Defense: Witnesses Should Have Testified For Convicted Killer
Last updated Saturday, May 31, 2008 5:51 PM CDT in News
By The Associated Press
JONESBORO - Lawyers for Jason Baldwin, one of three teenagers convicted of the 1993 slayings of three West Memphis second-graders, say some witnesses who could have exonerated their client should have testified at his trial.
The defense filed numerous affidavits in Craighead County Circuit Court on Friday to support their argument Baldwin's 1994 capital murder conviction should be either vacated or he should be given a new trial in light of DNA evidence they obtained last year.
The affidavits provide details on Baldwin's actions and whereabouts the day Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Chris Byers were killed.
The defense also filed a writ with the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday, claiming prosecutors withheld evidence from Baldwin's trial attorneys. In addition, they amended a petition for relief that claims numerous errors were made in the case, including improper deliberations by the jury and prosecutorial misconduct.
Friday's filing claims trial lawyers bungled Baldwin's defense by failing to call key witnesses and by not hiring a private investigator. It also requests a new trial under the state law that allows anyone convicted of a crime to ask for a re-examination of the evidence if new tests or science become available.
Baldwin, who was 16 at the time of the slayings, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Co-defendant Damien Echols, then 18, was convicted and sentenced to death. Jessie Misskelley, then 17, was tried separately, convicted, and sentenced to life plus 40 years.
In April, Judge David Burnett met with prosecutors and defense lawyers representing all three defendants. Burnett set an Aug. 20 hearing to plan out a three-week schedule in September to take up the defense arguments. Burnett ordered lawyers in the case not to talk to the news media.
Lurid details and accounts of Satanism filled the original trials. Police found the bodies of the boys a day after they disappeared from their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood May 5, 1993. Their hands bound to their legs by shoelaces, the boys showed signs of suffering severe beatings before being left in a drainage ditch.
Friday's filing refers to witnesses the defense says were intimidated into silence or were never called by the defense.
Baldwin's art teacher, Sally Ware, said in an affidavit a school administrator suggested she would lose her job if she went to authorities to tell them Baldwin had been in school the day of the murders.
Other affidavits outline Baldwin's day May 5, 1993, saying he boarded the school bus and arrived at school as usual, that he mowed his uncle's yard when he got home, then went to Wal-Mart to play video games, that he was home by 9 p.m., and that he spent the night talking on the phone with friends.
In an affidavit, Joyce Cureton, who oversaw the juvenile jail, said former Craighead County Sheriff Larry Emison essentially told her not to testify. The defense says her testimony would have helped discredit a prosecution witness, juvenile inmate Michael Carson, who claimed Baldwin told him he mutilated the boys.
The defense says Cureton could have authenticated records showing Carson and Baldwin apparently were alone together on only one occasion and Cureton could have testified to Baldwin's gentle nature and good behavior.
Emison did not immediately return a call Saturday.
The filings also included affidavits from jail staff and former inmates, saying Baldwin refused to talk about the case and repeatedly denied any involvement.
In another affidavit, Danny Williams, who worked with troubled teens, said Carson told him he was going to testify against Baldwin. Williams said he recalled a session with Carson in which he shared some details of the West Memphis case as a way of trying to get Carson to shape up and stay out of jail.
Williams said he told Baldwin's trial lawyer and never understood why he was not called to testify.
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