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223. Before the trial, Wilkins reported to Stidham that Jessie could count from three to thirty by threes only if he used his fingers; that when asked the meaning of the maxim “Don’t cry over spilt milk,” Jessie said he didn’t know, but added, “People say that all the time, though”; that when asked about the proverb “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence,” Jessie responded, “I guess it’s greener on the other side of the fence”; and that when Wilkins asked, “What would you do if you were walking down the street and found an envelope which was already stamped, addressed, and sealed?” Jessie answered, “I’d just leave it,” then, after a pause, he’d added, “Maybe I’d pick it up and see whose name was on it. If it was somebody that I didn’t know, I’d probably just leave it there.” Wilkins wrote that “in the strictest interpretation of the legal statute, Jessie appears to be able to distinguish right and wrong.” However, he noted that the boy “clearly demonstrates a significant deficit in his ability to do abstract reasoning…. That is, we see Jessie is still doing problem solving and making moral decisions on a level comparable to a five-to-eight year old…. For Jessie, decisions about right and wrong are made on the basis of the consequence of the action, not in terms of any kind of intent.”

224. From Stidham’s 1994 “Synopsis of the Case,” published at wm3.org.

225. Holmes added that peak attention tests are the only kind of tests run by police in Israel and Japan, because authorities there believe they have the highest degree of validity.

226. Author interview, July 2001.

227. In 1979, Ofshe had been part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the murderous California cult known as Synanon.

228. Stidham believed it would be a conflict of interest for him to be involved in disbursal of the funds, so another lawyer was brought in to handle the negotiations with HBO. The lawyers for Damien and Jason had no such misgivings and handled the HBO negotiations on behalf of their criminal clients.

229. Judge Burnett’s position with regard to Of she’s testimony demonstrated the legal conundrum facing Jessie’s lawyers on an issue central to Jessie’s defense: if a judge determines that a confession was voluntary and would not let that determination be “second-guessed” in court, how could a defendant ever present evidence to a jury that his confession had been coerced?

230. Elements of this explanation by Ofshe were spliced together, to make a more concise statement, in the filmParadise Lost, later released by HBO.

231. Arkansas was one of five states at the time that held such bifurcated, or two-phased, trials, in which juries decide both guilt and sentencing.

232.Memphis Commercial Appeal, March 17, 1994.

233. As reported by theMemphis Commercial Appeal, February 5, 1994.

234. As recorded in the filmParadise Lost.

235. For reasons that were never addressed, Domini Teer was never treated as a suspect in the crime, even though her name appeared on Driver’s list and the Hollingsworths’ testimony placed her near the scene with Damien.

236. The writer of the report was Deputy Jon Moody.

237. This was the second time attorneys had tried to subpoena portions of the HBO film. In the first instance, Davis and Fogleman tried to see an interview that had been filmed with Jason. Burnett had also rejected that request.

238. The deputy prosecuting attorney in this part of the district was C. Joseph Calvin.

239. Elements of this series of events are drawn from a motion filed by Stidham in the Circuit Court of Clay County, Arkansas, Western District, Criminal Division, on February 22, 1994.

240. Davis asked Jessie to describe “what you saw Jason do.” Jessie responded: “First, he cut one of ’em on a face, on his left side, just a little bit, like a scratch. Then, he went to the other one and got on top of him, started hitting him and then pulled one of ’em’s pants down and get on top of ’m and cut ’m.” Although, during his trial, Jessie had listened to extensive testimony about the injuries each of the victims