Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three (43 page)

And then, in a déjà vu of years past (when it was highlighted that Mark Byers had hit Christopher with a belt on what would turn out to be the last time he saw his son alive), Moriarty asked Pam, “Do you think that Terry is capable, or was capable, of killing your son?”

“It’s a possibility,” Pam answered.

So did the defense’s case rely on finding the “real” killer? The answer, according to Lorri Davis and Dennis Riordan was yes and no. “Proof beyond a reasonable doubt against Terry Hobbs?” Riordan asked rhetorically. “Perhaps not. Proof that would absolutely lead to the acquittal of these defendants at their trial? Absolutely. Absolutely.” The absence of any DNA belonging to the WM3, Riordan said, proved that his client could not have abused the victims in the manner described in the Misskelley confession. Davis waffled in weak support of the “finding the real killer” scenario. “It’s not our job as a legal team to prove who committed these murders,” she said, “but I want to know who did it. I think everybody does.” For Damien Echols, the answer was much more succinct. “The fact that I’m not guilty,” he told Larry King in 2007, “means that a child murderer has been allowed to walk the streets for sixteen years.”

The show was extremely well produced and was essentially a summary of what was in Damien’s second amended habeas petition, with some “persuasive” steering by Erin Moriarty and plenty of celebrity name-dropping. Mark Byers was shown at the Rule 37 hearings for Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, greeting demonstrators from the Arkansas Take Action group in a show of solidarity and support. “I’m here strictly for the truth,” he told them. Pam Hobbs stood firm when she said, “Arkansas will never admit that they made a mistake. They’re gonna stand on ‘they did it’ [and] ‘we got the right ones,’ and that’s the way it is. I want the truth and nothing but, and once the truth and nothing but is known, I think I can rest a little easier.” But courts are not persuaded by all these things. They are persuaded by the law, by evidence, and by precedent, although Pam Hobbs might have had it right when she suggested the likelihood of some good old-fashioned ass-covering by the state of Arkansas. It seemed likely to many that the petition would meet the same fate in the ASSC as it had in the Second District Court presided over by Judge David Burnett, but the court’s decision caught many off-guard, particularly attorney general Dustin McDaniel.

Voices
for
Justice

No event since the so-called DNA press conference in November 2007 received more hype than the “Voices for Justice” rally held on August 28, 2010, in Little Rock. Initially, an announcement was made that the rally and concert benefitting the West Memphis Three would be held in a small Methodist church. Headliners Eddie Vedder and Natalie Maines were to appear before some seven hundred people; tickets were going for ninety-five dollars apiece—$500 for “VIP” tickets. Several days later, allegedly because of “technical and sound issues” at the church, the venue was changed to the Robinson Center Music Hall, and ticket prices dropped to twenty-five dollars each, presumably because of the increased seating capacity (the hall holds some 2,600 people; according to the
Arkansas
Times
, the event sold out).

There were teasers in press releases of possible appearances by “special guests” such as ex-Guns ‘n’ Roses frontman Axl Rose and shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, but the final line-up was a little more sedate and, with the possible exception of Patti Smith, a lot more talented. The man Lorri Davis said “knows this case inside out,” Johnny Depp himself, took center stage. Eddie Vedder, a constant presence among Echols’s celebrity supporters, was accompanied by a crew cut-sporting Natalie Maines. Performances were also given by Lisa Blount and Ben Harper and Fistful of Mercy (featuring Dhani Harrison, son of the late George Harrison).

The event was sponsored by Arkansas Take Action. “We are incredibly honored to have Eddie and Natalie lend their voices to this important evening,” co-founder Capi Peck said. “Their willingness to join us for Voices for Justice will help raise even more awareness about the profound injustice that continues to occur. We will not rest until our political and judicial leaders hear our voices and do the right thing.” This would be the movement’s final push for publicity prior to the September 30 hearings before the Arkansas State Supreme Court, along with the attendant demonstration planned for outside the capitol.

Along with performing a number of solo songs and backing up on others, Vedder read from letters written to him by Echols. From one such letter he read the following passage, one that seems to heavily reflect Echols’s past association with Buddhism.

One thing I’d dearly love to have is an hour glass, or a collection of them, some that measure minutes, some that measure hours, some that measure the whole day. And grandfather clocks, and pocket watches. The thing I like most about time is that it’s not real. It’s all in the head. Sure, it’s a useful trick if you want to meet somebody at a specific place in the universe for tea or coffee, but that’s all it is. There’s no such thing as the past: it exists only in the memory. There’s no such thing as the future: it’s only in our imagination. If our watches were truly accurate, the only thing they would ever say is “now.”

It was now Depp’s turn to read, and after asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine this writing was their own, he delivered this passage from Echols’s journal:

Today, the guards made me bleed again. They chained my feet so tight I could barely move. I bleed through my socks. Last month it was my left ankle; today it was the right. When I wash the sole, it burns like fire. I’m going to have to keep my ankles clean, because I don’t have any alcohol or peroxide to kill the bacteria, or infections, and this place is filthy. I can’t remember what it’s like to walk as a human being anymore. My cell is so small I can only take two steps. Anytime I’m brought out, no matter how briefly or infrequently, I have chains on my hands and feet, as well as guards hanging on me. It’s been well over sixteen years since I’ve actually walked anywhere. Sometimes I still can’t wrap my mind around that. I’m working on my seventeenth year now. There were times when I thought surely, someone is going to put a stop to this. Surely someone is going to do something. But they never do. Time just rolls on; it’s insanity. I’m truly amazed at what they’ve been allowed to get away with, and for how long. It does no good to dwell on it. Either I focus my energy on things I cannot change, or conserve it, and apply it to small things I can change. That’s what the I Ching calls, “the taming power of the small.” Every great victory is made up of many smaller victories.

This was perhaps the most poignant moment in the show. It allowed the listeners to feel, if just for the moment, the reality of life on death row. If we had hearts at all, we knew this man was suffering greatly. Guilty or innocent, Echols was in pain. For some that was as it should be; for others, it was unbearable.

More
on
Film

Bruce Sinofksy and Joe Berlinger weren’t the only ones planning to capitalize on the current status of the case of the WM3;
Paradise
Lost
3
had some competition. Filmmaker Amy Berg (
Deliver
Us
from
Evil
), backed by director Peter Jackson, had been busy trying to put a film together, though she was meeting with many closed doors. For example, Sharon Nelson, Terry Hobbs’s former girlfriend, gave an affidavit to the defense as part of Jason Baldwin’s appeal but rebuffed attempts by Berg to get her on film.
²⁰⁵
Berg has stated that her film will “tell the truth of this very complex tragic story,” the “truth” being that the WM3 were wrongly convicted. Indeed, it is difficult to find any form of media that believes otherwise.

Amy Berg had recently begun taking Amanda Hobbs around to various doctors and hospitals in the Memphis area. Amanda told her father that Berg was giving her money, money that she desperately needed. Terry wasn’t buying it. “It’s as lowdown as it can be. That Lorri Davis is behind all this,” he told George Jared of the
Jonesboro
Sun.
²⁰⁶

Larry
King
Live
,
Part
2

On Wednesday, September 1, 2010, less than a month before Damien Echols’s attorneys were to make oral arguments before the ASSC, CNN aired a second episode of
Larry
King
Live
devoted to the case of the West Memphis Three. The first, discussed previously, had been shown in December 2007. This show was presented in panel format, with King in his studio and his guests sitting against the backdrop of the stage at the Robinson Music Center in Little Rock. Eddie Vedder, Natalie Maines, Lorri Davis, and attorney Dennis Riordan sat in director’s chairs, answering questions posed by King.

King asked whether Vedder and Maines were “100 percent” convinced of the innocence of the WM3 or were just saying there was reasonable doubt. Although Vedder seemed to equivocate, the truth was that he had always believed in the innocence of the West Memphis Three. “This is a tragic crime, and there were three young kids that were killed. I really wanted to be sensitive to the crime that was committed and the victims and their families,” he said. “At one point I had to look [Echols] in the eye and ask him straight ahead, and I was completely satisfied with his answer.”

Dennis Riordan explained to King how DNA evidence was used to exonerate convicted men. “If you are tried and convicted [of a serious charge], it is virtually impossible to win your case on appeal, but once your direct appeal is over, as it was in the Arkansas Supreme Court, the legal system really assumes that there can be no validity for a further appeal or challenge.”
²⁰⁷

King turned his attention to Lorri Davis and her marriage to Damien Echols in December 1999. “It’s been a journey,” Davis said. She giggled somewhat nervously when King told her how “talented,” “bright,” and “very beautiful” she was. Maines giggled too, though she didn’t seem to grasp the gravity of the occasion. Vedder and Riordan maintained the somber look of two men attending a funeral, which was perhaps more appropriate, given the topic.

“Why subject yourself to a marriage in which you don’t touch your husband?” King asked Davis.

“Yes, it’s difficult, and yes, I would much rather it be different, but it will be,” she answered. Unbelievably, King asked her if there were conjugal visits in Arkansas. “No,” she answered, clearly embarrassed. “There are not.”

King could be a remarkably insensitive buffoon at times, and he was notorious for doing little or no research on his guests before their appearances. Unless he had interviewed a guest previously—he could lob softballs at Bill Maher in his sleep—the show was likely to be a little thin on substance.

The subject then came around to the Maines-Hobbs defamation suit. “I never expected it,” Maines said, trying to sound confused about why someone who was being accused of murder with little evidence would try to sue a well-heeled celebrity. But she was happy about it. “It’s been awesome. It’s been great for the case, and hopefully that gentleman will regret it [laughing], and everyone else will benefit from it.” She and Davis continued giggling. “Bring it on. I’m not scared,” Maines continued, “when I believe wholeheartedly in what I’m doing, and I felt confident in my case in that instance, and in Dennis’s case.”

Possibly the most curious and surprising aspect of the supporters, the various celebrities, Lorri Davis, Mark Byers, and Echols himself, was the incredible confidence and hope they had in the eventual exoneration of the West Memphis Three. They all claimed to be well educated on the case, and though Riordan had probably prepared them for the worst, they chose to remain amazingly optimistic about the outcome. Vedder’s comments on
Larry
King
Live
were almost shocking given his (perhaps inaccurate) reputation as a “grunge” rebel. “You have to have faith in the justice system. It’s part of our country; it’s part of the fabric of our flag to believe in justice.” Vedder appeared to be the most thoughtful of the group and was genuinely troubled, filled with fear and empathy for a man he called his friend, a man who was condemned to die.

September
30,
2010

Arkansas attorney general Dustin McDaniel said of the case, “Our office knows that there are concerns about this case, but be assured that we take the utmost care in handling the appeals of death sentences handed down by Arkansas jurors. We are committed to fairness and justice not just for the three inmates, but also for the three little boys who didn’t live to see middle school.” If that statement, read on
Larry
King
Live
, wasn’t heard as an omen, perhaps McDaniel’s political message was missed. It wasn’t just political posturing; McDaniel wasn’t much different from most states’ attorneys general when it came to upholding convictions. Most believe in the integrity and accuracy of the justice system in their state, the system Eddie Vedder said he too had much faith in. This was a triple homicide involving eight-year-old children, and there was nothing in the defense’s case that could not be refuted by the state. As Riordan stated during
Larry
King
Live
, the defense had to prove that were the case to be tried today, there would be a reasonable probability that a jury would acquit.