Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three

Was a great book. Crazy story.

Having been still in grade school when the original crime occurred, I had never heard of the West Memphis 3 case until August of 2011 when it was announced that the three young men convicted of killing three little boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993 were being set free. I immediately wanted to learn more about the case, and purchased this book, knowing very little about the case and not knowing what to expect.I found this book to be very well written and well researched. I don't know how anyone, after reading this book, could come away not feeling appalled by the conduct of the West Memphis police department, and of the prosecutors and judge trying this case. I can't say that there is absolutely no possible way that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Miskelley Jr. could have been involved in this case in any way, but I can say that there was no way they should have been convicted, Damien even sentenced to the death penalty, based on the evidence provided in this case. The police department grossly mishandled evidence, manipulated witnesses, glossed over inconsistencies, and failed to search for, or pay any heed to, any evidence that anyone other than these three teenagers had been involved in these crimes. The motive that they suggested for the killing was preposterous and almost laughable. Citing that the fact that one of the accused owned 15 black t-shirts as evidence of Satan-worship? Yes, though I believe that she tried to present in case as neutrally as possible, it is clear that Leveritt believes there was not sufficient evidence to convict the three boys. But if Leveritt is slightly biased toward the defense, it pales in comparison to how unabashedly biased Judge David Burnett was toward the prosecution. It is hard to believe that in this day and age, justice can be so severely misrepresented.I found this a quick and interesting read, and I hope that Leveritt will write a follow up to this book, now that new evidence has been brought to light, and that the three defendants have been freed.

This book is a detailed record of how 3 innocent teenagers got sentenced and villified for crimes they did not commit. But its not just about those 3 teenagers. They went to prison (one to death row). The majority of us have fortunately never experienced such a devastating loss of freedom but every one of us is vulnerable.Having spent a great deal of my life working quietly in the legal field plus my own personal experiences, I have been aware for some time of our vulnerability from an abusive and corrupt "justice" system. I've read a lot about The Innocense Project which is about freeing condemned prisoners from prison and death row who don't belong there (and succeeding but not enough). There's a whole lot more to The Innocense Project than what I'm saying here I just don't want to get sidetracked. Just suffice it to say that I recommend everyone look into what that ongoing project is about. One of the principal players is attorney Barry Scheck of OJ Simpson fame/infamy. While I don't admire Mr Scheck for his part in aiding and abetting Simpson who got away with murdering his children's mother and her friend, the work he's doing on the Innocense Project is much needed.Anyway I spent a great deal of the time I was reading this book feeling in various degrees annoyed, angry, alarmed and threatened because I realize that myself and/or loved ones could be in such a situation. This book meticulously documents this travesty of justice and so my reaction is appropriate and my fears well-founded in reality.The book is filled with details about shameful collusions among key officials and officers of the court that made a shambles of JUSTICE while guaraneeing these 3 did not get it. I recommend you read it from the broader viewpoint of what it says about how vulnerable American citizens and residents are to experiencing the same injustice. It should hopefully banish the tendency toward smug complacence that exists among the naive public as a whole. Much of the injustice that was inflicted on 3 innocent teenagers happened because the public and especially the jurors were laboring under the false assumption that we can trust without questions anything we hear from the police and court officials. It is our duty to examine with a critical eye what is presented to us as evidence. It is a sad reality that we need to be skeptical of what we hear in court and also in the media. Our system too often promotes Injustice because those in a position of trust betray it. This book details how a group of people worked in concert to convict 3 teenagers when they knew the evidence was not there to do so. Whatever was lacking by way of evidence they invented by among other things bullying a teenager with a low-functioning IQ into a confession. If he got the details wrong they offered "suggestions" as to what he really meant to say. They wore him down until he gave in and said whatever they wanted him to say. And bear in mind that while 3 teenagers unfairly lost their freedom the real murder(s) were still free and have never been made to answer for the cruel sadistic murder of 3 young boys. That fact didn't seem to bother those who railroaded the conviction of these 3 teens. And the most contemptible figure is the judge whose job it is to prevent such things and instead this one was a willing participant. All of those responsible for these false imprisonments have never been made to answer for what they did which is just as much a crime as the murders. They suggested that "satanic cults" was at the root of what happened and a gullible public and jury fell for it.These officers manufactured evidence. Rather than do the hard work necessary to find the real killer(s) they lied and stole nearly 2 decades of freedom from innocent teenagers. It's disheartening that engineering a death sentence for one of the teens didn't trouble their consciene at all.There's a lot more I should say but for now time constraints make it necessary to end my review here. Certainly my one voice is not going to convince anyone that my allegations are correct but hopefully the collective voices of people who do know the details of our corrupt justice system will convince the open-minded.The simple and alarming truth is that you or I could be the next victim of a corrupt system. None of us is exempt no matter how simple we believe our lives and our actions are. All you have to do is be in the wrong place wrong time and surrounded by crooks and liars masquerading as officers of the court INCLUDING JUDGES. Forget the wise but curmudgeonly judges you've seen on TV where at the end of the show justice prevails. This book delivers a painful but important message. Due diligence and skepticism on the part of each of us is integral in assuring justice is done. We cannot afford to place blind trust into human beings who can be, as this book makes painfully clear are just as evil as the crimes they are supposed to be investigatingThe hypocrisy of the prosecutors and investigators, all the officials right down the line who brought these charges against these 3 teenagers with no evidence except a forced confession is clear but not laughable. Many of them got canned, i.e. fired from their positions for things unrelated to the WM3 teens. Seems some were selling items from the evidence room - more than likely weapons putting more guns on the street, involvement in drugs, etc. Anyway the hypocrisy is that they were all very offended that the HBO Movie about these 6 children, 3 who got murdered and 3 who got falsely charged, according to them was biased and unfair to the prosecution/State. That's remarkable because what they are describing is everything done to the accused by the system including the judge that ws very biased against them. Seems when the shoe is on the other foot they tend to squeal. The judge in this case was disgusting but not surprising - he was in no way qualified to be a judge if you think in terms of King Solomon for example, a very wise man. Nope this guy was a totally LEGAL immoral control freak power hungry jerk that makes a mockery of "justice". Its very annoying that almost without fail anytime one of 'the system' gets caught eventually doing their crooked deeds almost nothing ever happens to them. They are entirely willing to frame innocent people sentencing them to death or life in prison but the utlimate abusers of our system walk away unscathed, no jail time, no fine, lots of times the public never even finds out what scum they are.I'm thinking about the OJ Simpson case, which at the time of this crime had as yet not happened. But I remember the big row about how there was no chain of control of the evidence like the bloody glove inferring it might have been planted by someone like Mark Fuhrman, who was really a convenient scapegoat - and that ultimately helped him get away with murder. Then you have this case where the collection of evidence and documentation thereof was pathetic. One of the bits of 'evidence' used was a knife they managed to dredge up out of a lake THEY SAY - anybody could have thrown the knife there or anybody could have arranged for a diver to "find" this new evidence. And there's the evidence of two clubs that they picked up as evidence months after the crime. They lost blood samples their reports were undocumented. And they were all ultimately responsible for a miscarriage of justice which thank fully has been corrected as much as it can be but the real killer is walking free.The other thing is that in order to gain their freedom they had to plead guilty which after nearly 20 yrs on death row / in prison they did do though it had to be painful to do so. The correct thing to have happened is that the judge would have said them free because of the crummy way evidence was gathered and how they created a fictionaized version of the facts they sold to a frankly rather stupid/naive/gullible citizenry willing to believe whatever they were told. I'm glad they are out but they should have been declared wrongly convicted instead of serving 10 yrs probabtion and the threat of being taken back to prison. The corrupt officers of the court and police knew they had abused their authority but they will never admit it.All that is contained within this book and yet according to at least one other reviewer she was still willing to swallow hook line and sinker the fictional evidence and broadcast it even now as the truth. That's why they will never have complete justice as long as people incapable of critical thinking continue to condemn them. It almost makes me wish those people to suffer the same fate of being falsely charged because sometimes thats the only way (THE HARD WAY) ignorant clueless fools are able to learn anything.

Great narration, easy to listen to, crazy story!

To read Devil's Knot is to come face to face with the reality of our legal system: it's a sporting event. The objective is to win. The winners will tolerate no instant replays to see if their calls were right or wrong. The state "more often than not" wins. And if you're poor, the chances of the state winning are even greater - which is why, when AR authorities went looking for the perpetrators of 3 child murders, they didn't look at the sons of the doctors and lawyers in town. They went to another town, found three poor kids, and proceeded to play the game the state plays so well: Justice. Except, what you find in this book and its incredible detail and research is that the state cheats. It doesn't play by its own rules. The three convicted teens who are now in their mid-twenties after sitting in prison for 10 years, and who are still sitting in prison, are as innocent as the 8 year-olds who were killed. The state proved that a crime occurred but everyone already knew that. Arkansas is going to be embarassed by this book, and well it should be. The police, the lawyers, the judges, and the appellate court justices of the state all signed on to this joke of justice without one dissenting voice among them. And they should be ashamed. The only "occult" figures in this story were the judicial officers spouting their Latin and archaic phrases that oddly all translated into the same thing: WE WIN. YOU LOSE. Devil's Knot reads like the best novel you ever read - the one you can't put down. And the footnotes alone will keep you riveted. I hope Mara Leveritt's book inspires those AR authorities to correct their errors. If it doesn't, all their talk about "getting to the truth" is nothing more than the occasional commercial break from the big game.

Awesome movie . Very informative

Conoscevo già questa storia, il libro è un ottimo saggio.L’edizione in copertina flessibile non è delle migliori e il volume è arrivato già un po’ sgualcito, e anche la carta su cui è stampato non è ottima, ma a parte questo nulla da eccepire

Well written book, a lot of extra notes. It's a tough read, though. One of the best books on the case out there.

Gran libro. Indispensable si quieres saber mas acerca de este acontecimiento. Tambien la pelicula es buena! Totalmente recomendado, la froma en que se lleva la historia es facil.

For those wishing to know all the details about this case, it's a great book. Clear, impartial, clever, complete. Althought all the notes to refer to at the end are a bit too many !