Robin Hood Hills murders

On May 5, 1993, three eight-year-old second graders — Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore — were reported missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. Their bodies were found the next day in a drainage canal in an area known as Robin Hood Hills. The boys had been stripped naked and hogtied with their own shoelaces. Christopher Byers had sustained lacerations and mutilation to his genitals. Autopsies performed by forensic pathologist Frank J. Peretti found that Byers died of "multiple injuries" while Moore and Branch died of "multiple injuries with drowning." Police initially suspected the boys had been raped, though later expert testimony disputed this finding.

Investigators focused on Damien Echols, then 18, whose interest in occultism led two officers to view him as a suspect. Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17 and reported to have an IQ of 72, was interrogated alone for roughly 12 hours on June 3, 1993, without a parent present; only 46 minutes of the interrogation were recorded, and Misskelley later recanted, citing coercion and fear of police. Shortly afterward, police arrested Echols and his friend Jason Baldwin, 16. No physical evidence connected any of the three to the crime. At trial, the prosecution presented two green threads and one red fiber as physical evidence, along with testimony from an "expert" in the occult who argued the killings were part of a Satanic ritual. Misskelley was tried separately under the "Bruton rule" because his confession could not be used against co-defendants; he was convicted on February 5, 1994, of one count of first-degree and two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life plus 40 years. Echols and Baldwin were tried together and convicted on three counts of murder on March 19, 1994; Echols was sentenced to death and Baldwin to life imprisonment.

The convictions drew sustained criticism over crime-scene handling, the reliability of Misskelley's confession, and the prosecution's Satanic-ritual theory. Documentary filmmakers, journalists, and celebrities publicized doubts about the verdicts over the following years. In July 2007, new DNA testing found that genetic material at the scene did not match the three convicted men; a hair "not inconsistent with" Terry Hobbs, stepfather of victim Steve Branch, was found in the ligatures. Separately, allegations emerged that the jury foreman in the Echols-Baldwin trial had discussed the case and shared knowledge of inadmissible evidence before deliberations began.

On November 4, 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a lower court to consider the new DNA evidence and juror-misconduct claims for all three men. Rather than proceed with additional hearings, the parties negotiated a plea agreement. On August 19, 2011, Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley each entered an Alford plea to lesser charges of first- and second-degree murder, allowing them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging prosecutors had sufficient evidence to convict. Judge David Laser vacated the original convictions, accepted the pleas, and sentenced each man to time served — 18 years and 78 days — with a 10-year suspended sentence. The plea agreement barred the men from pursuing civil action against the state. Prosecutor Scott Ellington stated he still considered the men guilty but cited eroded evidence and shifting witness statements as reasons for the deal. The victims' families remain divided on the men's guilt or innocence, and no other person has been charged in connection with the killings.