the girl lied about it. Said it been on her conscience for so long she wanted to get it off her conscience."

Now the man wrongly convicted, in some ironic twist of fate, finds himself as among the accusers in