DNA evidence key in Ark. death-row inmate's case

[September 30, 2010]  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- DNA evidence gathered from the scene where the beaten bodies of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts were found is key in the appeal of an Arkansas death row inmate seeking a new trial.

Attorneys for Damien Echols argue that DNA tested years after Echols' trial show no trace of their client at the crime scene. The Arkansas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Echols' appeal Thursday morning.

Echols has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 1993 for the murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, who were found beaten, nude and hog-tied in a wooded area.

The state Supreme Court upheld Echols' conviction in 1996, finding there was sufficient evidence to prove he killed the boys. Echols filed a new appeal after the court granted him permission for DNA testing that wasn't available at the time of his trial in 1994.

According to a report filed with the court, there was no DNA from Echols or the two other men convicted of murder found at the crime scene.

Echols' attorney Dennis Riordan acknowledged he has a difficult case.

"The presumption is that legally, if you've gone through a trial and appeal, there's virtually no chance that you're innocent," he said.

But Riordan said the DNA analysis dismantles the prosecutors' key theory at the time of the trial: that Echols and his friends killed and sexually assaulted the boys as part of a Satanic ritual.

"The whole notion of a sexual assault was impossible because there was no genetic material to indicate that," he said.

Arkansas' attorney general's office, which is fighting Echols' request for a new trial, said nothing in the DNA tests exonerates the death-row inmate.

Echols also argues in his appeal that during deliberations, jurors considered information that was never introduced as evidence at trial. His attorneys have filed sealed affidavits that they say show the jury considered the confession of Jessie Misskelley, who implicated himself, Echols and Jason Baldwin in the murders.

Misskelley's trial was severed from Baldwin's and Echols' because Misskelley refused to testify against his friends. That confession couldn't be introduced at the other trials because a defendant has the right to confront his accuser, and Misskelley refused to take the stand.

Echols' attorneys say they have affidavits that show the jury used the confession as a reason to convict Echols and Baldwin when they were deliberating guilt or innocence.

The state counters that those claims can't be considered because Echols' appeal should be limited to arguments over DNA evidence.

"The state maintains that jury deliberations provided justice in this case," said Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

If the high court grants a new trial for Echols, it would likely open the door for new proceedings for Baldwin and Misskelley, who are both serving life sentences.

The case has drawn interest far beyond Arkansas. Last month, a rally in Little Rock to support Echols' legal fund featured Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, actor Johnny Depp and Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines and drew more than 2,000 people.

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Online:

Live webcast of Arkansas Supreme Court oral arguments: http://www.courts.state.ar.us/

[Associated Press; By JILL ZEMAN BLEED]

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