Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [124]
The other girl was a year older than the first witness and a friend of hers.275She testified that at the same softball game, she’d heard Damien say “that he killed the three little boys and before he turned himself in that he was going to kill two more and he already had one of them picked out.” She too said that she’d never seen or heard of Damien prior to that event. She also said that she’d reported the incident to her mother, though again, neither the child nor her mother had alerted officials until after the arrests. When defense attorneys questioned the girl, she acknowledged that, although “six or seven” other people had been with Damien that evening, she would not be able to recognize any of them if they were in the courtroom.
And that marked the end of the prosecutors’ evidence.
Damien’s Defense
When the prosecutors sat down after calling their last witnesses, a reporter jotted impressions in his notebook of the case they’d just presented. “A pervasive vagueness…,” he wrote. “Just couldn’t get through it or past it; simply impenetrable.”276
Later the reporter wrote, “When the prosecution rested the state’s case, about all it had proved was (1) that the murders had indeed occurred, and (2) how the victims died. It had proved the deed and the how, but not the who, the why, the where, or even the when. Its who, why, where, and when were supposition, guesswork, rumor, and bad courtroom Vaudeville. No motive, opportunity not clearly established, time of death disputed, and not a single shred of tangible evidence linking any of the defendants to the crime.”
Not surprisingly, the defense lawyers also regarded the evidence as paltry, especially in a case where the prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. Arguing that “there’s been a lack of evidence to place Jason Baldwin at the scene of the crime”; “there has been no eyewitness to identify him as being a perpetrator”; “there’s no evidence whatsoever to tie him to the act of homicide”; and “there’s been no introduction of any scientific evidence to link him to this homicide,” Jason’s lawyer asked Burnett to issue a directed verdict, acquitting Jason on the spot, which a judge is empowered to do when the evidence is deemed glaringly insufficient. But Burnett refused, announcing in open court, “I feel it is more than sufficient.”
Damien’s lawyer then made a similar motion, and Judge Burnett made a similar ruling. Jason’s lawyer appealed again for a severance, noting that “there has been overwhelming evidence introduced in this case that the court has instructed the jury to applyonly to Damien.” And again, the request was denied.
While Judge Burnett ruled that he considered the state’s case “more than sufficient,” Damien’s lawyers found little in the state’s case to contest. Now that the ball was in their court, and it was time to present their defense, they felt they were battling shadows. How were they to counter allegations linking Damien to Satan and thence to murders beneath the full moon? They began with his alibi.
Damien’s mother testified about her activities on the previous May 5, ending with her claim that Damien had been with the family from 4P.M . on. But on cross-examination, Davis lacerated her testimony, forcefully suggesting that, at the very least, she was confused about her times. Michelle, however, corroborated her mother’s account, as did three of the family’s friends.
With that, Damien’s lawyers put him on the stand.
Sound and Fury
Damien stepped into the witness box. His coal black hair was unevenly cut. When Shettles had seen him before the trial, he’d been in bad need of a haircut, and with no better barber available, she’d done the job herself. As Val Price