The West Memphis Three case garnered a lot of attention, due largely to the movie Paradise Lost, as well as celebrities such as Eddie Vedder and Johnny Depp speaking publicly about the three teenagers convicted of murdering three younger boys.
The controversial case finally left the jurisdiction of the courts when, on Friday, August 19, 2011, Arkansas Circuit Court Judge David Laser vacated the convictions on the condition that the defendants enter guilty pleas pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court case known as North Carolina v. Alford. Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley enter “Alford pleas” which means that they plead guilty but do not admit to the act, and are allowed to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors might have enough evidence to convict them. In accordance with the plea negotiations, Judge Laser sentences all three to time served, followed by a ten-year term of suspended imposition of sentence.
Supporters of the West Memphis Three saw this as a final exoneration of what they percieved as wrongfully convicted teenagers. Non-supporters perceived the three escaped their imposed sentencing on a technicality.
This site was formed to seek out and objectively research other criminal convictions that are in appeals or have already been overturned by what some describe as technicalities.
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