Gov. Mike Beebe said today he does not intend to pardon 3 men who were released from prison last week after serving 18 years in the deaths of 3 West Memphis 2nd-graders.
“I don’t consider pardons until the entire sentence has been completed,” Beebe told reporters. “They still have, as I understand it, a sentence to be completed.”
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jason Misskelley were convicted of capital murder in the 1993 killings, with Echols receiving the death penalty and Baldwin and Misskelley receiving life sentences. On Friday, a Craighead County circuit judge vacated their sentences, allowed them to plead guilty to reduced murder charges and sentenced them to time served, plus 10 years of probation.
Beebe said today he would not consider pardoning the men before their probation is completed “unless there was compelling evidence that somebody else was actually responsible.”
Supporters of the men commonly known as the West Memphis Three have said their focus has shifted from the freeing the three to clearing their names and obtaining pardons for them.
The 3 entered “Alford” pleas, which are guilty pleas that allow them to continue maintaining their innocence while admitting that the state could produce enough evidence to convict them if they were tried again.
Capi Peck of Little Rock, a co-founder of Arkansas Take Action, one of several groups formed in support of the West Memphis Three, said today she understood the governor’s position.
“I get that the people responsible need to be found,” she said. “So that’s going to be our mission: To continue with the investigations, to continue with the tip line and amassing this information and presenting it to clear their names and to find the person or persons responsible.”
Peck said she did not know when supporters would be ready to make their case that Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley are innocent in the deaths of 8-year-olds Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore, whose bodies were found bound and beaten not far from their homes.
Lonnie Soury of New York, a publicist for the West Memphis 3, said that in the past few days the tip line has received some calls, but no new credible evidence has come to light.
“But we’re open and we’re looking for any new evidence that’s out there,” he said.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Friday he continues to believe that the men are guilty.
Source: Arkansas News, August 23, 2011
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