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By Root 633 0

a lawyer noted for his work on the O. J. Simpson case and his expertise in the burgeoning field of DNA evidence. Another was Edward Mallett, a trial lawyer from Houston, Texas. In 1997, Mallett informed Damien he would work on Damien’s Rule 37 petition for free, and that Scheck had signed on to help.395Mallett visited Arkansas and met with Val Price, the lawyer who, Mallett would be arguing, had failed in his representation of Damien. Mallett said he found Price to be “very, very nice, not the kind of person you’d like to take on as a professional enemy.” Nonetheless, he pressed Price to explain why, at such a crucial time, he had participated in the making of a film and to allow Damien to participate as well. That was when Price explained the role money had played in the case.

Price explained that the filmmakers had offered Damien $7,500 for three interviews. Damien was indigent, and this was money the attorney thought could be used toward his defense. Even though Damien’s lawyers had been appointed by the court and would be paid through public funds, they said they wanted to use funds from the film to hire expert witnesses. Mallett was astounded. He asked, wouldn’t the court provide money for such necessary expenses? Price said he didn’t believe Judge Burnett would have authorized that much.

Price then offered some financial background on the case, to wit, that the lawyers themselves had not been paid until years after the trials’ conclusions. They had had to cover their own expenses before and during the trials. After the trials were over, Judge Burnett had ruled that the six court-appointed defense lawyers who represented the three defendants would be paid a total of $142,000, plus an additional $1,000 for out-of-pocket expenses.396They said the amount was already out of proportion with the amount of time they’d spent on the case, but as it turned out, collecting it would prove even more difficult. Because the West Memphis case had unfolded at a time when responsibility for paying court-appointed attorneys was being transferred from the state to the counties, a dispute arose over who would pay the bill—the state of Arkansas or Crittenden County. The issue was fought all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court, and while it was being fought, the attorneys continued to go unpaid.

In the midst of the dispute, Jason’s lawyer Paul Ford complained, “Judge Burnett got paid for what he did; the prosecutors got paid; the state witnesses got paid; everyone involved got paid, except for the defense attorneys. There’s unfairness there. The state can get what they need for a trial and get paid for it, but the defense attorneys must subsidize the costs themselves.” Jessie’s lawyer Dan Stidham said his law firm had had to take out bank loans to cover expenses incurred during Jessie’s trial. “The prosecutor has a staff of expert witnesses at his disposal and dozens of investigators,” Stidham said. “But this sends the message that if you’re indigent, you don’t have a chance.” Damien’s lawyer Val Price was equally put out—and outspoken. “If the state is going to have people prosecuted and ask for the death penalty, then it should be willing to pay for a vigorous and zealous defense for the defendants. The state has the FBI, crime labs, and various other agencies at its disposal, but we don’t have the same access and must pay for our research.” A year and a half after the trials, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered the state to pay the six attorneys. The county was ordered to pay Ron Lax and a few expert witnesses.397

That was the climate, Mallett learned, in which the lawyers for the West Memphis defendants had opted to get funding where they could. The appearance of the filmmakers had seemed an opportunity. The lawyers representing Jason and Jessie had arrived at the same conclusion: that the money was critically needed. Upon the advice of their defense lawyers, the defendants had signed contracts with the filmmakers, agreeing to three interviews apiece, for which they were to be paid $7,500 each. The payments were to be held in trust.