Ark. Supreme Court to allow additional DNA testing in West Memphis 3 case
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday reversed and remanded a Crittenden County Circuit Court ruling in the West Memphis 3 DNA debate.
The majority opinion, written by Special Justice Mary Carole Young, stated the circuit court “misinterpreted the plain language” of the law and erred when it dismissed Damien Echols’ petition for new testing.
Echols petitioned in January 2022 to have newly discovered DNA from the crime scene retested using a wet vacuum method.
But Judge Tonya M. Alexander rejected his argument after Prosecuting Attorney Keith Chrestman said in a filing that there was “little evidence to show” that the method was scientifically sound.
Lonnie Soury, an attorney for Damien Echols, one of the three men convicted as teens for the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys.. says the supreme court’s ruling means justice.
Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley pleaded guilty to the murders of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. but maintain their innocence.
“It’s really refreshing and for a moment you believe in the justice system in a way that maybe we didn’t a few days ago,” said Lonnie Soury, an attorney for Damien Echols’ defense team.
“MVAC is used when you might only have a little bit of DNA evidence,” said Nicole Novroski, an assistant professor and forensic geneticist at the University of Toronto. MVAC essentially works just like it implies, like a vacuum.”
Nichole Novroski, a Forensic Geneticist and Assistant Professor at University of Toronto says MVAC can pick up evidence some traditional DNA gathering methods may miss and make a DNA profile, not possible decades ago.
“Even though things are new, forensic scientists are always doing the best we can and doing it in a way that maintains integrity above all else,” said Novroski.
Echols then appealed the circuit court, which denied Echols’ Act 1780 petition, stating he was “not in custody. So, the Court has no jurisdiction to grant habeas corpus relief.”
The state Supreme Court said in its decision on April 18, 2024:
“Here, the plain language in sections 16-112-201 and -202 unambiguously permits ‘a person convicted of a crime’ to petition for additional DNA testing to demonstrate the person’s actual innocence pursuant to Act 1780. This language imposes no requirement that a petitioner must be in State custody to seek relief pursuant to Act 1780, and we decline to read such a requirement into the statutes.”
The West Memphis 3, hoping this testing technique clears their names.
“Continue to fight for their case and fight for the innocence as well as to find the real killer,” said Soury. “I mean that’s really what we’re talking about. Three eight year old children were brutally murdered in 1993.”
Echols, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, was convicted in the killings of three eight-year-old boys in 1993.
The three men were later released from prison after accepting an Alford plea in 2011, which allowed them to plead guilty but maintain their innocence.
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