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WM 3 denied

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

The headline sorta says it all: A judge on Wednesday rejected claims that DNA evidence clears three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in 1993 and denied their requests for a new trial. Lawyers for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley ? known to supporters as the “West Memphis Three” ? had argued that new DNA tests would prove their clients’ innocence. Both Baldwin and Misskelley claimed their lawyers failed to adequately represent them during trial. Their lawyers said DNA evidence provided by Echols’ defense team showed that the men did not kill Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. “The court finds that (Echols’s) DNA-testing results are inconclusive because they do not raise a reasonable probability that he did not commit the offenses; that is, they are inconclusive as to his claim of actual innocence,” Circuit Court Judge David wrote in a 10-page order denying the men’s requests for a new trial...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on September 11, 2008 (boomark / email).