They have since become known as the West Memphis Three. Steven Braga, a D.C. Attorney from the Echols defense team proposed a rare and intriguing idea, an Alford plea. When asked if he wanted to plead guilty, Alford answered “I pleaded guilty on second degree murder because they said there is too much evidence, but I ain't shot no man, but I take the fault for the other man. The teenage boys were most likely in shock, having been convicted of such heinous crimes, especially when other viable suspects walked free. With the State’s acceptance of the Alford plea deal, he found what he was looking for, a “compromise to try to save my client's life and free him from prison.” Pam Hicks Describes The Last Time She Saw Her Son, Stevie Branch Over the next 18 years the three fought for the opportunity to have a new trial and presumably, prove their innocence.

In response to the uproar, the local Sheriff’s office was undoubtedly pressured into finding an immediate scapegoat. Crime and poverty rates are significantly higher than the national average and the Bible Belt city ranked as the most the most dangerous in the state in 2018, reported Eight-year-olds Stevie, Michael and Christopher were best friends and Cub Scout members who attended Weaver Elementary School, where they were in second grade.On the afternoon of May 5, 1993, the three friends were enjoying a warm spring afternoon outdoors. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., known as the “West Memphis Three,” took a bargain known as an “Alford plea” in which … Misskelley also implicated Echols and Baldwin as his co-conspirators, resulting in their arrests. Stunningly, however, they pleaded guilty without admitting that they had committed the crime. On August 19, 2011, they entered Alford pleas , which allowed them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Located across from Memphis, on the west bank of the Mississippi River, West Memphis shares many problems with its more famous neighbor. To this day, it inspires fierce debate and accusations of guilt, while the facts and evidence remain contested.What’s known is that three young boys were murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. Digital Original The following is a brief synopsis of the case that shocked a nation, paired with exclusive personal input from the attorneys who negotiated the deal, exhibiting a rare instance of true legal compromise. It also suggested that The West Memphis Three were victims of lingering “Satanic Panic,” a widespread fear in the 1980s that Satanism would infect society.The tale of three metal-loving misfits who may have been scapegoated for being different resonated with many, including several prominent musicians, celebrities and activists.Two tribute albums, “Free The West Memphis 3” (2000) and “Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three” (2002), helped generate funds for their ongoing legal costs.While the Arkansas State and U.S. Supreme Courts repeatedly denied the West Memphis Three’s appeals, a new batch of DNA testing done in 2007 showed that no genetic material on the crime scene evidence was a match to Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley, reported the Furthermore, a hair found in one of the ligatures used to bind the boys was found to be consistent with the DNA of Terry Hobbs, Stevie’s stepfather, according to court documents obtained byAnother hair found on a tree stump near the crime scene was found to be consistent with the DNA of David Jacoby, a friend of Hobbs, according to court documents. It appears that their fresh perspective helped them obtain a model legal compromise wherein all parties left feeling not quite 100% victorious.

The community rallied around the broken families of Steven Branch, Christopher Bryers and Michael Moore and turned indignantly to their local law enforcement for swift justice.



The Alford plea originated in a 1970 Supreme Court case where Henry Alford was indicted for first degree murder. They were both found guilty on three counts of capital murder, according to the In June 1996, HBO aired “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills,” the first of three documentaries that took a critical look at the case, highlighting law enforcement’s questionable investigation tactics and lack of physical evidence tying Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley to the murders.

“He's like some wacko cult member," high school teacher Jim Ferguson told Echols’ friend, Jason Baldwin, 16, was subsequently wrapped up in the investigation, and a third teenager, Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17, also came under scrutiny.

Nor were they, by any definition, “exonerated.” But on this past Friday, they were permitted to walk out the front door of the courthouse rather than the back door to the jailhouse. An Alford plea (also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia, an Alford guilty plea and the Alford doctrine ), in United States law, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence. “

The prosecution was charged with crafting an ironclad legal case while their friends and neighbors watched by attentively.

The children never returned home. The verdict was immediately showered with doubt. Christopher’s cause of death was from "multiple injuries,” and both Michael and Stevie died from "multiple injuries with drowning,” according to local newspaper the Christopher had a fractured skull, and his genitals had been mutilated, which authorities believed was done by his killer.