new developments in the WM3 case!
from katv news in arkansas:
The trial judge in the case of three men accused as teenagers of killing
three West Memphis second graders said in an appeal hearing today almost
15 years after the convictions that he is "ready to get it over with."
Circuit Judge David Burnett began the brief hearing before five lawyers
for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley. Burnett said he
would set aside three weeks to hear the appeal, most likely in
September. Each defendant would have one week.
Burnett gave defense lawyers 45 days to file their pleadings and set an
August 20th hearing for lawyers to give him a status report.
None of the convicted men were at the hearing. They are in prison for
the 1993 murders of Steven Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers.
Echols was the only one of the three sentenced to death.
Lurid details and accounts of Satanism filled the original trials.
Police found the bodies of the 8-year-old boys a day after they
disappeared from their neighborhood May 5th, 1993. Their hands were
bound to their legs by shoelaces, and the boys showed signs of suffering
severe beatings before being left in a drainage ditch.
a good friend and i decided yesterday that we're taking a roadtrip to arkansas to attend part of the hearings either in late september or early october, whenever we can manage. i've always wanted to attend a hearing in this case but haven't been able to do so in the past. this time, we're going to!
what worries me is that judge burnett still has his dirty hands in this case... he's a hanging judge and was the judge that presided over the other 2 trials 15 years ago. he's had his mind made up about his percieved guilt of the west memphis 3 for 15 years now... and the fact that he says he is "ready to get it over with" doesn't bode well for any sort of real justice. unfortunately, the 3 are used to that. they haven't had any justice whatsoever since day one.
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