ITP SOCIAL JUSTICE: WEST MEMPHIS THREE UPDATE: WEST MEMPHIS THREE ORDERED NEW HEARING

The Washington Post reports that the WEST MEMPHIS THREE have been court ordered new hearings. Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin have been sentenced to life in prison (no parole) for the murders of three young boys in the 1993 Robin Hood Hill Murders, West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty as THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE are looking to appeal their convictions on grounds of no evidence, DNA testing and an unfair trial of anti goth/metal, Wiccan "satanic panic".
DNA evidence links hair on the rope/shoe string that one of the boys was tied up in to Terry Hobbs, a step father of one of the murdered boys (Steve Branch), and Jacoby. Hobbs and Jacoby are not yet considered a suspect.
Prosecutors debated Arkansas DNA statute, it's relevance and if lack of DNA evidence proves someone completely innocent or an accessory to a crime. Neither absence nor presence of DNA alone is proof of guilt or
innocence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Protection_Act
FROM Dennis Riordan attorney for Damien Echols 9/9/2010 ARKANSAS TIMES: :
"Interpretation of the state's DNA statute, if accepted by the court, will
not only keep Echols and co-defendants Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley
behind bars, but it also could prevent anyone from ever being granted a new
trial based on DNA evidence.

"This case has significance far beyond [the West Memphis Three], in terms of
Arkansas society and protection of the act, passed this decade in line with
all of the wrongful convictions in the country, to have a mechanism by which
those convictions can be rectified. That's what will be at stake at the
court proceeding at the end of [this] month," Riordan said at the press
conference.

In a brief filed in the case, Riordan argues the attorney general is urging
the court to "interpret the state's DNA statutory scheme so as to make it
functionally impossible for the wrongly convicted to gain relief."

In 2001, the Arkansas legislature passed a law granting post-conviction
access to DNA testing for those potentially wrongfully convicted of their
crimes. Since then,

DNA testing in the West Memphis Three case (the three were convicted in 1994
for 1993 crimes) turned up no trace of the defendants on evidence taken from
the crime scene. The DNA evidence did suggest that a hair found in the rope
used to tie up the victims belonged to Terry Hobbs, stepfather of one of the
victims. Neither absence nor presence of DNA alone is proof of guilt or
innocence."
The defense in capital cases are often underfunded, as many of these cases are saturated in scientific evidence. For over 17 years the West Memphis Three supporters have been raising funds and awareness to pay for the legal fees for the WEST MEMPHIS THREE to re open the case, afford an investigation and now a new hearing.
Also, for more insight on the WEST MEMPHIS THREE case check out the book "DEVILS KNOT" : MARA LEVITT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Knot:_The_True_Story_of_the_West_Memphis_Three and also the HBO documentaries PARADISE LOST-THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS , and PARADISE LOST 2: REVELATIONS produced and directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky whom also directed the METALLICA documentary: "Some Kind of Monster" and the Amazon oil contamination documentary "CRUDE"-THE PRICE OF OIL".

Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal- \m/ -l-