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Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [200]

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within twelve months, unless his attorneys request a delay.

181. Crow told Burnett, “We were constantly confronted with people stating, ‘They can’t get a fair trial, but I’m not going to sign for them because I want the blankety-blank to fry.’ That’s the kind of attitude we have in this district, Your Honor.”

182. Author interview, April 2001.

183. The diver, who did not testify at trial, was identified by Sergeant Allen as Joel Mullens, of the Arkansas State Police.

184. Author interview, April 2001.

185. The article, published on November 18, 1993, was written by Kathleen Burt. Burt also took the photo.

186. Seth was born on September 9, 1993.

187. Frances Goza Haynes had lived with Pam and her children for all of Damien’s life.

188. Shettles wrote, “Michael does not know what causes him to shake,” and at times, “his arm jerks uncontrollably.” She showed him some of the police investigative reports. While Damien was reading one, she wrote, he “asked about the significance of a notation that the full moon was at 7:41P .M. I told him I could only assume perhaps the full moon had significance if the murders were cult related.” Damien then told Shettles that a new Baptist minister had recently visited him and asked to pray with him. Because the man was polite, rather than imposing as the others had been, Damien had agreed. Shettles recounted: “The minister asked if he could touch Michael, placing his hand on Michael’s shoulder. Again Michael agreed and the minister asked him to repeat after him that Michael renounced cult activity, demon worship, and would accept Jesus as his savior. Michael repeated the words and the minister asked if he felt different. Michael told him he did not. The minister left after giving a brief sermon and thanked the men in the cellblock for not killing him.”

189. At another point, Driver described a conversation he said he’d had with the pastor of Saint Michael’s Catholic Church, where Damien had studied to become a Catholic. Driver told Durham that someone had broken into the sacristy, and that the priest had suspected Damien, though the culprit was never found. “Of course,” Driver continued, “that’s one of the things that those guys do—that kind of modus operandi. They go to the Catholic church and find out as much as they can, break into the sacristy, steal the host and the lunette, and that’s how some of them operate. That’s not to say he did that, but that would not be out of character with the things that they do.” But when Shettles contacted Father Greg Hart, the church’s former pastor, in February 1994, she wrote, “Father Hart stated he never had a conversation with Jerry Driver about a break-in. The sacristy had never been broken into.”

190. The boy’s name was Buddy Sidney Lucas. During the interview, Lax asked Lucas if the statement he’d given to Ridge and Durham had been the truth. Lucas answered, “I told them the truth, the first one I gave them. But they—but Durham—he screamed at me, yelled at me, like I was lying.”

Lax: “Did he tell you you were lying?”

Lucas: “Yes sir. He called me a liar.”

Lax: “Did he tell you what to say then?”

Lucas: “No sir. He didn’t tell me what to say, but I told him what I felt like he wanted to hear, and he was grinning.”

Lax: “He was grinning? And did you then give another statement on video camera?”

Lucas: “Yes sir.”

Lax: “Saying what you thought he wanted you to say?”

Lucas: “Yes sir.”

Lax: “And when you said what he wanted you to say, or at least what you thought he wanted you to say, did he scream and yell at you then?”

Lucas: “No sir.”

Lucas said he’d tried to satisfy Durham so that he “wouldn’t get into trouble.” He explained, “I mean, I didn’t know what to do. I mean, I don’t have no problems with the police. I ain’t never had to go and see the police. I mean, I ain’t never did nothing. I didn’t know what to do.”

191. According to Lax’s notes, the teenager, Christopher Littrell, said he felt that “Durham and Gitchell were trying to ‘good-guy/bad-guy’ him. He stated he was not scared or intimidated at all. He said he knew his

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