Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [143]
Then the jurors applied the same process to Damien and Jason. Under pros for Jason, they wrote “in school,” “stuck to story,” “exhibited remorse.” But the list of cons was longer. On this side of the page someone wrote “Damien’s best friend,” “jailhouse confession,” “low self-esteem,” “fiber match,” “knife,” and “frequented crime scene,” though no testimony had been introduced regarding that last point.
Damien’s page predicted the outcome. Under pros for him, the jurors listed “intelligent,” “manic depressant,” “stuck to story,” and “loyal family.” But the list of cons ran a couple of pages. It included “something to gain,” “dishonest,” “manipulative,” “weird,” “Satanic follower,” “fiber match,” “incriminating testimony—Ridge,” “blew kisses to parents,” “traveled crime scene 200 times in two years (LIED),” “carried knives,” “secondary confession (ballfield girls),” “lied during testimony,” “inappropriate thought patterns,” “no credible witnesses,” “eat father alive.” Finally, on one page, in big block letters, a juror wrote emphatically, “YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT!” Within two hours and twenty minutes, the jurors’ minds were made up.
Damien had appeared in court throughout the trial wearing long-sleeved tailored shirts, but while the jurors were out of the courtroom deliberating his sentence he changed. When the jurors returned to the room, he sat waiting to hear his fate wearing a black Harley-Davidson T-shirt.
The Sentences
The jury found that all three boys had been murdered in “an especially cruel and depraved manner,” a factor that would aggravate, or enhance, the sentence. Taking Jason’s youth into consideration, however, plus his lack of a prior criminal record and the jurors’ belief that he had acted as an accomplice “under unusual pressure” from Damien, they sentenced him on each of the three counts to life in prison without parole.
They found that although Damien’s guilt had been influenced by “extreme mental or emotional disturbance,” the cruelty and depravity of the murders outweighed those mitigating factors. They sentenced Damien to death by the method of lethal injection.
Judge Burnett asked the defense lawyers to have their clients stand. “Do either of you have any legal reason to show the court or give the court as to why the sentence should not be imposed? Mr. Echols?”
“No sir.”
“Mr. Baldwin?”
“Because I’m innocent.”
“Pardon?”
“Because I’m innocent,” Jason repeated.
“Well, the jury has heard the evidence and concluded otherwise. Do either of you have anything you want to say?”
“Nope,” said Damien.
Jason simply answered, “No.”
After reading Jason his sentence, Burnett told the sixteen-year-old, “You will be at this time remanded to the custody of the sheriff for transportation to the Arkansas Department of Correction….”
Then the judge turned to Damien. He informed the convicted killer that he too was now being placed in the custody of a sheriff, who would transport him to the state’s prison system. There, Burnett said, “on the fifth day of May, 1994,” officials would “cause to be administered a continuous intravenous injection of a lethal quantity of an ultra-short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent into your body until you are dead.”
Part Three
Revelations
Chapter Twenty-One
The Appeals
WHENJASON HEARD HIS GUILTY VERDICT, he didn’t care if his sentence was going to be life or death.302Either way was the same to him. He later explained that it wouldn’t have mattered if he’d been sentenced to a single day in prison, because “the truth was not found out and proclaimed to everyone.” He could not believe the verdict. The word “guilty” rang in his ears.
He’d told himself that the trial would finally bring the truth to light. He believed that God had supreme control, and thus that everything would turn out right. That faith had carried him—and now it was dashed. He recalls that he entered a