Three men imprisoned for the 1993 "satanic" slayings of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, walked free today after nearly two decades of proclaiming their innocence.
Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr, known as the "West Memphis
Three", accepted a bargain known as an Alford plea in which they could continue to claim their innocence but plead guilty in exchange for an 18-year sentence and credit for time served.
Two had been sentenced to life, and Echols was on death row. They were expected to be released today after the ruling in the Craighead County District Court in Jonesboro,
Arkansas.
"As far as the state is concerned, this case is closed," said prosecutor Scott Ellington, adding that the state believed the three are guilty. "I strongly believe that the interest of justice was served today."
Pressure had mounted to free the three after they were convicted in 1994 of the murders of 8-year-old Cub Scouts Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and James Michael Moore.
Police at the time called the murders "satanic" because the children's naked bodies had been bound and mutilated.
The West Memphis Three, teenagers at the time of the murders, maintained their innocence in the deaths of the boys in the Arkansas-Tennessee border town.
Recent DNA tests did not link the men to the scene and showed the presence of others who have never been identified.
Their cause was taken up by activist groups across the country, and championed by celebrities such as Pearl Jam front-man Eddie Vedder and Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines, both of whom were in Jonesboro for the hearing.
Today's move was a complicated legal proceeding that protects Arkansas from a potential lawsuit should the men win a new trial, get acquitted, and seek to sue the state for wrongful imprisonment, Mr Ellington said.
The plea means the defendants acknowledge officially that the state has evidence against them, but can continue to claim their innocence, Mr Ellington added.
He called it "most likely" that a judge would have granted them a new trial.
The state believes the defendants could easily have been acquitted in a new trial due to the deaths of witnesses, DNA tests, changing stories, and stale evidence, Mr Ellington said.
If they were found guilty in a new trial, chances were high they would not have been convicted of capital murder and would have had lighter sentences, he said.
Reuters