Innocence Project Statement in Response to Arkansas Supreme Court Ruling in Damien Echols’ DNA Testing Request

Today, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three is entitled to petition an Arkansas court for new DNA testing of crime-scene evidence in the 1993 murder of three boys.

Mr. Echols, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, have been wrongly convicted for the last 30 years. Last June, Innocence Project attorneys filed an amicus brief to the court, supporting Mr. Echols’ appeal for testing with new DNA technology, in the hopes of clearing his name and his co-defendants’.

A Crittenden County judge had previously denied Mr. Echols’ request for new DNA testing because he is no longer in prison. While some states only allow incarcerated individuals access to post-conviction DNA testing, Arkansas’ statute does not provide such a limit. Today, the Arkansas Supreme Court found that the trial court incorrectly read that limitation into the law. This ruling brings justice one step closer for the West Memphis Three and potentially for many more wrongly convicted people seeking DNA testing in Arkansas.

In 2007, DNA testing of crime scene evidence excluded all three men and instead detected DNA of another man, who could not be identified. Advances in DNA technology since then mean that DNA can now be recovered from critical evidence  — including the shoelaces that were used to bind the children — that could identify the actual perpetrator and scientifically prove the innocence of Mr. Echols, Mr. Baldwin, and Mr. Misskelley.

Over more than three decades, the Innocence Project has helped exonerate 202 people with DNA testing. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 596 people across the United States have been exonerated with the help of DNA since 1989. These exonerations underscore the critical importance of ensuring access to scientific testing when technology advances.