Summary devil's knot - Essay Example

DEVIL’S KNOT Order No. 255418 No. of pages: 2 Premium 6530 “Devil’s Knot: The true story of the West Memphis Three” by Mara Leveritt is an attempt by Leveritt to untangle the complicated story of three teenagers incarcerated for life for the murder of three 8 year olds in the conservative town of West Memphis, in Arkansas. Leveritt, an investigative reporter, is convinced that the three teenagers have been damned to life imprisonment because of their non-conformist lifestyle and that their only crime was that one of them “enjoyed books by Stephen King and Anne Rice.

” (Root, 2003) Mara Leveritt’s efforts are geared towards depicting the rumors for what they are in an attempt to dismiss this urban legend that consumed the lives of six innocent youngsters. When the bodies of three eight year old boys-Steve Branch, Christopher Myers and Michael Moore were found dumped in a stream barely half a mile away from their home, the police were clueless, the people frightened and the town was in shock. After four weeks, the police, by the testimony provided by Jessie Misskelley Jr.

a seventeen year old, arrested him and his two friends Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, charging them with homicide. After a much publicized trial, the trio was pronounced guilty and Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life imprisonment while Echols was put on death row. Leveritt followed the trial from day one and it was clear that the three boys were being put in the dock because they had “an obsession with heavy metal music….Baldwin had fifteen shirts with the heavy metal thing.” Leveritt’s search for the truth revealed to the world the xenophobia of the small town, and how this is translated into a travesty of justice.

The collective moral panic that had gripped the town “cost at least one innocent youth his life” (Root, 2003) Leveritt, systematically analyses the proof offered and the lack of evidence to show how the police bungled the case and the jury handed out life sentences and death penalties because all were “blinded by their fantasies about satanic cults” (Ebert). The biggest flaw in the whole case stems from the fact, that the police believed the testimony of Misskelley.Jr. a school dropout with an IQ of 72 and a history of behavioral problems, who implicated himself together with Echols and Baldwin.

The police arrested the three without any physical evidence, which was against the law. Apart from that, the scene of the crime had not a drop of blood, while in fact the three children had been brutally killed, and their hands and feet tied together. Since the police was labeling the whole drama as a satanic ritual, the absence of pentagrams and candles also causes disbelief. The police lent credence to this theory from the testimony of Vicky Hutcheson, who before the arrest met Echols at an “esbat”, but later retracted this confession saying that she was drunk and the idea of an esbat may have been pronounced at the prodding of the police.

Leveritt also says that the police failed to follow some other leads, especially that of John Mark Byers, the stepfather of the castrated boy. Byers had a history of being a convicted drug dealer and an undercover drug informant and gave contradictory evidence about the boy’s absence. Dan Stidham, Misskelley’s lawyer also, did not receive any response from the police when he requested new DNA tests. “Devil’s Knot” is a tale of caution for lawmakers, law enforcers and the general public.

It demonstrates how the careless use of the awesome power of law, can damage the fabric of society and endanger the lives of individuals when it is handed over to irrational individuals.ReferencesJustice Junction - Judicial Injustice - The West Memphis Three http://www.justicejunction.com/judicial_injustice_west_memphis_three_the_final_page_the_epilogue.htmDevils Knot eBook - Franklin Electronic Publishershttp://www.franklin.com/estore/dictionary/BBSS0743417615DLDA/Mara Leveritthttp://www.geocities.

com/bloodcows/mara.htmlHell Hounds: How a musical moral panic destroyed three young men http://www.reason.com/news/show/28742.html