Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [120]
Jason’s other lawyer, Robin Wadley, shook his head in disbelief. “Judge, if it’s the state’s position that owning black T-shirts with rock bands on them meets the court’s burden…is that fact alone enough?”
But Fogleman said there was more. “We have the testimony that Michael Carson gave related to the sucking of blood from the penis,” he said, “and I think the evidence would show that drinking of blood is something that these people believe gives them power.”
Jason’s lawyers were disappointed but not surprised when Burnett sided with Fogleman, ruling that he would allow questions about the occult. But in light of that decision, they again beseeched Burnett to separate Jason’s trial from Damien’s, as they anticipated that there would be extensive testimony about Damien’s acknowledged interest in the occult, but that there would be none for Jason. Again, Burnett refused to sever the trials. He said he would warn the jury “that this testimony—I hate to dignify it by calling it occult testimony—but testimony relative to Wicca religion” could be considered only against Damien.
“Save Yourself”
Ford’s requests that Jason be tried separately from Damien had been widely reported. But what the public never knew—and what, in fact, almost no one in the courtroom, including the jurors, knew—was that while the prosecutors were trying to win sentences of death for the accused child killers, they themselves had secretly offered Jason a separate deal. They had offered not once, but twice. As Jason later recalled, the offers were relayed to him by his attorneys, Ford and Wadley, and were similar to the deal that the prosecutors had offered Jessie. Instead of asking the jury to sentence Jason to death, they would seek a sentence of forty years—a term that would allow for his eventual parole—if he would plead guilty and testify against Damien. If Jason accepted the deal and exhibited good behavior in prison, he could expect to be out in ten to fifteen years.269
In some respects Jason presented the biggest threat to the prosecutors’ case. They had little evidence against him, and Fogleman and Davis worried that if the jury harbored doubts about Jason, his status as a codefendant might lead them to question Damien’s involvement, as well. On the other hand, if Jason were to testify against Damien, one of their biggest liabilities would be transformed to their advantage. Jason’s lawyer Paul Ford recalled that the first approach to Jason was made before the trial began. It presented a tremendous challenge to a boy whose seventeenth birthday was still a month away. But his response was swift and sure.
“They said, ‘Just say something. Save yourself,’” Jason recalled. “Ford was encouraging me to do it. But I was, like, ‘Nah. This isn’t right.’ I made the decision on my own, right then and there. It was a flat-out no. Ford said, ‘Well, I still had to ask.’”
Like much about Jason’s role in the trial, the drama played out quietly and was ultimately ignored. But the episode was revealing. It showed a lot about the prosecutors—and about the character of the sixteen-year-old who, in turning them down, risked being put to death.
“The Credibility of the Witnesses”
Damien did not know of the offer that had been made to Jason, or of Jason’s refusal to “lie,” as Jason put it, about his friend. What Damien did know was that he risked hearing his own words used against him. Damien’s lawyer was trying to prevent that.
The prosecutors wanted to introduce the reports West Memphis police had written about interviews with Damien in the weeks before his arrest. Price argued that the statements had been obtained illegally. Burnett considered the disagreement in anotherin camera hearing, and here, with the jury out of the room, Damien himself was called to testify. After he was placed under oath, Price asked him if he had requested an attorney when he was questioned by police on May 10, five days after the murders. Damien said that he had asked for an