5. Jessie Misskelley
In 1994, Jessie Misskelley was found guilty of participating in the murder of three eight-year-old boys - Steven Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore. Police interviewed Misskelley about a month after the boys were found dead in a creek-tied up, beaten, and mutilated. Although Leo and Ofshe assert the confession was "inconsistent with the facts of the case," it was in fact proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be consistent in its most important respect - the identity of the main killers.
About a month after the gruesome murders, police asked Misskelley to come to the station house in order to answer some questions. Misskelley admitted that he watched as two of his friends-Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin-beat and abused the young boys, and that he (Misskelley) kept one of the boys (Michael Moore) from escaping. Based on this incriminating statement, police arrested Echols and Baldwin as principals in the murders and Misskelley as their accomplice. The accuracy of Misskelley's identification of Baldwin and Echols as the killers was established by guilty verdicts at a separate trial resting entirely on independent evidence, because Misskelley's confession could not be used as evidence at that trial. That independent evidence included clothing fibers found on the victims' clothes that were microscopically indistinguishable from items found in the Baldwin and Echols residences, and from various witnesses who heard Echols and Baldwin admit committing the crimes. The capital sentencing phase also included grisly testimony from a defense psychiatric expert who said Echols believed, among other things, drinking blood of others gave him special powers.
At Misskelley's trial, the prosecution acknowledged some discrepancies between Misskelley's confession and the crime scene, but identified a number of consistencies knowable only by someone with first-hand knowledge of the crime. These details included not only correctly identifying Echols and Baldwin as the killers, but also the following:
Misskelley confessed that, when he left the scene, the Byers boy was already dead on the ground; there was evidence that the creek contributed to the deaths of the other two boys, but not the Byers boy.
Misskelley confessed that the Byers boy was cut on his penis; the Byers boy was the only boy found with severe genital mutilations.
Misskelley confessed that one of the boys was cut on the face; one of the boys had facial lacerations.
Leo and Ofshe also report that "numerous" witnesses placed Misskelley at a wrestling competition forty miles from the crime scene. This wrestling alibi would, in the colorful phrase of reporters covering the trial, be "pinned for the count." Two of the alibi witnesses had previously given statements to the police that they were unaware of Misskelley's whereabouts on the night of the murder. According to the reporters, the prior statements "destroyed any credible
Misskelley alibi." In any event, at trial, the defense fully explored all of the issues. Although Misskelley did not take the stand, his attorneys presented extended testimony from an expert, none other than Richard Ofshe, about the alleged false confession. The jury nevertheless convicted Misskelley, and nothing in Leo and Ofshe's account suggests that any significant relevant evidence was kept from them.
Developments since Misskelley's trial, not discussed by Leo and Ofshe, strongly confirm the verdict's accuracy. After his conviction, Misskelley confessed two more times. On the drive to the state prison, after he was assured that nothing he said could be used against him, Misskelley gave a detailed statement about the crime. Prosecutors then arranged for a judicially-approved interview of Misskelley, over the strenuous objections of his defense attorneys. In the forty-minute recorded interview, Misskelley provided details about the crime. Misskelley said that, when he got off work at dinnertime, he went to a wooded area with his friends Echols and Baldwin. When three boys entered the woods, Echols jumped them. When they resisted, he (Misskelley) and Baldwin had entered the fray. Misskelley grabbed the one with the blue boy scout uniform (Michael Moore) to prevent his escape. To keep him under control, Misskelley hit him repeatedly on the head. Misskelley then watched as one of the other boys was cut on the penis, recounting that "I seen blood fly."* Misskelley also explained how the boys were tied up with shoelaces from their shoes. When first questioned by police, he had said that the boys were tied up with rope to throw the police "off track." Misskelley left before Echols and Baldwin, carrying with him a bottle of whiskey, which he busted under a highway overpass close to the woods. Prosecutors and defense counsel went to the overpass and found a broken bottle at the indicated location. The broken bottle neck matched a bottle of Evan Williams Kentucky Bourbon, the kind Misskelley said he drank the day of the murders.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/guilt.htm
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