Copyright 1993, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
October 20, 1993, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: METRO, Pg. B1
LENGTH: 796 words
HEADLINE: TRY BALDWIN AS ADULT, JUDGE SAYS;
'VIOLENCE EXHIBITED' IN DEATHS OF 3 ARK. BOYS SWAYS RULING
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan; The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, ARK.
BODY:
A defense lawyer's effort to move the murder case of 16-year-old Charles Jason Baldwin to juvenile court failed Tuesday when a circuit judge ruled ''the violence exhibited alone'' in crime scene photos warranted trying him as an adult.
Baldwin, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, and Damien Wayne Echols, 18, are charged with murder in the May 5 deaths of 8-year-olds Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers.
Judge David Burnett ruled on a series of defense motions Tuesday, then told Misskelley's lawyers that their client's trial will be held in Clay County Circuit Court on Jan. 18.
A second trial will be held in Jonesboro beginning Feb. 22 for Echols and Baldwin. Burnett closed the courtroom for about 45 minutes Tuesday to hear testimony on Baldwin's request to transfer the case to juvenile court. If the motion had been granted, most of the proceedings would have been kept confidential.
The Commercial Appeal formally objected to Tuesday's closed hearing, but Burnett said court rules governing requests for transfers to juvenile court can be closed.
Prosecutors in Arkansas have the discretion of trying juveniles pursuant to the Juvenile Code or as adults in circuit court. Burnett ruled their choice of the circuit court was appropriate due to the seriousness of the offense.
''There is no apparent prospect that rehabilitation (envisioned as a goal of the juvenile justice system) would be of any avail,'' Burnett said.
Baldwin's lawyers said last month that their client will seek to prove that another person, not charged in the case, was seen near the crime scene the night the murders occurred. They could use that to suggest that their client's arrest was a case of mistaken identity.
Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin were led into the courtroom in civilian clothes well before the proceedings began while a fusillade of still and video cameras blasted away for more than 10 minutes. Unlike two previous pretrial hearings in the case, the cameras were permitted to stay in the courtroom.
About 50 people - mainly friends and family members of the victims and defendants - attended the three-hour hearings at the old Craighead County Courthouse here.
Attorney Daniel Stidham asked for more time to make arguments against Misskelley's Jan. 18 trial date. Burnett said he planned to conduct the trials as scheduled, adding, ''I'm telling you: Get ready.''
Burnett also considered and rejected defense motions concerning the death penalty being sought in the crime. Attorney Paul N. Ford, a lawyer for Baldwin, asked that prospective jurors not be disqualified from serving based on an admission that they could not in good conscience impose the death penalty. He asked that they not be asked the question. The request was denied.
Ford argued that a representative cross-section of the community would include those who object to its use.
But Burnett also noted that a cross-section of the community can't be obtained by selecting potential jurors from voter rolls, the method used in Arkansas.
The judge also ruled that only lawyers involved in the case will get a list of prospective jurors and that any relationship between those jurors and anyone involved in the case will have to be revealed.
Ford also asked to have a knife apparently found in Baldwin's high school locker excluded from any future trial evidence and that a journal he wrote for a journalism class be similarly inadmissible. Burnett said he would rule on the requests at a later date and that the objects' seizure by police was ''not at all unreasonable.'' Ford had argued that Baldwin had an expectation of privacy with regard to the contents of his locker.
Burnett said he wants to see further legal argument on a request by lawyers for Misskelley and Baldwin to question police about their interviews with their clients. Defense lawyers have objected to their clients' families being subpoenaed to answer prosecutors' questions, and the lawyers say they want the same right to question police.
''This is a criminal trial, not a poker game,'' Stidham said at one point in asking to question the authorities. ''Mr. Misskelley was interrogated by the West Memphis Police for 12 hours, but the transcript (of the interview) is nowhere near 12 hours long.''
Burnett said he felt obliged to move the first trial both out of Crittenden County, where the offenses occurred, and away from Craighead County, because the second case will be held there just 30 days later.
Burnett said the court had been led to believe on Sept. 27 that only one trial would be required and he wanted it in Craighead, the most populous of the six counties in the Second Judicial District.
The next hearing in the case will be held on Nov. 16 in Osceola.
GRAPHIC: By Lisa Waddell Suspects in the deaths of three West Memphis boys appeared Tuesday in Jonesboro court: (from left) Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, Damien Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16. CAPTION: REQUEST DENIED (Color) A judge Tuesday rejected a bid to move to juvenile court the case of Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, charged with slaying three West Memphis boys. (Tenn A1)
