West Memphis 3

Hi trout,

Hold on. Be fair. It isn't as much what happened then as how the system responds after the fact. It too frequently will let folks stay in jail rather than admit an error or face a lawsuit. Also, it is hard to defend interrogating a borderline retarded person for 12 hours without a lawyer and then using the"confession" Trout I believe the system works about 98% of the time. I'm not bashing here. It just needs to remedy mistakes quickly cost what it may in embarassment or money. I respect law enforcement. You make a good point about the DNA. But it is also true that DNA is often fought after the conviction for fear it will unsettle things.

Oh yes I believe ABC for sure. Remember DNA was not in play 18 years ago. Just something to think about before passing judgement on the system.

Hi Forum,

Okay, so the "West Memphis 3" are set free today after rotting 18 years in prison. It sure looks like we've got some folks with egg on their face. It's a typical enough pattern. A gruesome crime is committed. There is huge pressure to find the criminals. Media attention is enormous. Sure enough, they come up with some people. Later conveniently ignored facts, repressed details, "the rush to judgment", and DNA call it all into question. Prosecutors scramble to avoid looking bad. They come up with some mechanism to set the people free but avoid actually admitting the State did anything wrong. Often whole new people are in office anyway. The whole thing "goes away" after the media is done selling the evening news. What do you think? And by the way, I think most people in prison are guilty as hell. I don't expect a perfect legal system. But I do expect mistakes to be corrected swiftly and not swept under the rug. Stories like this one ought to worry us all.

Here's a bit from ABC:

By ANNE-MARIE DORNING
Aug. 19, 2011
The release today of the so-called West Memphis Three frees them to "clear our names" after surviving an "absolute living hell," two of the men said.

"I'm just tired," Jesse Misskelley Jr. said at a news conference after the hearing at which a a judge accepted a plea deal to set them free. "This has been going on for 18 years. "It's been an absolute living hell."

One of their lawyers said the men's release is "evidence of the state's recognition that they are innocent" and that "no jury would convict them at a new trial."...

Here's the whole story and video:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/west-memphis-free-18-years-murder-charge/story?id=14340244