(CNN)The story of "West Memphis Three," a prominent documentary source for decades of murder According to the defense team, the trilogy returned to court on Thursday, and the judge denied access to evidence that one of the men wanted to be tested for DNA.
The hearing was Damian Ecoles, one of three teenagers convicted in 1994 for the brutal killing of three Cub Scouts in West Memphis, Arkansas. Requested by a lawyer. A year ago, the bodies of eight-year-old Steve Brunch, Chris Buyers, and Michael Moore were hogtie with their shoelaces and left in the ditch.
Prosecutors claimed that Ecole's, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Miss Kelly Jr. killed the boys as part of a satanic panic, and Ecole's was the mastermind.
The killing was the subject of a "Paradise Lost" documentary trilogy that questioned the evidence of the incident. The films released in 1996, 2004 and 2011 attracted the attention of musicians such as Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits and Henry Rollins. The third movie was nominated for an Academy Award. The
In January of this year, an Echols lawyer filed a petition for a new DNA test, stating that "it could identify the murderer and bring justice to the case." Echols' petition asked the judge to approve the test with the M-Vac wet vacuum system. Such tests were not available before the evidence was tested.
"Of course, no one knows if additional testing of ligatures (shoelace) using the new M-Vac DNA collection technology will lead to the recovery of new DNA samples for testing." Said the petition. .. "But one thing is certain: if testing with this new technology is not done, no such evidence will be found."
Arkansaw No. 2 Keith Crestman, a jurisdiction prosecutor's lawyer, claims in court documents that finding the DNA of another person in the evidence cannot prove that Ecoles is innocent given the other evidence presented in the trial. did.
Crestman also insisted on a new technique, "not to preserve physical evidence, but to (it) be a one-shot transaction that will change it forever."
Baldwin and Miss Kelly are not parties to the petition.
"If the request (of Echols) is granted and the physical evidence is tested, the rest of the defendants may be prejudiced," the prosecutor claimed. "Even if the test reveals nothing of value, the physical evidence will change forever, and with no notice or opportunity to hear, the rest of the defendants will be the Habeas Corpus of the future 1780 Act. Relief is denied. "
The decision was not published in court documents on Thursday. However, in a statement to CNN, Echols' lawyers said the judge ruled that only those imprisoned would require a DNA test of the evidence.
"We are very disappointed with the judge's decision based on the narrow interpretation of the law and the decision not to allow us to provide justice," said the Echols defense team. Member Lonnie Soury said. "All we asked for was the right to try to identify the DNA of the true murderer."
Thule said she would appeal.
No previous DNA link to suspect
Documents included hair from the ligature used to tie Moore and hair recovered from a tree stump near where the body was found, according to the court. The document stated. According to the
document, the hair found in the ligature matched the branch's stepfather, Terry Hobbes, and the hair found in the tree stump matched the DNA of Hobbes' friend.
Police have never considered Hobs a suspect, and he claims to have nothing to do with the murder.
Three witnesses who lived next to one of the victims told the Arkansaw Supreme Court in 2009 that they saw Terry Hobbs and a sophomore the night before the body was found by police. I submitted an affidavit in October.
Witness statements contradicted Hobbes' police and court statements that he had never seen his stepson Steve on the day of the murder.
Prosecutors said the puncture and victim cutmarks at the trial showed that the crime was part of a sadistic ritual. After the three were convicted, some forensic inspectors claimed that these traces were due to animal bites.
The prosecution relied on learning disabilities and the confession of 17-year-old Miss Kelly with an IQ of 70. He confessed after a three-hour cross-examination by police without tape, without the presence of his parents or a lawyer. Miss Kelly, who was tried separately, later withdrew his confession.
Echols and Baldwin said they were aiming to be different from the others in the small town they lived in at the time. They read different books, wore different clothes, and had different haircuts.
Critics of the proceedings against men said they There was no direct evidence linking to the killing, claiming that a knife recovered from a lake near the house of one of the men could have caused the boy's wounds.