Lawyers' Work Focus of Hearing On '93 Killings

Fox 16

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) - Hundreds of hours spent to defend a man convicted of the 1993 slaying of three West Memphis 8-year-old boys became the focus Thursday of an effort to win him a new trial.

Going line-by-line over a report of hours billed to Jessie Misskelley Jr. after his trial, Assistant State Attorney General Kent Holt sought to show that lawyers for Misskelley provided him adequate legal help during his 1994 trial.

However, Misskelley's chief lawyer at the time testified that he initially missed signs that his client's weak mental faculties caused him to confess to killings he said came from a satanic ritual.

Misskelley, now 33, is serving a life-plus-40-years sentence for taking part in the killings of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. Police found the boys' bound bodies in a watery ditch a day after they went missing from their quiet neighborhood. One of the boys was sexually mutilated.

Misskelley later told detectives that he watched Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys. Misskelley told detectives that he ran down another boy trying to escape.

But former Misskelley lawyer Dan Stidham, now a Greene County district judge, said Thursday that his client only confessed to police because he thought it would mean he could go home. Misskelley, then a 17-year-old with what Stidham called a "Gomer Pyle and Mr. T haircut," was a high school dropout who huffed gasoline and often told lawyers that "I ain't all here," Stidham said.

Misskelley thought his lawyers were police officers and only parroted an ever-changing confession to them, Stidham said. When lawyers tried to "get him back on script" for a possible plea deal, Misskelley still changed his story and only answered questions with simple responses, Stidham said.

"He really didn't seem to understand who we were or what we were doing," Stidham said. "It was hard to get him to open up."

Holt, however, suggested that Misskelley only changed his story to make it appear like he was less culpable in the boys' deaths. He went page by page through a statement showing the billable hours Stidham's law practice accumulated while preparing for trial.

"You didn't just fall off the turnip truck and represent Jessie Misskelley," Holt told Stidham.

During the hearing Thursday in Craighead County Circuit Court, Holt asked Stidham to read through notes he took during a 1993 interview with Misskelley. A woman in the courtroom gasped as Stidham read through details Misskelley provided of the alleged boys' sexual assault.

Misskelley "saw boys kicking around in the water," Stidham read. "Client was afraid to go back and help so he left."

Misskelley also claimed that Echols wanted to "try to (raise) dogs, cats and birds from the dead" and "stuck his tongue through the skull of a bird," Stidham read.

Misskelley, dressed in a striped shirt, dark blue jeans and shiny black dress shoes, sat silently during the testimony and showed no response. He remained cuffed at the ankles and wrists during much of the hearing, turning only to talk with family members seated in the front row of the courtroom.

A prison tattoo of faded blue ink could be seen on top of Misskelley's shaved head - a clock with Roman numerals and no hands, signifying serving time.

In the time since the killings, documentaries about the case sparked interest in the men sympathizers call the "West Memphis Three." Supporters of the men raised about $1 million to hire new lawyers and conduct DNA testing.

Special Judge David Burnett, who oversaw Misskelley's original trial, said the hearing would resume Friday. Baldwin, who also is asking for a new trial, did not attend Thursday's hearing as his out-of-state lawyers had schedule conflicts.

Burnett has already rejected an appeal by Echols, who is on Arkansas' death row. While Baldwin and Misskelley's appeals continue, Thursday's hearing appeared not to sway Burnett. The recently retired judge rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling during some of Stidham's testimony.