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Another Witch Trial...
by Peg Aloi
February
2nd. 1997
 .gif) Why should
Witches be interested?
Because our religious
beliefs were a prominent feature in the criminal trial. One of the
accused, Damien Echols, was convicted because, in the tiny
provincial town of West Memphis, Arkansas, he favored black
clothing, listened to Metallica and dabbled in the occult. In other
words, everyone thought he was too "different" to be beyond
suspicion. Echols, now 21, is on death row, and now considers
himself Wiccan, though at the time of his trial his religious
leanings were towards Catholicism. Damien's Book of Shadows was
offered as evidence of Satan's dominion over him.
Because of
the horrific nature of the three killings (in which the three bodies
were found mutilated, one of them sexually), the press focused on
theories of Satanic ritual sacrifice; hungry for justice, the
townspeople and the local media led a witchhunt straight to Damien's
door. But not until the local police coerced one of the accused,
Jessie Misskelley, a developmentally-disabled young man with an IQ
of 72, into "confessing" to the crimes (although his "confession" is
laden with contradictions and the police illegally questioned him
for twelve hours, without a lawyer present, before they turned on a
tape recorder). Jessie implicated Damien and his friend
Jason.
No physical evidence of any kind links any of these
young men to the crimes. The town, the media and the prosecuting
attorneys focused entirely on Damien's apparent "evil" persona and
on Jessie's completely-unreliable "confession." With no other
suspects, the three teenagers were convicted, despite the lack of
evidence and the near-total unreliability of the witnesses for the
prosecution. Paradise Lost
is well-worth seeing simply because it is a fascinating (if
terrifying) glimpse into the way prejudice and media hype influence
the legal system.
Peg
Aloi
February 2nd., 1997
Witches' Voice Media
Coordinator
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