Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [104]
Davis asked Jessie about his earlier statement to police that the boys were tied with rope. “I made that up,” Jessie said. This time Jessie was clear that the boys were tied with “shoestrings,” but he was vague about how the laces had been removed from the shoes. This time he recalled seeing all three boys thrown into the water, after which he left, still carrying the whiskey bottle. He said he “busted” the bottle on the way home, on “like a slope going down over the overpass,” then he went to a wrestling match with a friend. Davis asked if there were “events that took place that night” that were difficult to remember. Jessie answered, “I can’t remember.”241
The next day, Stidham formally notified Judge Burnett that neither Davis nor Fogleman were to have any further contact with Jessie. But Stidham’s outrage affected nothing. Every day until the start of the trial, one or the other of the prosecutors continued to visit Jessie in jail. Stidham was not told of the visits. Burnett did not intervene.
“The Bottom of the Truth”
The furor surrounding Jessie was still raging behind the scenes as prospective jurors arrived at the Craighead County Courthouse for Damien and Jason’s trial. It was February 19, and northeast Arkansas was crackling beneath a second blast of ice. As media and spectators gathered for the long-awaited trial, lawyers on both sides met in the chambers of Judge Burnett for another intense confrontation. Stidham spoke first. He argued that Jessie was being used and that his future appeals were being compromised by the state. He wanted the prosecutors stopped. He handed Judge Burnett a motion citing all of the contacts state officials had had with Jessie, in which the boy had been urged to talk, since the moment of his conviction.
Stidham complained that as Jessie’s attorney, he had notified Davis and Fogleman repeatedly that Jessiewould not testify at Damien and Jason’s upcoming trial. The prosecutors’ “improper contact” with Jessie, he said, was a “conscious and calculated attempt” to circumvent the boy’s rights to remain silent and to receive the assistance of counsel. Stidham said, “They even promised to bring his girlfriend to see him at the jail, Judge. I think that is the most abhorrent, ridiculous, flagrant violation of my client’s rights that I have ever seen.”242Again, Stidham asked Burnett to order the prosecutors “not to have any contact whatsoever, directly or indirectly,” with Jessie without Stidham’s knowledge and consent. He also asked that the prosecutors be held in contempt of court and “punished accordingly.” Finally, he asked that a special prosecutor—“preferably one from outside the Second Judicial District”—be appointed to investigate the prosecutors’ behavior.
Davis countered that Stidham had become unreasonable and that Stidham’s interests and Jessie’s “were no longer consistent.” Davis told Burnett that once Jessie started talking after being sentenced to prison, Stidham had “lost his objectivity as to what was in his client’s best interest.” Davis said Stidham no longer understood what to do “to get to the bottom of the truth.”
Judge Burnett quickly settled the matter. He walked into the courtroom, seated himself at the bench, and dealt with the issue in public. Noting that word of the discussions about Jessie Misskelley—and criticisms of the prosecutors’ behavior—had already reached the media, Burnett announced that no prosecutors had engaged in misconduct. As reporters scribbled their notes, the judge added that Jessie would be allowed to testify “if he chooses to do so.”243
Chapter Seventeen
The Witness List
AFEW DAYS BEFORE the start of Damien and Jason’s trial, theMemphis Commercial Appeal reported that a “club” with what appeared to be blood and hair on it had been found in the mobile home where Damien lived at the time of the murders. The trailer’s new renter had found the club and notified police. But though the report created another sensation, it was