If you haven’t heard about the “Memphis Three” here’s a primer courtesy of the NYT:
In May 1993, the bodies of the boys, Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and James Michael Moore, were found in a drainage ditch in a wooded area of West Memphis, Ark., called Robin Hood Hills. The bodies appeared to have been mutilated, their hands tied to their feet.
The grotesque nature of the murders led to a theory about satanic cult activity. Investigators focused their attention on Mr. Echols, at the time a troubled yet gifted teenager who practiced Wicca, a rarity in the town of West Memphis. Efforts to learn more about him, spearheaded by a single mother cooperating with the police, led to Mr. Misskelley, a passing acquaintance of Mr. Echols, who is borderline mentally retarded.
After a nearly 12-hour interrogation by the police, Mr. Misskelley confessed to the murders and implicated Mr. Echols and Mr. Baldwin, though his confession diverged in significant details with the facts known by the police.
I first heard of the case in 2007 thanks to Thomas, the Badass Bard – he was curious to hear a Christian perspective on it, since the case hinged on “satanic cult activity” because one of the defendants practiced Wicca. Because of an entirely unrelated child murder case that I was peripherally involved in, I didn’t feel able to study this case or write about it. At the time it was just too upsetting to see crime scene video or even read about child murders. But over time I’ve read bits and pieces and I can completely understand why, as Thomas put it, “In the Pagan community the case has been a symbol of oppression, one of the most egregious examples of a Pagan being persecuted for their life choices.”
Now from my fundamentalist perspective, of course Wicca is satanic in the sense that it’s not worshipping God – my God, the only true God, etc. Naturally I believe I’m right and that people who disagree with me are, sadly, incorrect and being led astray. (Who’s leading them? Could it be… Satan?) Oh, sure, Christians rarely say this outright. It’s rude. But when you parse it out, it’s what we believe. 1 However – and this is a mighty big however – it’s rank ignorance to compare Wiccan and modern day pagan practices with “devil worship” as most people think of it.
Ignorance was no barrier for an Arkansas jury led by a prosecutor determined to railroad three teenage defendants, so in spite of an inaccurate confession, lying witnesses and precious little evidence, one boy was sentenced to death and two received life sentences. It’s details like this that so outraged the Pagan community, and should have outraged everyone else:
[Prosecution witness] Vicki Hutcheson made a statement to police that two weeks after the murders she had gone with Jessie and Damien to an Esbat (a ritual observance of the full moon within Wicca and other Wiccan-influenced forms of Neopaganism) in Turrell, AR. She claimed that Damien had driven his red Ford Fiesta to the empty field where the Esbat supposedly occurred. Although Damien Echols did not have a driver’s license and did not own or have access to a Ford Fiesta, and Vicki was not able to identify anyone else attending the Esbat or even find its location, Vicki Hutcheson was still used during the trial as a corroborative witness to Damien and Jessie’s Satanic involvements. After the trial Vicki admitted that she had made up the story.
The prosecution must have known before trial that Damien did not have a drivers license or own such a car. There is no excuse for how Vicki Hutcheson was permitted to testify. There is no excuse for the fact that she has never been charged with perjury. And this is one example of how Echol’s religion was used to influence the jury. How much of this railroading was allowed to occur (in a conservative Baptist community) because of the media hype about Damien Echols’ – a troubled, nonconformist teenager with a dicey history – practice of Wicca?
The documentary, Paradise Lost: Child Murders at Robin Hood is worth watching if you want the full story – it’s available via Netflix. You can also read about the case here. The “Reader’s Digest” version is that DNA evidence eventually exonerated the Memphis Three, and in fact pointed to an entirely different suspect who was never charged – and now probably never will be. The massive injustice done to the Memphis Three is now being compounded by the fact that they had to plead guilty to get out of jail. At least they’ll be free, but nothing can ever make this right.
A good discussion on this is taking place at Hot Air.
