The West Memphis Three Trials: 1994 - Appeals Fail

Lengthy appeals were filed citing numerous points of law relating to both the conduct of the investigation and the trial, but in 1996 the Supreme Court of Arkansas, in separate opinions, upheld first the Misskelley conviction and then those of Echols and Baldwin. Two years later a hearing was granted in the case of Echols on a motion for a new trial. Ed Mallet, who now represented Echols, argued that Echols had received ineffective counsel during his original trial. This was partly because of the inexperience of the court-appointed attorney in trying cases of this sort, partly because of the lack of resources provided by the court to the defense for the securing of expert witnesses, but also because the defense counsel had entered into a financial arrangement with Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, the producer/directors of a documentary film made for the Home Box Office network (HBO). This film was first shown on HBO in June 1996. Reviewers of the film commented on the unusual access that the filmmakers were given to the trial preparation process.

Also raised in the motion for the hearing on a new trial was the fact that a forensic scientist, Brent E. Turvey, had identified from autopsy photographs what he considered to be human bite marks on the face of Steve Branch. Mouth impressions had been taken of Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley, and at the hearing Dr. Thomas David, a forensic odontologist, testified that in his opinion none of the three youths had made the bite mark wounds. The hearing was held before Judge Burnett, who had presided over the original trial. He declined to recuse himself, and ruled against the motion for a new trial. Damien Echols is still under sentence of death, and Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are serving their prison terms.