Three men convicted of the murders of three Cub Scouts are enjoying their freedom, nearly two decades after they were sent to prison in a controversial case which led to suspicions the children were killed in a satanic ritual.
Doubts about the evidence against the trio, known as the West Memphis Three, had persisted for years, and led to the possibility of a retrial in 2012.
Instead, the Arkansas men were permitted to plead guilty to murder in exchange for time served, ending a long-running legal battle that had raised questions about DNA evidence and key witnesses – and attracted support from celebrities such as Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder.
The men – Jessie Misskelley, 36, Damien Echols, 36, and Jason Baldwin, 34 – entered the pleas under a legal provision that allowed them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them.
“Although I am innocent, this plea is in my best interest,” Misskelley said.
Echols had been on Arkansas’ death row and in 1994 came within three weeks of execution. He remained defiant, accusing prosecutors of using innuendo and faulty evidence to convict the three men.
Baldwin told reporters he planned to “live my life the best I can and enjoy every moment of it”.
Prosecutor Scott Ellington said it would be “practically impossible” to put on a proper trial after 18 years. The mother of a witness who testified against Echols has publicly questioned her daughter’s evidence. And a crime lab employee who collected fibre evidence at two of the defendants’ homes has since died.
“I believe this case is closed, and there are no other individuals involved,” Mr Ellington said.
Since the original convictions, two of the victims’ families have joined forces with the defence, declaring that the men are innocent, he added.
Echols said he and the others would keep working to fully clear their names. The men, who were teenagers when they were convicted, have spent half their lives in prison.
“It’s not perfect by any means,” Echols said of the arrangement. “But it at least brings closure to some areas and some aspects.”
All three men were placed on 10 years’ unsupervised probation. If they get in trouble again, they could be sent back to prison for 21 years, Mr Ellington said.
One person called out “baby killers” as the three left the courtroom.
The three victims – Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, all aged eight – were found naked and tied together in May 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. Rumours of Satanism swept the community in the weeks following their deaths.
Branch and Moore drowned in about two feet of water, while Byers bled to death, and had been mutilated.
Police had few leads until receiving a tip that Echols had been seen covered in mud on the night of the boys’ disappearance. The big break came when Misskelley unexpectedly confessed and implicated Baldwin and Echols. Misskelley, then 17, later recanted, and defence lawyers said he got several parts of the story incorrect.
Prosecutors had theorised that the killings were a kind of Satanic rite, carried out by the teenagers.
A 1996 HBO documentary titled Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills drew the attention of celebrities including Vedder and Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks.
Joined by other celebrities, they helped fund a legal team that sought a new trial.
“Why are they innocent?” Vedder said of the Three in an interview with last year. “Because there’s nothing that says they’re guilty.”
Last Friday, Echols’ wife, Lorri, sat in the front row of a crowded courtroom, next to the PearlJam frontman. Vedder put hisarm around her during the proceedings.