WM3 Week: Heather Empsall’s Thoughts

When I first got really into music at about 16 one of my favorite bands was the local Fayetteville Arkansas band Bishop Montgomery Football. I went to so many shows that eventually I asked if I could do their website. I became great friends with them all, especially Aaron(who has been known to write for us) and his girlfriend/now wife Heather. When I mentioned that we would be doing WM3 week here on the site she wanted to get involved. I asked her to write up a piece about her experience and how she came to know of the WM3. You can check out her blog here. This is what she wrote..

“I am neither a freak nor a monster. I was basically a victim of circumstance.” (Damien Echols in Paradise Lost 2 Revelations). I am about to turn 28 years old this week. On May 5, 1993, I was two days shy of being 12 years old and I was an awkwardly skinny girl (my brother affectionately called me ‘birdlegs’) with long straggly hair, big bangs and glasses in the sixth grade in Northwest Arkansas. I didn’t wear black shirts or paint my fingernails black (I was more partial to bright vibrant neons and gaudy floral prints with pink fingernail polish). I didn’t listen to Metallica nor did I have any interest in Wicca (I listened to Michael Jackson & the Counting Crows and went to youth group every Wednesday). But I certainly knew kids around me who did one, or even all, of these things and I thought no less of them as a human being nor was I ‘afraid’ of them. I didn’t paint them as mass murderers or occultists. We were all awkward kids going through awkward stages in life, just trying to ‘find ourselves’. I do not remember hearing about the West Memphis Three case until years later. I can only assume it is because as a preadolescence child, I had more important things on my mind than the top news stories of the moment. Little did I know that years later this case would broaden my entire mindset on capital punishment and our justice system.

Sadly, I did not become interested in learning more about the WM3 until the winter of 2003. I had heard only bits and pieces from random people here and there, but I naively never further investigated the case. I was looking for a good ‘crime’ or ‘drama’ novel to read at the library when my husband suggested I read the non-fiction Devil’s Knot by Maria Leveritt. I read the book from cover-to-cover twice in 4 days, making sure to analyze all of the author’s notes in the back of the book with the corresponding paragraphs I was reading. I then purchased Paradise Lost 1 & 2 off the internet and received those a week later. I found myself consumed with wanting to know any little tidbit of information I could about this case. My mind simply could not fathom how 1.) it took me 10 years after the murders to take a serious interest in the case and 2.) how Jessie, Jason and Damien were ever accused in the first place AND then sent to prison, with Damien on death row. I felt so many emotions. I felt disappointment in myself for not educating myself about this case sooner. It was simply irresponsible of me as a native Arkansan to have heard hearsay about the case and never sought out the facts surrounding what I had heard.

I believe there are many victims in the West Memphis Three case. The lives and deaths of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore should never be forgotten or diminished. What happened to these three boys is a mother’s absolute worst nightmare, and although I can’t imagine what their families have gone through or felt, I can empathize as I am now the mother of an almost 4 year old boy. We can no longer turn the other way and ignore that there is absolutely no physical evidence tying Jessie, Jason or Damien to the murders of these three 8 year old boys. Since when does the same justice system that puts people away for hate crimes convict 3 teenagers because of satanic hysteria, essentially West Memphis’ form of a hate crime, except the law enforcement got away with it. They have not only robbed these three men of the freedom to a fair trial for crimes that I believe they did not commit, but they have robbed them of the best years of their lives. The more I learn about the case, the more I have come to question my stance on the death penalty. How do we justify such a permanent life-altering action when there are so many unanswered questions and no physical evidence? How does our law enforcement and our judicial system send three men to jail without any evidence? It is unfathomable.

My intentions for writing this is in hopes that perhaps someone else out there, like me, will decide to further investigate the facts of this case and tell those around them. As a resident of Arkansas, it is our duty to be informed on what is going on in our own state. I’ll leave you with a quote from Dan Stidham, Jessie’s Defense Attorney, from Paradise Lost 2, “We’ve got to have hope; without hope we don’t have a chance.” I hope we will all become informed citizens and know the facts before placing outrageous accusations and blame on people who are undeserving of it. This should be a good example of how we judge people in our daily lives. Small judgements can have more than a lifetime of repercussions. Being different does not make you a murderer. I hope that soon Jessie, Jason and Damien will get the justice they so deserve — their freedom.