Misskelley v. State

Bradley D. Jesson, Chief Justice.

On June 21, 1993, the appellant, Damien Echols, and Charles Jason Baldwin were charged with the murders of three West Memphis boys. Steven Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore, all eight years of age, had been missing since the early evening hours of May 5, 1993. Their bodies were found the next day submerged in a creek in a park-like area of West Memphis known as Robin Hood. The boys’ bodies were nude, their hands and feet had been tied, and it was evident they had been severely beaten and mutilated.

The West Memphis Police began an extensive…