West Memphis Three

There was a long piece about this affair, of which I had never previously heard, in a recent issue of NYRB. An affair involving the murder of three young boys, the conviction of three older boys and their release getting on for 20 years later. The release in large part being the result of attracting celebrity backing - notably Peter Jackson of the 'Lord of the Rings'.

All very sad and the proceedings appear to be yet another example of the quality of evidence needed to convict declining with the the horror of the crime. Release was the result of an odd plea called an Alford plea where, by some sort of legal double speak permitted in the land of the free, the convicts both plead guilty and reserve the right to plead their innocence. The point of this from the state's (Arkansas) point of view is that by pleading guilty they (the convicts) are no longer able to sue anyone for wrongful arrest or imprisonment or anything like that and that they (the state) does not need to look for anyone else to convict. The case is closed.

The NYRB article focused on the celebrity, media and public interest - without which, the older boys, all rather disadvantaged in one way or another, would never have got out. And one of them might well have been executed. And without which we would not have the four DVDs about the whole business that we now have. We also have websites supporting crowd discussions of the same whole business; trial by twitter as it were.

There was also the business of satanic cults, very much to the fore in peoples' minds at the time, if not exactly facts on the ground.

Turning to Wikipedia, among the mountain of stuff turned up by Professor Google, I find another long article - with no fewer than 91 references - but a lot drier and a lot more neutral than the NYRB article. There are still people out there who believe that the older boys were in fact guilty.

All in all rather disturbing. We do not have a very good process and we do not have a very satisfactory outcome - from any point of view except that of those turning a few bucks out of it all.