Echols was sentenced to death, but new evidence helped him negotiate a plea bargain. He was released after serving more than 18 years in prison in 2011. Echols served on death row and was locked down for 23 hours a day.
Who is Damien Echols?
Damien Echols, one of the West Memphis Three, heads to court in West Memphis, Ark., on Thursday morning to ask prosecutors to hand over DNA evidence to a lab for testing. Echols, along with two others, was accused of murdering three boys in the early 1990s. The suspects were teens at the time.
When did Damien Echols go to prison?
Damien Echols on the day of his arrest in 1993. Photograph: Richard Gardner/Corbis "You don't get used to being in prison in a single day," says Echols, "and you don't get used to being out of prison in a single day.
Why is there a rift between Damien Echols and the producers?
The cause of the rift is a new movie in production, Devils Knot, detailing the case and the murders of three children in West Memphis in 1993. Damien Echols has been against the movie since the start according to Jason Baldwin, “Damien had several objections to the script, though he had not met with the producers to discuss his concerns directly.
Will justice ever be served to Damien Echols?
Damien Echols spent nearly 20 years on death row, for a crime he said he didn't commit, the murder of three young boys in West Memphis back in 1993. While this day is a celebration for him, Echols said no matter what happens, justice will never be fully served.
Are Damien Echols and Lorri Davis still married?
Damien Echols and Lorri Davis met in 1996, and were married in a Buddhist ceremony at Tucker Maximum Security Unit in Arkansas in 1999. Echols spent nearly eighteen years on death row until his release in 2011. He is the author of the New York Times–bestselling memoir Life After Death.
How old is Lorri Davis?
59 years (July 16, 1963)Lorri Davis / Age
Is Devil's Knot based on true story?
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three is a 2002 true crime book by Mara Leveritt, about the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old children and the subsequent trials of three teenagers charged with and convicted of the crimes.
How old is Damien Nichols?
47 years (December 11, 1974)Damien Echols / Age
Why did Damien Echols change his name?
When I adopted Damien, his name was Michael and he had to change his last name to Echols and while he was doing that he changed his first name to Damien. Damien was reading about a preacher named Damien who he liked and that is how he got his name.
Why is it called Devil's Knot?
Adapted from Mara Leveritt's 2002 book of the same name, the film is about the true story of three murdered children, and the three teenagers known as the West Memphis Three who were convicted of killing them, during the Satanic ritual abuse panic....Devil's Knot (film)Devil's KnotBox office$2 million15 more rows
What is Devil's Knot rated?
Not RatedDevil's Knot / MPAA rating
When was Damien Echols arrested?
Damien Echols on the day of his arrest in 1993. Photograph: Richard Gardner/Corbis. "You don't get used to being in prison in a single day," says Echols, "and you don't get used to being out of prison in a single day. For several months I was in a state of profound shock and trauma.
How did Damien Echols survive death row?
Damien Echols: how I survived death row. Damien Echols spent 18 years facing execution after being wrongly convicted of a triple child killing. Then Lorri Davis, a woman he'd never met, began a campaign that would set him free. Emma John talks to him and introduces chilling extracts from his prison diary.
Where did Lorri and Echols move to?
As time has gone by it's gotten better and better.". Last September he and Lorri moved from New York to Salem, Massachusetts , where the infamous witch trials took place. Echols had become a Buddhist in prison, and been ordained into the same Zen tradition used to train the Samurai.
When did Lorri and I get married?
Lorri and I weren't able to touch each other at all until December 1999, when we were married. After we were married, Lorri and I were permitted to be in the same room with each other, but every visit we had was chaperoned.
Where were the three boys murdered?
I n 1993, three eight-year-old boys – Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers – were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. "It was the subject of every newscast, on the front page of every newspaper, it was all they were talking about on the radio," Damien Echols says. "If you went to the grocery store, that's what they would be talking about in the checkout line." He remembers a sense of fear coming over the town. "You could feel it like a thunderstorm in the air."
Who said we weren't able to touch each other until we were married?
Emma John talks to him and introduces chilling extracts from his prison diary. ‘We weren’t able to touch each other at all until we were married’: Damien Echols and his wife Lorri. Photograph: Victoria Will/AP. ‘We weren’t able to touch each other at all until we were married’: Damien Echols and his wife Lorri.
Who sent Lorri a donation to the defence fund?
Lorri took up his case, taking out personal loans to fund his defence. One day the film director Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, his partner, sent Lorri a donation to the defence fund along with a note offering any help they could.
How long was Damien Echols on death row?
Damien Echols spent nearly 20 years on death row, for a crime he said he didn't commit, the murder of three young boys in West Memphis back in 1993.
Who met Echols at his first art show?
For Pensavalle, this is as universal as it is personal. She met Echols at his first art show after his release.
When did the Memphis Three walk out of prison?
Ten years ago, on Aug. 19, 2011, the West Memphis Three walked out of prison.
When were Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin released from prison?
and Jason Baldwin sit at a table during a news conference at the Craighead County Courthouse in Jonesboro after their release from prison in this Aug. 19, 2011, file photo. The three were freed after a legal maneuver that allows them to maintain their innocence while pleading guilty in exchange ...
What evidence was lost in the Echols case?
Attorneys learned that the evidence they hoped to test -- including the victims' shoes, socks, shirts and shoelaces that were used as ligatures -- had either been lost, misplaced or destroyed by fire, according to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted July 6, 2021, by one of Echols' attorneys, Patrick Benca, to the West Memphis Police Department.
How long did the West Memphis Three spend in jail?
Though no DNA evidence ever tied the West Memphis Three to the crime scene, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were convicted, spending nearly 20 years in prison until a twist of events in August 2011 when prosecutors allowed the men to immediately walk free. A bargain, known as an Alford Plea, permitted the men to maintain their innocence ...
Has DNA testing been destroyed in Arkansas?
Evidence requested by attorneys for new DNA testing in one of the most high-profile, savage murder cases in Arkansas history has been lost or destroyed by fire, dashing hopes that the men convicted of the killings of three children in West Memphis in 1993 will be exonerated.
Who is Blake Hendrix?
Blake Hendrix, an attorney for Jason Baldwin, said evidence gathered by the West Memphis police has long been in "disarray."
Who is the attorney for Echols?
Benca, Echols' attorney, said time is of the essence.
Is the West Memphis Three case confidential?
Logs detailing the chain of custody and other specifics of when evidence from the West Memphis Three case was transferred from the state Crime Lab to West Memphis are confidential and only available to prosecutors, defense attorneys and public defenders, Channell said.
What cases have resulted in exonerations?
Historically, most of the cases that resulted in exonerations have been high-profile murder cases . But in recent years, an increasing number of lower-level offenses, including drug convictions, have been overturned.
How many exonerations have been made since 1989?
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2,000 wrongfully convicted individuals have been exonerated for state and federal crimes since 1989. In 2016, there were 166 exonerations nationwide — an average of more than three per week. In 2004, Congress passed the Justice for All Act with bipartisan support.
How much money do you get for being wrongfully exonerated?
The wrongfully exonerated are paid $80,000 for every year spent in prison and are eligible for monthly annuity payments after release. Over the years, the state has paid over $93 million to wrongfully convicted individuals, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. But the law cannot help prisoners who are released without being officially exonerated ...
How long was Ed Ates in jail?
But the law cannot help prisoners who are released without being officially exonerated — like Ed Ates, who spent 20 years incarcerated in Texas after being convicted of the 1993 murder of Elnora Griffin. Ates' case was covered on season two of the Truth & Justice podcast and the Innocence Project of Texas.
Who were the West Memphis Three?
New legislation in these areas could affect cases like the West Memphis Three — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley — who were in prison for almost 18 years for a murder of three young boys.
Why were the three people wrongfully convicted?
The first two documentaries — and presumably the third — argue that the three were wrongfully convicted primarily because they were, in a word, weird, and because of fears whipped up in the community by mentions of Satanism. As the films tell the story, they were misfits in West Memphis, teenagers who listened to the wrong music and dressed ...
What is the problem with the West Memphis Three?
The problem for the West Memphis Three, however, is that the bar for prosecutors has been set so low that it’s virtually impossible to prove they violated your civil rights.
What is a Nolo plea?
Courts have defined the plea of nolo contendere in a variety of different ways, describing it, on the one hand, as “in effect, a plea of guilty,” United States v. Food & Grocery Bureau, 43 F. Supp. 974, 979 (SD Cal. 1942), aff’d, 139 F. 2d 973 (CA9 1943), and on the other, as a query directed to the court to determine the defendant’s guilt. State v. Hopkins, 27 Del. 306, 88 A. 473 (1913). See generally Lott v. United States, 367 U. S. 421, 426-427 (1961), id., at 427-430 (Clark, J., dissenting), 21 Am. Jur. 2d, Criminal Law § 497. As a result, it is impossible to state precisely what a defendant does admit when he enters a nolo plea in a way that will consistently fit all the cases.
What is the plea of Nolo contendere?
Throughout its history, that is, the plea of nolo contendere has been viewed not as an express admission of guilt but as a consent by the defendant that he may be punished as if he were guilty and a prayer for leniency. Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 11 preserves this distinction in its requirement that a court cannot accept a guilty plea “unless it is satisfied that there is a factual basis for the plea”; there is no similar requirement for pleas of nolo contendere, since it was thought desirable to permit defendants to plead nolo without making any inquiry into their actual guilt. See Notes of Advisory Committee to Rule 11.
Why did John Thompson go to prison?
In Connick, John Thompson spent eighteen years in prison because the prosecutors failed to turn over exculpatory evidence, as they’re required to do under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963). After he was exonerated, he sued, and a jury awarded him $14 million based upon evidence that the prosecutors were “deliberately indifferent” to Thompson’s rights but not turning over a crime lab report that would have exonerated him. A 5-4 Supreme Court overturned the jury verdict with the flimsy legal reasoning that citizens don’t have a constitutional right to competent prosecutors that respect their constitutional rights; if that sounds silly, it’s because it is.
When was Devil's Knot book?
The case is also the subject of the 2002 book Devil’s Knot.
Who killed the children in Paradise Lost?
The original convictions, based on a theory that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley killed the three children as part of a Satanic ritual, were the subject of the 1996 HBO documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders At Robin Hood Hills and the 2000 follow-up Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is set to premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. All three come from filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.
