Arkansas Supreme Court sides with Echols on appeal

Attorney General denied bid to have case dismissed

By Ralph Hardin

ralphhardin@gmail.com

A twice-convicted triple child murderer may yet see his bid to have evidence he claims will exonerate him and his co-defendants in a 30-year-old case tested for DNA.

On Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court denied a motion by the Arkansas Attorney General’s office to dismiss an appeal filed by Damien Echols that would allow for a new type of DNA testing to be done in his case.

While the case is not being moved immediately to the appeal hearing, the court did grant an extension for filing a brief in the matter.

“Appellee’s motion to dismiss appeal or, in the alternative, motion for extension of time to file a brief.

Motion to dismiss appeal denied; motion for extension of time to file brief granted,” the ruling states.

Echols filed an appeal with the Arkansas Supreme Court earlier this year asking it to allow for new MVac touch DNA testing on ligatures collected in the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis after Judge Tonya Alexander dismissed a petition filed in June to have the evidence tested in Crittenden County Circuit Court.

Alexander refused the initial request, citing a lack of jurisdiction.

In addition to their 1994 convictions, Echols and his co-defendants in the case, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., each pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to Alford pleas on Aug. 19, 2011 in the killings of Michael Moore, Christopher Byers, and Stevie Branch.

The three men, infmaously known as The West Memphis Three (or WM3) were were then released after spending more than 18 years in prison.

All three have steadfastly maintained their innocence for decades, with the case becoming the subject of numerous books, documentaries, true crime podcasts and even a feature film.

The case became widely known nationally and internationally largely thanks to the HBO three-part series “Paradise Lost.” The cause of the convicted killers has been taken up by a number of celebrities, including actor Johnny Depp and singers Eddie Vedder of the grunge band Pearl Jam and Natalie Maines of the country band Dixie Chicks. Echols spokesman Lonnie Soury told Talk Business & Politics that his legal team is pleased with the ruling, and ultimately the hope is that the DNA testing will be allowed to advance.

“We are pleased that the Arkansas Supreme Court turned back efforts by the Arkansas Attorney General to delay the Court’s consideration of Damien Echols appeal of Circuit Court Judge Tonya Alexander’s decision in June 2022 to refuse DNA testing using state of the art M-vac technology in hopes of identifying the real killer(s) of the three children in West Memphis Arkansas in 1993,” Soury. “Echols’ appeal asked the Supreme Court to reverse that procedural determination of Judge Alexander and to remand the case back to the Circuit Court for a full hearing on the merits of Echols’ request for this new scientific testing.”

Souty contends that if those ligatures are tested, he and his team believe that DNA from the three men convicted will not be found, and the true killer’s DNA is still recoverable and possibly now on file with national criminal information databases.

“We hope that the Arkansas Supreme Court will rule in the interest of justice and advise the lower court to allow Echols to test foren-

See WM3, page A3

File photo WM3

From page A1

sic evidence that could lead to the real killers. It has been nearly 30 years since the murders, and three years since Echols was given the approval to test forensic evidence by then Craighead County prosecuting Attorney, now Circuit Court Judge, Scott Ellington,” he added.

Prosecutor Keith Chrestman argued last year that Echols’ appeal was not allowable under current law in Arkansas as having additional testing of evidence is only warranted in cases where the appellant is still incarcerated.

Now it will be up to the Arkansas State Supreme Court to decide if Echols will get his wish granted.