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The Human Zoo/August 20, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around The Human Experience...
FREE…SORT OF: Three Arkansas men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, convicted as teen-agers of murdering three boys in 1993, were released from prison Friday, 18-years into their sentences, which ranged from life in prison to death.
Their release was the culmination of four-year ordeal. The West Memphis Three, as they became known, have always maintained their innocence. Some research shows the prosecutions case probably won't be cited forever and ever in jurisprudence annals as a Great Moment in Prosecuting. A confession, by Misskelly who was 16 at the time and who has an IQ of 76, was recanted and later ruled inadmissible may well have been used by a juror in voting guilty.
Further hilarity ensued in 2007, when DNA from the crime scene was tested, with none of it matching the DNA of the convicted men, though it did match a relative of one of the dead boys. A variety of appeals and court decisions since then resulted in an order by the Arkansas Supreme Court for new hearings for the men this December.
Eff This Noise: Rather than wait and sit through hearings that could very well keep them in prison, the three did what was required to get out of prison right now. They pled guilty while doing two things: maintaining their innocence and acknowledging the state possessed enough evidence to probably convict them in court, known in the legal racket as an Alford plea. In return they got their freedom. They were sentenced to time served and immediately released, though all three also received a ten-year suspended sentence.
ROTFLMAO: Justice is funny sometimes. Why would you plead guilty to something you didn't do? Well, because that's your best option for freedom. Under the circumstances it is not reasonable to think the prosecution possessed sufficient evidence to convict them of littering, much less murder, or else why let them out? But the bottom line is they are out of prison, and just in time for the weekend, too. Plus, the Alford plea gives the prosecution a win, too, sort of like participation ribbons in the Special Olympics.
The Times They Have A-Changed: Part of our research for this item consisted of reading the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. A not insignificant portion of the story was given to noting the attire of the gentlemen at Friday's hearing, and also noted how they all had less hair then they did when they were convicted.
How Quaint: You've gotta love the South. A side-bar story quoted a 65-year-old woman not by saying she 'said' something, but by writing she 'tut-tutted' and another lady quoted had 'piped-up'. The names of local eateries are peppered throughout the story, too, because this is where the folks were interviewed at.
Part of us wanted to read the paper and see if these business were valued Commercial-Appeal advertisers, but we had better things to do, though we did note the Commercial-Appeal, in 2007, made noises about linking advertisers with stories, but the plan was withdrawn when the plan became public and was almost universally derided.
HUT, HUT, HIKE: What would become the National League, the American Professional Football Association, is founded on this date in 1920, in Canton, Ohio.
Professional football had been played in the region since early in the 20th century, though this was the first attempt to form a league. The APFA would become the National Football League in 1922. The Chicago Bears, then the Decatur Staleys, and the Arizona Cardinals, then the Chicago Cardinals, are the only two original teams still in the NFL.
This Is Don Criqui Reporting: The first game would be played on September 26 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the St. Paul Ideals 48-0.
Going, Going, Gone: Tommy Brown, 17, of the Brooklyn Dodgers becomes the youngest person in major league history to hit a home run on this date in 1945.
Brown had actually made his major league debut the previous season, playing in 46 games with the Dodgers. Brown would spend nine years in the big leagues, including stints with Pittsburgh and the Chicago Cubs, retiring with a .241 career batting average and 31 career home runs.
Oh Yeah: Brown connected off Preacher Roe of the Pirates. It was the only run Roe allowed in the 11-1 Pirate win.
Great Moments In Assassination: Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is stabbed with an ice pick by a member of the Soviet secret police while living in exile in Mexico on this date in 1940. The assassin, Ramon Mercader, did not do his job particularly well. Trotsky was still able to struggle with his killer and even ordered his bodyguards to spare his life, though Trotsky died the next day. Mercader would serve 20 years in prison before making his way to Cuba and then the Soviet Union.
We Deliver For You: Postal employee Patrick Sherrill shoots and kills 14 of his fellow postal workers before killing himself at a post office in Edmond, Oklahoma on this date in 1986.
Though not the first postal shooting, those go back to 1983, the Edmund, Oklahoma incident is often credited with bringing the term 'going postal' into the lexicon.
Well, That Solved A Lot: After almost eight years of war, Iran and Iraq agree to a cease-fire on this date in 1988. Despite a reported half of a million deaths on both sides, the war solved nothing. Iraq, which invaded mainly so it could annex Iranian territory, ended up annexing nothing.
Good Planning, Men: Kuwait took advantage of the situation to over-produce oil in an effort to screw Iraq, which would lead to Iraq invading Kuwait.
Couldn't They Have Just Had A Civil War Like The US Did? The Supreme Court of Canada rules the province cannot secede from Canada without the approval of the Canadian government on this date in 1998.
Thought For The Day: Insanity triumphed because sane people were silent. - Randy Shilts
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The Chicago Cubs hold the major league record for most doubleheaders lost in a season with 19.
Today's Stumper: Where and when did the Alford plea originate? - Answer next time!
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