Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills : I am completely dumbfounded…..

The three did NOT essentially plead guilty in order to be released. They entered Alford Pleas. Instead of me explaining it, I will let Nolo.com do so from their web site at Nolo.com:

NORTH CAROLINA V. ALFORD

Henry Alford was a North Carolina man accused of murder. He insisted that he was innocent of the charges, but decided to take a plea to second-degree murder rather than face the chance of being convicted at trial and receiving the death penalty.
At the hearing where Alford pleaded guilty, several witnesses testified that he left his house with a gun saying he was going to go kill the victim, then returned stating that he had done so. On appeal, one of the appellate courts held that his plea was involuntary because it was coerced by threat of the death penalty. But the Supreme Court stepped in, finding not only that the threat of the death penalty didnt make the plea involuntary, but also that a defendant who claims to be innocent can plead guilty under appropriate circumstances. The plea is valid as long as there is a factual basis for it (such as the testimony of the witnesses at Alfords plea hearing) and it is knowing, voluntary, and intelligent (essentially meaning that the defendant made a rational decision to plead guilty).
Its important to keep in mind that the Supreme Court held that pleas like the one in Alford are allowed under the Constitutionit didnt hold that states are required to accept such pleas.

My input - In perhaps simpler terms, the boys did NOT say they were guilty, in fact they stated they were innocent by entering Alford Pleas. They simply agreed that the state has enough evidence to probably gain a conviction before a judge or jury.


Human Rights: Know Them, Demand Them, Defend Them

maybe you should feel sorry for the 3 kids that were murdered instead of three people who may or may not have had anything to do with it. It's not like Damian didn't have a long history of mental illness, you know mentally ill people are more likely to murder than sane people right?

It's not like they all had rock solid alibi's. For all we know they could be guilty as sin, this case like so many others was mishandled, a mishandled case doesn't mean they didn't do it, it just means the evidence wasn't where it needed to be.

Ultimately nobody will ever know what really happened, the police did a poor job, and for someone who claims to be innocent Damien sank his own boat with much of the stuff he did. You can chalk it up to being young and dumb, but if you're on trial for triple homicide a sane person just doesn't do those types of things.

Nobody should forget the three boys who were murdered, but the the three teens should never have been convicted. There was no hard, physical evidence linking them to the crime and there was far too much reasonable doubt. The Alford plea allowed the State to continue to claim the trio were guilty, thus they can keep the case closed. The real killer(s) will never be brought to justice.

As far as my personal opinion goes, the prime suspects are Terry Hobbs and Mr. Bojangles. Most people don't realize that David Jacoby, Terry's alibi, has admitted there was a 1-2 hour window where Terry wasn't with him that night. So in actuality, Terry no longer has an alibi and what may have been his hair was found on one of the boys.

After all these years of supposed research you've done on this case and you're still a WM3 cheerleader?

Unbelievable.

callahan.8k.com

wm3truth.com

It's not so much that Damien had a history of mental illness. That doesn't necessarily lead to violence.

It's that he had a history of PHSYCHOTIC behavior, starting fires and VIOLENCE before these crimes occurred. For instance, when his girlfriend broke up with him, he assaulted her new boyfriend and tried gouging out his eyes (he admitted that this is what he was trying to do).

Of course, that doesn't make him guilty, but its irresponsible that the documentary leaves out a lot of things that don't put the accused in a positive light.

I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, googoo goo joob goo goo goo goo joob-J Lennon

Agreed. This documentary was a disappointment. While Damien's sketchy past is not alone proof that he was guilty of the crime, the fact that this docu left that out because it would put his innocence into question is so manipulative and bias on their part. This whole thing seems to exist to make sme isolated conservative Christian redneck town look bad for supposedly picking on a kid just for being different, when that's far from the whole story.

This thread actually has me really intrigued about the case. I'd love to read more about it. Can anyone point in the direction of any books or websites that holds credible information?

http://callahan.8k.com/

Also, reading Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
by Mara Leveritt

The book, NOT the movie, the movie was poorly done and does not explain anything.also, there are three Paradise Lost Docs altogether.if you watch them all, they have a good deal of information in them..


"I just thought if you invited me over, you knew it was me showing up"

Thank you so much! I'll definitely check out the link and the book!

HBO has all of the documentaries up right now. I stumbled across them while searching for something to watch on HBO Go. I just finished the first and am on the second one right now. It really is a fascinating case.

It is fascinating and also really sad.you have three young boys that were brutally killed, and the killer is walking around free. You have three other young boys that were railroaded and had half their lives stolen from them, one almost put to death, with no evidence. And again, the real killer watching all this and thinking 'he won'. Most of the parents know at this point that the WM3 are innocent.however, Michael's mother still needs to know who to blame, and is still holding on to anger for the WP3. Sad all around really


"I just thought if you invited me over, you knew it was me showing up"

It really is very sad. I'm a mother myself. I can completely understand the desire to want revenge; to want the killer found and brought to justice. But on the other hand, I would want to be positive that the proper person has been brought to justice, otherwise it just compounds the tragedy and leaves the real killer free to destroy more lives.

I think what I find so fascinating about the case is the social dynamics that played into it. They always do, especially in cases of this nature, but in this one they are just so magnified and highlighted. We think we've evolved so much from the days of the Salem Witch Trials then something like this comes along to remind us just how far we have still to go.

I know some laws were recently put into place to help protect minors during police interrogations as it was discovered children have a tendency to give a false confession in order to please the police detectives. I don't know if this case played into that at all. It would be nice if it did. That way something positive could have come from all this mess.

Maybe I'm also interested in it because I am a mom. My heart breaks for the parents of everyone involved; not just the murdered boys but the ones locked away for half their lives too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, i'm not up to date on this information. But i think you may be incorrect in saying that most of the boys parents believe they are innocent. The last i found out was :

Stevie Branch -

Terry Hobbs believes they are guilty.

Pam Hobbs (i think) believes they are innocent.



Chris Byers-

Melissa Byers believed they were guilty at the time of her death.

John Mark Byers believes they are innocent.



Michael Moore-

Todd Moore believes they are guilty.

Dana Moore believes they are guilty.



Steven Branch Sr. (Stevie's biological father) also strongly believes they are guilty.

That's 5 out of 7 parents that believe they are guilty.

Yes it was obvious from the beginning these guys where scapegoats for something much larger, the witnesses where unreliable and some obviously planted.

On another note that scene at the beginning could have been left out, I really could of done without seeing those poor boys like that


I am the son of a man named Tom.