Johnny Depp/West Memphis Three

[Maddie]

We had a thread in the past about Stephen King fans being warped, which had been derrived from a comment he made which was humorously misconstrued in a headline, but brought to mind and touched on just general impressions that some people have for those with a love of his work, horror itself, dark arts, dark music, etc. I came across this article earlier and thought Id share it out here as we all LOVE Johnny, and Stephen King, and Stephen King fans. its very heartbreaking and horrifying. May Peace embrace the souls of the littles ones and their families and the real murderers be searched for and served.





You may expect Johnny Depp to be busy promoting his foray into 'Wonderland,' but the A-list actor has a bigger cause to champion: justice. Depp will appear on CBS's '48 Hours Mystery' on Saturday to advocate the release of the "West Memphis Three," young men convicted in 1994 of murdering three boys during a satanic ritual.

Depp is not alone in his belief that the men were convicted on flimsy or fabricated evidence.He joins other celebrities insisting the men were actually found guilty for their fascination with heavy-metal music, Stephen King and the occult.



heres a link to the rest of this article...

http://www.popeater.com/2010/02/23/j...mphis-three%2F

[fushingfeef]

I watched "Paradise Lost" last year and I was disturbed by it. These three teenagers had no credible motive for committing these crimes, no evidence, yet they were found guilty. Their only crime, particularly Damien Nichols, was for being different.

[Maddie]

oh, Entertainment Weekly has a more informative article about it ...


http://movie-critics.ew.com/2010/02/...victed-killer/

[devious1]

yes this case has been a big deal for some time... i have read many articles and information about the crime and it seems blatantly obvious to me that the father of Christopher Byers should be a suspect... all the evidence i've seen and heard points to him and not the 3 teenagers... but i suppose in a place like that, being different is enough to make you guilty... it's a very sad case and an egregious miscarriage of justice that these 3 boys are still in prison.

for those who are interested in the case...

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/n...s/index_1.html

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

Thankee folr the links, Amanda and Dave, I've read about the case before but it's interestiing to get the facts.

Long days and pleasant nights

[Maddie]

OMG. what a chilling and detailed account, thanks for sharing that link dev, I can imagine how gripping that documentary must be. I remember hearing about this years ago but never knew there was no physical evidence to support any of it.

How clear when it gets to the sloppy handling from the cops! and the guy in the bathroom covered in blood and mud at the fast food restaraunt in the area and the hair fibers, the stepdad and all that evidence, particularly the extreme brutality upon the one child - his stepson, all other possible suspects completely ignored for the sake of keeping it 'Satanic'.

The testimonials or detailed 'confessions' of the two , coerced though they may have been or false, those were very disturbing also, how does someone make stuff like that up...? especially in an effort to save their ass? I don't know. Interesting in the Bibliography section - Detective Mike Allen's report on his interview with a book store owner about Damien Echols's book buying habits, then speculating on novels and characters to link to the crimes?



One thing I didn't buy in there, was the part about the name 'Damien' ------

he changed his name to Damien, after Father Damien a 19th-century Catholic priest who cared for lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. The rumor mill in West Memphis would report that he had named himself after Damien in the series of "Omen" movies.

I would put money on the Omen, on that one.

Well it will be interesting to hear what our babe Johnny D has to say about the case, hes getting it back in the headlines, don't forget to watch it girls! :wink:

for you....



thats not a knife, its a feather,


oooh pleeeease dont let him do a shower scene with Angelina Jolie !

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

I'd like to read Jack Ketchum's interpretatiion of this story.

Long days and pleasant nights

[devious1]

well the way the investigation was handled was bad enough, but the way the judge ran this case was nothing short of shameful... he disallows social psychology experts to testify because he doubts the validity of their expertise, but then he allows a "cult expert" to testify? Jessie's confession never should have been admissible in the trial, but it was all fine and dandy in his book... hell, even if these kids were guilty, they still deserved the right to a fair trial which they never got... they were convicted in the media and in the public's perception long before the trial even began...

[Mr. Jingles]

Absolutely horrible.
I read the Byers boy had "a variety of healed injuries". Would this not indicate possible prior abuse? It would appear that some of the investigation went badly.....to say the very least.

[Maddie]

well the way the investigation was handled was bad enough, but the way the judge ran this case was nothing short of shameful... he disallows social psychology experts to testify because he doubts the validity of their expertise, but then he allows a "cult expert" to testify? Jessie's confession never should have been admissible in the trial, but it was all fine and dandy in his book... hell, even if these kids were guilty, they still deserved the right to a fair trial which they never got... they were convicted in the media and in the public's perception long before the trial even began...

I absolutely agree, the cops choose their very first suspect speaking over the phone cause he fit a 'dark' description solely. Reading it, I realize those were the people I hung around with, that was me, and still love and am attracted to all these things today. Heartwrenching and so unsettling to know these guys would suffer all these years being innocent and that someone got so away with doing that, still out there. Its very disturbing, I cant shake my mind of the story since I read it.