it was pure coincidence, ok, maybe not pure coincidence, that led me to the page www.wm3.org. on myspace i learned – first about pearl jam‘s lead singer eddie vedder embarking on a solo tour along the west coast – and then about the fate of three obviously innocently imprisoned men who were convicted of the murder of three boys back in 1993 and have been incarcarated for 15 years now, one of them in death row.

i only had a look of some chapters of that webpage until now but i get the impression that “justice” can make and does make horrible mistakes. (ok, i guessed that before but i hadn’t encountered any specific case yet.)

i told my virtual but very real friend ingrid who luckily happens to live in santa barbara about the show in her town and it was her who made me have a closer look at the cause for this special kind of charity tour.

this is just an extract of the synopsis:

“… since they had destroyed or lost most of the evidence that might have been collected, their only option was hearsay.
Finally, the boy’s mother [a local woman who was in trouble for writing bad checks agreed to assist the police in their efforts to investigate Damien] had yet another idea. She urged a mentally handicapped 17-year-old named Jessie Misskelley to go to the police with another eyewitness account of having seen Echols kill the children. Jessie was with the police for twelve hours, yet only a small fragment of this lengthy day of questioning was recorded.”

“During Jessie’s trial, Dr. Richard Ofshe, a Pulitzer Prize winning expert on false confessions and police coercion testified that the brief recording was a “classic example” of police coercion. He pointed out how the officers heard Jessie state that the murders had taken place in the morning – but since they knew that the victims had been in school all day, they “suggested” to Jessie that it “must” have been later when he was in the woods. Jessie obligingly agreed. Oddly, the testimony of this expert witness for Jessie’s defense was not heard in its entirety by the jury.”

obviously, the aftermath of those trials were determinded by satanic panic, a phenomenon often found in areas with deeply rooted christian traditions where what seems unexplainable is ascribed to be caused by demons and witches …

“Books written by best-selling author Stephen King were used as evidence against Damien when no real evidence could be found. Black concert T-shirts were held up as evidence in an American courtroom in the 1990s as “proof” that Jason Baldwin was capable of murdering three 8 year olds. Lyrics to songs by BLUE OYSTER CULT and PINK FLOYD were shown to the jury, apparently in an effort to suggest to them that they were relevant to the murders, and somehow showed that the defendants were guilty.”

what’s most striking is that not only no evidence could be connected to those three teenagers echols, misskelley and baldwin, but also the given evidence didn’t match them.

“Adult human bite marks, which were found on at least one of the victims were also overlooked during the original investigation. This is very likely due to the fact that these bodies were never examined by a Board Certified Medical Examiner. They were buried without ever having been subjected to an autopsy by a qualified forensic pathologist.”

one piece of evidence, a knife with blood one it, was tested for the blood type, a inconclusive kind of test that ruined the evidence for further testing.

even the father of one of the three murdered teenagers believes that the wrong people were convicted.

so many unbelievable things going on there, you should see for yourself and maybe help to finally help justice by donating something.

quotes:

“These boys didn’t get a fair trial. They got picked for wearing black clothes and having long hair.” Tom Waits

“I believe they are innocent.” Marilyn Manson

“It could happen to me, it could happen to you.” Jello Biafra

“The films are remakable, and it is certainly an interesting – and troubling – case.” Bill Clinton

“That’s the stupidest f***ing confession I’ve ever seen.” Dr. Richard Ofshe (Pulitzer Prize winner & Professor for Social Psychology at Berkeley University)