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Daily News Journal Murfreesboro, TN (Dec. 5, 2006) The attorney
who represented a teenager convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in Students
at Second-graders
Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were out riding bicycles on a
Wednesday afternoon 13 years ago when they went missing. Their bodies were
found the following day within 10 feet of each other in Ten Mile Bayou, the
city's main drainage ditch. Damien Echols,
18; Jason Baldwin, 16; and Jessie Misskelley, 17; known as the Stidham, a "There is
nothing worse for a defense lawyer than to have an innocent client,"
Stidham said. Misskelley
admitted he was present when the murders occurred and running after and
catching one of the victims, who tried to escape. But he said the other two
teens carried out the killing. It is believed
that the boys were sacrificed as part of a Satanic cult ritual. Stidham told
the students that Misskelley had the mental capacity of a 5-year-old and was
coerced by police into confessing. Police subjected him to 12 hours of questioning
without counsel or parental consent and did not audiotape the entire
conversation. Misskelley later recanted his story. About 200
criminal justice students from across the county watched parts of a two-hour
slide presentation about the case Friday. Kimberly said
he followed the case from the beginning through two television documentaries. "It is my
belief, even aside from even guilt or innocence, that the case was a poster
case for miscarriage of justice," he said. "I try to steer my
students away from making judgments about guilt or innocence because that's not
really the point. The point is were their constitutional rights upheld? Were
they violated? In this case it was a rush to judgment. Mr. Stidham calls it
Satanic panic." Blackman
students participated in a mock trial of the case prior to Friday's
presentation. "I thought
the presentation was good, but he (Stidham) tried to lead us into thinking that
they were not guilty," said senior Matthew Hysmith. "I don't think
any of the kids did it, though." La Vergne High
sophmore Keitorria Edmonds said the facts were interesting. "I got a
lot from it," said La Vergne
junior Laura Benitez took a different view. "It's just
unbelievable what they did," she said. "They shouldn't have killed
the three little boys. They didn't do anything. I think the guys were guilty.
From the evidence, they looked like they did it." Stidham, who's
now a judge, said he has assumed a supporting role in the case. "I love
doing this. It gives me an opportunity to not only talk about this case, but to
make sure that nothing like this ever happens again," he said. Stidham is a
strong advocate of videotaped police interrogations from beginning to end. "It not
only protects the accused, but it also protects the officers from later being
accused of engaging in coercive tactics," he said. He believes if
Misskelley was given a second trial the results would be "dramatically
different."
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