JONESBORO — DNA testing on shoes from one of the three West Memphis boys killed in 1993 found evidence of two unidentified males, but none from the men convicted in their slayings, according to a testing status report filed in Craighead County Circuit Court by defense attorneys.
The testing is part of new evidence that attorneys for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley claim should be grounds for new trials for the three.
Echols was convicted of capital murder in Craighead County Circuit Court in 1994 and sentenced to die for the deaths of 8-year-old Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore. Baldwin and Misskelley were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Police found the three boys’ bodies in a water-filled ditch near Interstate 40 in West Memphis.
The state Supreme Court ruled in November that the three men would receive an evidentiary hearing to determine whether new evidence warranted new trials. That hearing will be held from Dec. 5-21 in Craighead County Circuit Court.
Testing by Bode Technology in Lorton, Va., of a shoelace hole and on a shoelace of one of Christopher’s sneakers showed DNA from an unidentified male, according to the testing status report filed Monday evening by Stephen Braga, a Washington, D.C., attorney representing Echols.
DNA testing on the boy’s other shoe showed DNA from a second, different male, the report said.
Braga wrote in the report that the state Supreme Court referred to a “long shadow” that other DNA evidence cast “over the integrity of their convictions.”
“That shadow has just gotten a little longer in this case with the three new DNA samples ... to exclude Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley as their sources,” he wrote.
Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington of Jonesboro declined to comment, citing the gag order issued by Circuit Judge David Laser of Paragould.
Ellington had not objected to defense attorneys’ request for the additional testing in April.
Braga also wrote in his report that a “green vegetable-like material” taken from Stevie’s stomach during an autopsy was lost at the state Crime Laboratory. Defense attorneys wanted to test the material to determine whether it was green beans. The boy’s mother, Pam Hobbs, testified that she served green beans for dinner May 5, 1993, the night the three boys were killed.
Defense attorneys also had requested testing be done on the paper that the West Memphis Police Department used to dry the three boys’ clothing.
The paper was also lost, Braga wrote in the report filed Monday.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 07/20/2011