Indynewswire Show: The West Memphis 3

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is a documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky about the trials of three teenage boys in West Memphis, Arkansas for the murder and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys. The boys on trial for the crime are fans of heavy metal music but seem to have little else in common aside from being misfits: Jessie Misskelley, a boy with an IQ of 72; Damien Echols, a teenager who was interested in joining the priesthood but also was interested in the writings of Aleister Crowley, and the generally taciturn Jason Baldwin.

Full details of the case itself may be found at West Memphis 3.

During the course of the filming, Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the victims, gives the filmmakers a knife which has blood in the hinge. The filmmakers turn the knife over to police, who examine it; the DNA is similar to that of himself and the boy but the evidence is nonetheless inconclusive since the DNA evidence produced was fragmented and can not provide concrete links. Other evidence is lost. All three teenagers are convicted.

The film was followed by a sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, which suggests that further evidence was missed or suppressed, and attempts to prove Echols' innocence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost:_The_Child_Murders_at_Robin_Hood_Hills

While I am not too aware of the facts in this particular case, I have encountered numerous factual errors on Wikipedia on other subjects. I have been able to correct some of these factual errors, but I have noticed a definite rightwing bias at the site that masquerades under a false guise of "neutrality". I would never consider Wikipedia any kind of reliable source.

I do see that they have flagged this particular Wikipedia version that has been reposted here as "biased" at Wikipedia, so there is likely to be a more prosecution friendly version posted in the future. For Wikipedia neutrality is believing what the cops and corporate media tell them. Personally I don't know what to think of this case, I think I'd have to research it more to form an opinion.

Wikapedia tried to sum up a case that is far too complex for a few pg.s
Plus they present alot of the information in a very manipulative manner which doesn't help convey any real information regarding this intire case. Please aquire your information from as many sources as you can find, don't limit your knowledge of this case to what Wikapedia has written. I have been learning as much as I can about this case for the past eight months and am convinced of the accused's innocence.

The very first lady interviewed during this radio segment is very miss-informed or alse just couldn't articulate herself well. Either way it's people like this that cast all wm3 supporters in a bad light. She states some of the evidence put against the three were "fabrics of clothing" I beleive she means fibeers. She later states that the knife that John Mark Byers gave to the film crew of Paradise Lost, had both Mark Byers and Chris Byers' blood on it. That is incorrect, the blood on the knife was consistant with either John Mark or Chris' blood.
I urge everybody who reads this to personally look into the FACTS of the case.

Marti you may want to write up what you have found and post it here as well as posting it at Wikipedia with your sources (and hoping it stays up there).

"Wikapedia tried to sum up a case that is far too complex for a few pg.s"

Similar to Indymedia, Wikipedia does not write anything!

"Plus they present alot of the information in a very manipulative manner which doesn't help convey any real information regarding this intire case."

Again, there is no "they" All the information on Wikipedia comes from people who put it there. There is not a team of Wikipedia employees that write the information.

Would you prefer to get information from a static encyclopedia?

West Memphis 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_3

Free The West Mephis Three
http://www.wm3.org

WM3 WORLD AWARENESS DAY 2006 - SAN FRANCISCO
http://indybay.org/calendar/event_display_detail.php?event_id=10338

All proceeds from this event will go directly to the WM3 Defense Fund.


The WM3 are three men who were railroaded by a corrupt and incompetent justice system in Arkansas in 1994 for the gruesome slayings of three eight-year-old boys. The men, then in their teens, were social misfits in their Bible-saturated town of West Memphis. Because the only physical evidence used to convict them were possessions such as black concert t-shirts, heavy-metal tapes, and song lyrics, many believe that satanic panic overcame reason in the town’s need to blame someone for the senseless crimes. June 3rd, 2006 marks the 13th anniversary of Damien Echols’ incarceration. The thirty-one year old awaits execution by lethal injection on Death Row. Each year on June 3rd, supporters who believe in the Three’s innocence make a special effort to raise funds and awareness about the unbelievable miscarriage of justice that ruined the lives of Echols, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. and their families. To learn more about the WM3, visit http://wm3.org.

Wikipedia is not just like Indymedia. For instance, the section on Mumia Abu-Jamal contains many falsehoods. I went through and corrected some of these and most of my corrections were immediately removed by the editors and my IP address was blocked for a short time. Some of the changes I made remain, but the section on Mumia still contains blatant pro-prosecution falsehoods as well as glaring omissions of the facts.

Wikipedia:Overview FAQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Overview_FAQ

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is an online free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has described Wikipedia as "an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language." Wikipedia exists to bring knowledge to everyone.


Who owns Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is managed by a nonprofit parent organization, The Wikimedia Foundation, which also manages the operation of Wikipedia's sister projects, including Wiktionary (a wiki dictionary), Wikibooks (textbooks), and others, and owns all of their domain names. Previously, the site was hosted on the servers of Bomis, Inc., a company mostly owned by Jimmy Wales, who currently funds part of the site's operational costs. With the announcement of the Wikimedia Foundation on June 20, 2003, the ownership of all domain names as well as the technical equipment was transferred to the Foundation. The site is run by the community of Wikipedians guided by the principles articulated by Jimmy Wales, including, for example, an adherence to a neutral point of view.


Who is responsible for the articles on Wikipedia?

You are! Actually, you can even edit this very FAQ! As there are more than 1.25 million (1,250,000) other Wikipedians, this is a collaborative effort. Thousands of people have contributed information to different parts of this project, and anyone can do so, including you. All you need is to know how to edit a page, and have some encyclopedic knowledge you want to share. The encyclopedia provides users with a certain amount of freedom. Yep!

You can learn who is responsible for the most recent versions of any given page by clicking on the "Page history" link. Nevertheless, if you spot an error in the latest revision of an article, you are highly encouraged to be bold and correct it. This practice is one of the basic review mechanisms that maintains the reliability of the encyclopedia. As a result, Wikipedia has become one of the most extensive information libraries available on the Internet.

If you are uncertain or find the wording confusing, quote the material on the associated talk page and leave a question for the next person. This helps eliminate errors, inaccuracies, or misleading wording more quickly and is highly appreciated by the community.


How do you know if the information is correct?

As anyone can edit any article, it is of course possible for biased, out of date, or incorrect information to be posted. However, because there are so many other people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, incorrect information is usually corrected quickly. Thus, the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors. You are encouraged to help by correcting articles, validating content, and providing useful references.

I actually now have been able to make some major improvements to the Wikipedia article on Mumia Abu-Jamal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal

But the corrections I have made to the false and undocumented information on the site were very difficult to make because of fanatics that were hovering over the article changing my corrections and making threats against me (about blocking my continued ability to post on the site).

The article still has many problems, and is missing some important information, but it at least now makes clear that there were many irregularities in Mumia Abu-Jamal's trial.