Commercial Appeal
High court hears another argument in 1993 child murders
By JAMES JEFFERSON
The Associated Press
October 2, 2003
LITTLE ROCK Lawyers for death-row inmate Damien Echols asked Arkansas' highest court Thursday to order a hearing on whether the condemned man was mentally competent when convicted of killing three boys.
Echols was sentenced to die for the May 1993 bludgeoning deaths of three 8-year-old West Memphis boys. He does not currently have an execution date pending.
Defense lawyer Robert Owen of Austin, Texas, said Echols, now 28, was entitled to a competency hearing under state law. Owen said that, in death row cases, the review should be automatic.
However, Assistant Attorney General David Raupp said such a request should be barred because Echols' mental health was not raised in the inmate's previous appeals.
Owen also argued that the condemned man's trial lawyers, Val Price and Scott Davidson of Jonesboro, failed Echols by entering a contract with HBO three weeks into the trial and staging a strategy session for filmmakers.
"A lawyer has limited time and resources for trial. The fact that some of this resource was diverted to play acting is the harm," Owen told the court.
Owen also said that, after one of Echols' co-defendants was convicted, Price and Davidson failed to seek a delay because they were trying to accommodate the film crew. Owen said Price wanted to get Echols' trial over before the HBO movie was released in August 1994.
Assistant Attorney General Jeff Weber said there was no conflict of interest in the HBO filmmaking because Echols himself signed the contract.
Of the mistakes that the defense attorneys claim the trial lawyers made, Weber said, "They never say if they (the trial lawyers) had done those things what would have happened. They don't say once how that affected Mr. Echols."
Second-graders Steven Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers disappeared May 5, 1993, while riding bicycles in their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood in West Memphis. Their bodies were found the next day in a watery ditch near their homes.
Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, all teenagers at the time, were convicted in the murders. Echols was the only one sentenced to death. Baldwin is serving life without parole and Misskelley was sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years.
Misskelley was tried separately in Corning, about 110 miles north of West Memphis. Echols and Baldwin were tried in Jonesboro, about 65 miles north of West Memphis.
Owen says Echols received ineffective counsel from public defenders who should have sought to have his trial moved or delayed because of publicity surrounding the case, and that the trial lawyers should have demanded more extensive DNA testing.
Additionally, Echols' lawyer said Circuit Judge David Burnett did not adequately respond to an earlier state Supreme Court order to fully explain why he denied Echols' request for a new trial.
Defense lawyer Edward Mallett of Houston, Texas, said Wednesday that the arguments were intended to win a new trial, not merely technical points intended to save Echols from the death chamber.
"We're arguing for a new trial because he is innocent," Mallett said.
"We will demonstrate to this court that what was prepared and presented at trial doesn't meet the present constitutional minimum" for adequate defense, he said.
Still pending in Echols' case is a resolution between his lawyers and prosecutors of the logistics of new DNA testing on some items in the case. The high court had delayed proceedings for more than a year, waiting on a resolution, but apparently decided to proceed with other matters.
High court hears another argument in 1993 child murders
By JAMES JEFFERSON
The Associated Press
October 2, 2003
LITTLE ROCK Lawyers for death-row inmate Damien Echols asked Arkansas' highest court Thursday to order a hearing on whether the condemned man was mentally competent when convicted of killing three boys.
Echols was sentenced to die for the May 1993 bludgeoning deaths of three 8-year-old West Memphis boys. He does not currently have an execution date pending.
Defense lawyer Robert Owen of Austin, Texas, said Echols, now 28, was entitled to a competency hearing under state law. Owen said that, in death row cases, the review should be automatic.
However, Assistant Attorney General David Raupp said such a request should be barred because Echols' mental health was not raised in the inmate's previous appeals.
Owen also argued that the condemned man's trial lawyers, Val Price and Scott Davidson of Jonesboro, failed Echols by entering a contract with HBO three weeks into the trial and staging a strategy session for filmmakers.
"A lawyer has limited time and resources for trial. The fact that some of this resource was diverted to play acting is the harm," Owen told the court.
Owen also said that, after one of Echols' co-defendants was convicted, Price and Davidson failed to seek a delay because they were trying to accommodate the film crew. Owen said Price wanted to get Echols' trial over before the HBO movie was released in August 1994.
Assistant Attorney General Jeff Weber said there was no conflict of interest in the HBO filmmaking because Echols himself signed the contract.
Of the mistakes that the defense attorneys claim the trial lawyers made, Weber said, "They never say if they (the trial lawyers) had done those things what would have happened. They don't say once how that affected Mr. Echols."
Second-graders Steven Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers disappeared May 5, 1993, while riding bicycles in their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood in West Memphis. Their bodies were found the next day in a watery ditch near their homes.
Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, all teenagers at the time, were convicted in the murders. Echols was the only one sentenced to death. Baldwin is serving life without parole and Misskelley was sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years.
Misskelley was tried separately in Corning, about 110 miles north of West Memphis. Echols and Baldwin were tried in Jonesboro, about 65 miles north of West Memphis.
Owen says Echols received ineffective counsel from public defenders who should have sought to have his trial moved or delayed because of publicity surrounding the case, and that the trial lawyers should have demanded more extensive DNA testing.
Additionally, Echols' lawyer said Circuit Judge David Burnett did not adequately respond to an earlier state Supreme Court order to fully explain why he denied Echols' request for a new trial.
Defense lawyer Edward Mallett of Houston, Texas, said Wednesday that the arguments were intended to win a new trial, not merely technical points intended to save Echols from the death chamber.
"We're arguing for a new trial because he is innocent," Mallett said.
"We will demonstrate to this court that what was prepared and presented at trial doesn't meet the present constitutional minimum" for adequate defense, he said.
Still pending in Echols' case is a resolution between his lawyers and prosecutors of the logistics of new DNA testing on some items in the case. The high court had delayed proceedings for more than a year, waiting on a resolution, but apparently decided to proceed with other matters.
