|
Location |
Defendant(s) |
Date of Alleged Crime |
| Crittenden
County, AR |
West Memphis Three |
May 5, 1993 (West Memphis) |
|
Jesse
Misskelley Jr., Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin were accused as teenagers
of killing three eight-year-old boys. Misskelley, who is mentally
handicapped, gave an error filled confession after 12 hours of police
questioning, which he soon recanted. Misskelley confessed that he witnessed
the murders taking place around noon when, in fact, the victims were all in
school. The victims did not disappear until after approximately 5:30 p.m.
Numerous alibi witnesses testified that at the time the three victims
disappeared and for the next five hours (during which the murders probably
occurred), Misskelley was at a wrestling competition in a town forty miles
away from the crime scene. With no physical evidence, murder weapon,
motive, or connection to the victims, the prosecution resorted to presenting
black hair and clothing, heavy metal T-shirts, and Stephen King novels as
proof that the victims were sacrificed in a satanic cult ritual. The
defendants were convicted and sentenced to life plus 40, death, and life
without parole, respectively. A book about the case was written
entitled Devil's Knot: The True Story of
the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt. (www.wm3.org)
[9/05] |
| Greene County, AR |
Denver Mitchell |
Aug 18, 1990 (Paragould) |
|
Denver Wayne Mitchell, Jr. was convicted of murder
for fending off a sexual solicitation. In Aug. 1990, while working
in Amarillo, TX, Mitchell received a letter from his father asking him to
come home to West Frankfort, IL. On Aug. 17, Mitchell hitched a ride
near Amarillo in a truck driven by a 74-year-old man named Willard. The two made
it to Paragould, AR where they stopped for the night. Willard told
Mitchell he could spend the night in the truck and that he, Willard, would
take him to Highway 55 in the morning. The two also stopped at a bar,
drank alcohol, and purchased some beer to go. Willard then drove the
truck to an area where they could camp out.
Read More by Clicking Here
|
| Marion County, AR |
Charles Hudspeth |
1887 |
|
Charles
Hudspeth was
convicted of murder and hanged while his alleged victim was still alive.
Hudspeth became romantically involved with Rebecca Watkins, and when the two
were questioned on the disappearance of Rebecca's husband, George Watkins,
Rebecca told authorities Hudspeth had killed him. Hudspeth was granted a
retrial because testimony regarding Rebecca's alleged lack of good character
was improperly barred. Hudspeth was convicted again and hanged on December
30, 1892. In June 1893, Hudspeth's lawyer located George Watkins alive and
living in Kansas. (CWC)
[7/05] |
| Phillips County, AR |
Elaine 51 |
Sept 30, 1919 |
|
On Sept. 30, 1919, black sharecroppers held a
meeting at a church in Hoop Spur, outside Elaine, Arkansas. The
purpose was to obtain better payments for cotton crops in the face of
patently unfair practices of white landowners. After two deputized
white men and a black trustee arrived, shots rang out. One of the
white men was killed and the other was wounded. Who fired first is not
clear. In any event, a posse of hundreds of white men was dispatched
to put down an alleged black rebellion. Five whites and between 100
and 200 blacks were killed in the days that followed.
Following the "rebellion," 12 blacks were convicted of first-degree
murder and sentenced to death. Ten were convicted of second-degree
murder and sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment. Another 29 were
convicted of second-degree-murder and sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment.
None of the defendants were executed and in 1925 the state governor granted
indefinite furloughs to those that remained imprisoned. (PCR)
(EA) (Moore
v. Dempsey) (Blood
in their Eyes) (On
the Laps of Gods) [1/10] |
| Pulaski County, AR |
James Dean Walker |
Apr 16, 1963 |
|
James Dean Walker was convicted
of murdering Police Officer Jerrell Vaughn of North Little Rock. Walker and a
companion, Russell Kumpe, were at a Little Rock nightclub with two women, one
of whom was Linda Ford. Following an altercation at the club in which
another patron was shot, Kumpe, Walker, and Ford left in Kumpe's Oldsmobile.
Kumpe drove, while Walker sat in the passenger seat, with Ford sitting
in the center. Police Officer Gene Barentine pursued and stopped the
car and parked his vehicle behind it. Officer Vaughan arrived
on the scene almost immediately thereafter, as did two cabdrivers.
Read More by Clicking Here
|
| Pulaski County, AR |
Barry Lee Fairchild |
Feb 26, 1983 |
|
Barry Lee Fairchild was convicted of the
kidnapping, rape, and murder of a 22-year-old Marjorie “Greta” Mason. Mason
was a white Air Force nurse and a former homecoming queen. Six days after
the rape and after the media had reported many details of the crime, the
police received a tip from an unnamed informant, a man described in police
files as inaccurate about half the time, with a tendency to exaggerate. He
named Barry Lee Fairchild as one of the culprits.
Read More
by Clicking Here
|
| Sebastian County, AR |
Wilburn Henderson |
Nov 26, 1980 (Ft. Smith) |
|
Wilburn L. Henderson was
sentenced to death for the murder of Willa Dean O'Neal. The murder
occurred during an alleged robbery of $41 at a Ft. Smith furniture store
that the victim owned with her husband. In the store police found a
yellow piece of paper containing two phone numbers that had been given to
Henderson by a real estate agent. Henderson conceded that the paper
was his and that he must have dropped when he was in the store days before
the murder. Under police interrogation Henderson had given a statement
that he had just happened to have been in the store when another man
committed the crime. He later recanted the statement saying he only
made it because he feared police would harm him. According to the
prosecution, Henderson had obtained a gun from a pawnshop and then pawned it
back just after the murder. However, ballistics tests on the gun were
inconclusive that it was the murder weapon.
Read More
by Clicking Here
|
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