Arkansas Attorney General Weighs In On DNA in West Memphis Three

[SPKrazy]

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2008/01/17/news/news03.txt

McDaniel: DNA Claim Misleading
Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:34 AM CST
By Rob Moritz

Arkansas News Bureau •

LITTLE ROCK — Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Wednesday he has not found any new DNA evidence suggesting that three men convicted as teenagers in the deaths of three West Memphis second-graders are innocent or deserve a new trial.

“I am growing increasingly frustrated by what I see of a misleading press campaign that suggests there is new DNA evidence that some way exonerates these three boys that a jury found guilty and whose appeals they all lost,” McDaniel said.

The case has gained international attention over the years — there have been two HBO documentaries — and renewed interest was generated in November when attorneys for convicted killers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, offered what they said was new evidence in the case and said they planned to seek a new trial.

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[jsamuel]

1. No Opinion on the case, but McDaniel is a good guy. I voted for him in the Dem Primary here in AR.

[SPKrazy]

2. I voted for him too

and I'm not sure what I think here either... just thought since it has gotten so much attention lately that McDaniel's opinion seems to have not been picked up much that I've noticed and it is a big opinion in the case.

[JenniferJuniper]

3. It's a complicated case

....primarily because of a police investigation that was equal parts incompetent and corrupt.

A lack of DNA cannot, by itself, exonerate anyone. If there is a violent crime in Madison, WI tonight, the fact that my DNA wasn't found at the scene doesn't mean I didn't commit the crime. But you do have to look at the matter in it's totality.

This case hinges on the statements of a mentally challenged teenager who claimed he watched two other teenagers violently rape and stab and mutilate three little boys. Yet, there was no evidence of rape and we now know that not a speck of DNA from the convicted was found at the scene. The statements never added up, but when you add in the lack of DNA or other physical evidence, it seems pretty likely they were completely false. And if the statements were false, there really isn't much else to go on.

The convicted kids never had a chance. They were from poor families living in trailers and were stuck with lousy, court-appointed lawyers with little money for experts and up against a media that dubbed them "satanists" every night on the evening news. If they were to be re-tried today, I can't imagine them being convicted. Even several of the parents of the dead children believe now believe they were wrongly convicted.

I don't know anything about this AG, but if he truly is a "good guy", hopefully he'll take a very hard look at this one.