Crowd begins to gather in Jonesboro awaiting hearing on West Memphis 3 » The Commercial Appeal: By many accounts, including statements by relatives of some of the three young victims, the court appearance could result in the release of the Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin – dubbed the West Memphis Three -- jailed since their 1994 convictions in the deaths of the three young boys.
The bodies of Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch were found May 6, 1993 in a rain-soaked West Memphis ditch. They had been beaten and drowned in what authorities at the time characterized as a satanic ritual.
