Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt
Authors: Mara Leveritt
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the police, they knew me. They knew me for a long time. They knew I wasn’t that type of person, to go killing little kids. I figured they knew I was lying ’cause they was lying, too.”
There was an easy way to test the accuracy of Jessie’s statements. Gitchell himself had told the West Memphis Evening Times just a few weeks earlier that “in the initial stages [of the investigation], people were calling and confessing. But by what they said, they were eliminated quickly.” Gitchell told the paper that his officers had “escorted some potential witnesses or suspects into the area” to test their statements against elements of the crime the police knew to be true. It would have been easy to have subjected Jessie to a similar test, to have brought him to Robin Hood and had him point out to officers where the events he described had transpired. During the first recorded interview, Detective Ridge had, in fact, suggested doing just that.
“Are you willing to go down there with us,” Ridge had asked Jessie, “and us having a camcorder, and show us where these things took place? Would you do that?”
Jessie’s response was inaudible, but the boy apparently nodded his head.
Ridge wanted to get his answer on tape. He asked, “Wouldn’t have any problem with that?”
Jessie: “Not that I know of, I wouldn’t.”
Ridge: “But you would be able to point out where these things took place?”
Jessie: “Yes.”
But Jessie was never taken to the woods. Despite the numerous inconsistencies and flat-out errors in his statement, Gitchell and his detectives decided not to put it to the simple test of questioning Jessie at the site while someone videotaped the excursion. The detectives were satisfied with Jessie’s account. That, or they were unwilling to expose it to the risks that a trip to the woods would entail. Ridge adopted a stance of certainty, writing in his final report, “Jessie Junior, during the course of the interview, gave specific information that only a person with firsthand knowledge could have had. Jessie Misskelley Junior stated that he did take part in the apprehension of the victims and that he was an eyewitness to the murders by Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols.”
When the detectives were through with their questions, they took Jessie to a holding cell. Later, he recalled, “After they turned the tape recorder off, I was too tired to talk. I just wanted to lie down. I figured I was just supposed to wait there until my dad come to get me.” No one had explained to Jessie that he had implicated himself in the triple murder by saying that he’d caught and held one of the boys, or that he was about to be arrested. “I figured they knew I needed a ride home,” he said. “But my dad never did show up.”
Chapter Eight
Part Two
The Trials
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
The Pretrial Motions
T HE WORDS “ OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW IS LIBERTY ” are etched in stone above the entrance to the Crittenden County Courthouse at Marion. On August 4, 1993, two police officers led Damien, Jason, and Jessie, all wearing handcuffs and shackles, into the heavily guarded building for their first pretrial hearing. The courtroom was called to order, and Judge David Burnett, with black robes flowing and cornsilk-colored hair curling slightly at his collar, climbed to his seat at the bench. 161 Burnett told a reporter he’d read a book about satanism “for information purposes,” in preparation for the case. Now, in his official capacity, he told the defendants that they were each charged with three counts of capital felony murder. He asked them, how did they plead? Each replied, “Not guilty.”
Burnett cut a familiar and genial figure at the two-story courthouse. Earlier in the summer, he and the three other judges in Arkansas’s Second Judicial District had met to discuss who would officiate in the already sensational case. The fifty-two-year-old Burnett had been selected. He was a native of
There was an easy way to test the accuracy of Jessie’s statements. Gitchell himself had told the West Memphis Evening Times just a few weeks earlier that “in the initial stages [of the investigation], people were calling and confessing. But by what they said, they were eliminated quickly.” Gitchell told the paper that his officers had “escorted some potential witnesses or suspects into the area” to test their statements against elements of the crime the police knew to be true. It would have been easy to have subjected Jessie to a similar test, to have brought him to Robin Hood and had him point out to officers where the events he described had transpired. During the first recorded interview, Detective Ridge had, in fact, suggested doing just that.
“Are you willing to go down there with us,” Ridge had asked Jessie, “and us having a camcorder, and show us where these things took place? Would you do that?”
Jessie’s response was inaudible, but the boy apparently nodded his head.
Ridge wanted to get his answer on tape. He asked, “Wouldn’t have any problem with that?”
Jessie: “Not that I know of, I wouldn’t.”
Ridge: “But you would be able to point out where these things took place?”
Jessie: “Yes.”
But Jessie was never taken to the woods. Despite the numerous inconsistencies and flat-out errors in his statement, Gitchell and his detectives decided not to put it to the simple test of questioning Jessie at the site while someone videotaped the excursion. The detectives were satisfied with Jessie’s account. That, or they were unwilling to expose it to the risks that a trip to the woods would entail. Ridge adopted a stance of certainty, writing in his final report, “Jessie Junior, during the course of the interview, gave specific information that only a person with firsthand knowledge could have had. Jessie Misskelley Junior stated that he did take part in the apprehension of the victims and that he was an eyewitness to the murders by Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols.”
When the detectives were through with their questions, they took Jessie to a holding cell. Later, he recalled, “After they turned the tape recorder off, I was too tired to talk. I just wanted to lie down. I figured I was just supposed to wait there until my dad come to get me.” No one had explained to Jessie that he had implicated himself in the triple murder by saying that he’d caught and held one of the boys, or that he was about to be arrested. “I figured they knew I needed a ride home,” he said. “But my dad never did show up.”
Chapter Eight
Part Two
The Trials
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
The Pretrial Motions
T HE WORDS “ OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW IS LIBERTY ” are etched in stone above the entrance to the Crittenden County Courthouse at Marion. On August 4, 1993, two police officers led Damien, Jason, and Jessie, all wearing handcuffs and shackles, into the heavily guarded building for their first pretrial hearing. The courtroom was called to order, and Judge David Burnett, with black robes flowing and cornsilk-colored hair curling slightly at his collar, climbed to his seat at the bench. 161 Burnett told a reporter he’d read a book about satanism “for information purposes,” in preparation for the case. Now, in his official capacity, he told the defendants that they were each charged with three counts of capital felony murder. He asked them, how did they plead? Each replied, “Not guilty.”
Burnett cut a familiar and genial figure at the two-story courthouse. Earlier in the summer, he and the three other judges in Arkansas’s Second Judicial District had met to discuss who would officiate in the already sensational case. The fifty-two-year-old Burnett had been selected. He was a native of
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