This article is 1994 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
NOTES OFFER LOOK AT THOUGHTS OF JURORS IN W. MEMPHIS TRIAL
Date: Saturday, May 14, 1994
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan and Marc Perrusquia The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
"You are what you think about!" the 2-inch block letters declare.
That conclusion, drawn on poster paper by one of 12 jurors deliberating the fate of now-convicted triple-murderers Damien Wayne Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin, came from a box of evidence released Friday.
The trial revolved around allegations the defendants were members of a satanic cult, and the poster statement might reflect the jury's views on the prosecution's theory. The jury foreman did not return phone calls Friday evening.
The dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Howard B. Eisenberg, said release of the deliberative notes "invades the sanctity of the jury" but probably will have no legal consequence. Eisenberg said the trial judge, Circuit Judge David Burnett, should have had the notes destroyed, but might not have known they existed. Burnett did not return phone messages.
The evidence released Friday also contained a casette tape of a never- transcribed interview with Aaron Kyle Hutcheson, an 8-year-old from Marion, Ark. Hutcheson's mother testified she attended a satanic esbat meeting with two of the defendants. Aaron never testified in the trials, but repeatedly told detectives he was present when his three classmates were killed.
In an interview given Jan. 30, as the prosecution prepared to rest in the Corning, Ark., trial of defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., Aaron told Marion Police Asst. Chief Don Bray he himself was forced to participate in the murders.
By then, Aaron had given police several statements, including a series of taped interviews between May 27 and June 9, in which he said he had seen men performing homosexual acts in the woods known locally as Robin Hood Hills.
According to his Jan. 30 statement, Aaron watched the brutal assault on his friends as he sat in a tree above the carnage.
After spotting Aaron, Misskelley made him come out of the tree and hand him a knife that Aaron had in his pocket, Aaron told Bray.
Approaching Chris Byers as he lay on the ground, the two began castrating the dying boy, Aaron said.
"He grabbed my hand and made me cut," Aaron said. "He made me . . . cut his private spot off." Byers was sexually mutilated, according to court testimony.
Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin drank Byers's blood from white plastic cups, forcing Aaron to do the same, he said.
Aaron said the murders served as an initiation into "the club" that Aaron said he was forced to join after moving into the Highland Trailer Park where Misskelley lived.
In the interview, Aaron also said an older black man with a gun and a white man also were there. "That black guy got me and he put a gun on my head. He said if I say anything about this, he will kill me right now," Aaron said. Aaron said the same man also made him say, "I hate Jesus, and I love the devil."
The jury's notes show the panel of eight women and four men placed their greatest confidence in testimony by police detectives Mike Allen and Bryn Ridge, writing as Ridge appeared "honest," underlined three times.
Their notes also indicate they respected testimony from a 16-year-old burglary suspect who said Baldwin confessed in jail and from a Marion woman who said she saw Echols walking near the crime scene the night of the murders.
The jury seemed impressed with Baldwin's unwavering claim of innocence, but tipped the balance of pros and cons against him with the damning, shorthand conclusion "Damien's Best Friend."
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
NOTES OFFER LOOK AT THOUGHTS OF JURORS IN W. MEMPHIS TRIAL
Date: Saturday, May 14, 1994
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan and Marc Perrusquia The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
"You are what you think about!" the 2-inch block letters declare.
That conclusion, drawn on poster paper by one of 12 jurors deliberating the fate of now-convicted triple-murderers Damien Wayne Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin, came from a box of evidence released Friday.
The trial revolved around allegations the defendants were members of a satanic cult, and the poster statement might reflect the jury's views on the prosecution's theory. The jury foreman did not return phone calls Friday evening.
The dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Howard B. Eisenberg, said release of the deliberative notes "invades the sanctity of the jury" but probably will have no legal consequence. Eisenberg said the trial judge, Circuit Judge David Burnett, should have had the notes destroyed, but might not have known they existed. Burnett did not return phone messages.
The evidence released Friday also contained a casette tape of a never- transcribed interview with Aaron Kyle Hutcheson, an 8-year-old from Marion, Ark. Hutcheson's mother testified she attended a satanic esbat meeting with two of the defendants. Aaron never testified in the trials, but repeatedly told detectives he was present when his three classmates were killed.
In an interview given Jan. 30, as the prosecution prepared to rest in the Corning, Ark., trial of defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., Aaron told Marion Police Asst. Chief Don Bray he himself was forced to participate in the murders.
By then, Aaron had given police several statements, including a series of taped interviews between May 27 and June 9, in which he said he had seen men performing homosexual acts in the woods known locally as Robin Hood Hills.
According to his Jan. 30 statement, Aaron watched the brutal assault on his friends as he sat in a tree above the carnage.
After spotting Aaron, Misskelley made him come out of the tree and hand him a knife that Aaron had in his pocket, Aaron told Bray.
Approaching Chris Byers as he lay on the ground, the two began castrating the dying boy, Aaron said.
"He grabbed my hand and made me cut," Aaron said. "He made me . . . cut his private spot off." Byers was sexually mutilated, according to court testimony.
Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin drank Byers's blood from white plastic cups, forcing Aaron to do the same, he said.
Aaron said the murders served as an initiation into "the club" that Aaron said he was forced to join after moving into the Highland Trailer Park where Misskelley lived.
In the interview, Aaron also said an older black man with a gun and a white man also were there. "That black guy got me and he put a gun on my head. He said if I say anything about this, he will kill me right now," Aaron said. Aaron said the same man also made him say, "I hate Jesus, and I love the devil."
The jury's notes show the panel of eight women and four men placed their greatest confidence in testimony by police detectives Mike Allen and Bryn Ridge, writing as Ridge appeared "honest," underlined three times.
Their notes also indicate they respected testimony from a 16-year-old burglary suspect who said Baldwin confessed in jail and from a Marion woman who said she saw Echols walking near the crime scene the night of the murders.
The jury seemed impressed with Baldwin's unwavering claim of innocence, but tipped the balance of pros and cons against him with the damning, shorthand conclusion "Damien's Best Friend."
