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| Torn by 3 Lost Boys and 3 Convicted Youths |
| By nytimes.com |
| Published: 10/13/2009 |
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WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — The patch of woods has been cleared, the shallow ditch has been rerouted, the Blue Beacon Truck Wash has been torn down and 16 years have passed. But though the setting where three 8-year-old boys were found killed, naked and bound, in 1993 is unrecognizable, the crime still has the power to dominate the front page of the small newspaper here and bring tight smiles to the lips of civic boosters. For years, outsiders have raised questions about the guilt of the three misfit teenagers, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were convicted of the murders. But more recently, a steady dribble of new evidence has begun to seep into the consciousness of West Memphis, eroding the once nearly unanimous belief that those outsiders — including rock stars, HBO filmmakers and the creators of “South Park” — did not know what they were talking about. To Shaun Hair, 30, who left West Memphis for college after the killings, it was a jolt to hear friends and neighbors begin questioning the verdict. “I was like, ‘That’s stupid, quit buying the hype,’ ” he said. But when Mr. Hair, who returned to the area in 1999 and now works as a criminal defense lawyer, re-examined the case, he found it troubling. “If I were the defense attorney,” he said, “I would want a retrial.” Read More. |
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