Lawyers, group reconcile WM3 funds

Lawyers, group reconcile WM3 funds

West Memphis Evening Times

By TRIP COOK
trip.cook@gmail.com

January 25, 2008

After accusations of unequal funding for the "West Memphis Three," lawyers for the three men convicted for the murders of three West Memphis boys announced Wednesday that future contributions to the defense fund would be used to "meet the needs of all our clients... "

The announcement followed the formation of the West Memphis Three Innocence Project, a non-profit organization formed to address a "lack of openness and fairness in fund distribution" in the defense fund, according to the group's website.

But Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, two of the three men convicted for the murder of three West Memphis boys, released statements saying they would not accept funds from the new group.

Echols, whose wife Lorri Davis helps run the legal defense fund for the three men, wrote that the new group's founders were attempting to "further their own agendas by making use of my name, pain and misfortune as well as that of Jason and Jessie."

"At a time when I should be preparing for the upcoming fight against the charges made a against me, I am having to deal with the actions and accusations made by this WM3IP group," Echols wrote in a message to the group. "I do not think the word 'supporter' can be applied to any involved with the WM3IP website."

The WM3IP group includes Mara Leveritt, author of the book "Devil's Knot," which detailed the murders.

Also on the board are Arkansas filmmaker Kelly Duda, University of Central Arkansas teacher Lanette Grate and Amanda Lamb, a founding member of ARWAR, an Arkansas-based group fighting injustice in the courts.

Duda, the group's president, wrote Thursday that if arrangements were made to make fundraising with the defense fund more "open and verifiable," the WM3IP group would focus on supporting and cooperating with the original group.

But if one or more of the three men does not receive equal access to the defense funds, the group will resume a mission to "ensure openness and fairness... " Duda wrote.

"In that what is done, not what is said, remains the 'bottom line,' we look forward to seeing the changes that the lawyers are promising implemented soon," he wrote.

Freedom fund squabble grows

West Memphis 3 reject defense project's help

By Marc Perrusquia (Contact)
Friday, January 25, 2008

It's been a rough first month for a nonprofit organization that aims to raise defense funds for the West Memphis Three.

First, the West Memphis 3 Innocence Project Inc. learned the convicted killers it wants to help won't accept their money. 

Then, the organization encountered a legal obstacle -- a cease and desist letter from the New York-based Innocence Project, which claims its name has been illegally used.

"These individuals are not connected or affiliated with me or my case in any way, and I will not be accepting anything from them," death row inmate Damien Echols said in an e-mail circulated this week to friends and supporters.

Echols, 33, is one of three convicted in the 1993 slayings of three 8-year-old boys found nude and hogtied in a drainage ditch.

The West Memphis Three have gained celebrity status among Hollywood actors, musicians and others who believe they were wrongly convicted.

Supporters raised hundreds of thousands of dollars before a splinter group calling themselves the West Memphis 3 Innocence Project formed a rival fund-raising organization.

Leaders of the new organization contend funds haven't been shared equally among all defendants and say the chief fund-raiser -- Echols' wife -- hasn't given any public accounting of the money.

The assertions stirred fiery responses from Echols and co-defendant Jason Baldwin, who's serving a life sentence, and have triggered a legal warning from the Innocence Project in New York.

"This is an unauthorized and illegal use of the Innocence Project's name," Innocence Project spokesman Eric Ferrero said Thursday.

Founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld to exonerate wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing, the Innocence Project has a national network of some 40 local organizations that legally use its name, but the Arkansas organization isn't one of them.

Ferrero said the Innocence Project has sent a cease and desist letter to the new group advising it to change its name or face legal action. There has been no response, Ferrero said.

West Memphis Three Innocence Project president Kelly Duda said he hasn't received the letter. Duda said he was "cautiously optimistic" that handling and accounting of funds controlled by Echols' wife, Lorri Davis, can be improved.

Duda's group took another blow this week when attorneys for all three defendants issued a statement supporting Davis.

"We have complete confidence that Lorri Davis and others who have organized past fund-raising efforts have done so with integrity and with the aim of seeing justice done," said the statement from lawyers Michael Burt, Dennis Riordan, Donald Horgan and John Philipsborn.

Echols was less diplomatic in his e-mail from prison: "By making false accusations against my loved ones, my friends and the supporters who have gone out of their way to help me for many, many years the operators of the wm3ip website have caused me tremendous grief."

-- Marc Perrusquia: 529-2545

From the Board of the WM3IP, Inc.

24 January 2008
The letter from the WM3 attorneys thanking everyone for their support and assuring supporters that “arrangements are being made to ensure that future contributions will be used to meet the needs of all our clients as they prepare for further legal proceedings” has made a very positive impact on the cause of the WM3. This message has been the central theme of our organization and we vigorously support the lawyers in this regard.

We appreciate the thanks offered by the lawyers for everyone’s efforts, both past and present, to support the West Memphis Three and are buoyed by John Phillipsborn’s pointed comment to the AP that:  “The process has been improved for all concerned.”

Also, we acknowledge the hard work of Lorri Davis and the wm3.org in the past. We can only wonder why Ms Davis, or the publicist Alice Leeds, would attack us for trying to shed light on a situation that obviously needed to be addressed. The notion that we would be perceived as a threat to Ms. Davis, wm3.org, or the cause of freedom for the men in prison is beyond logic given the clearly stated founding principles of the WM3IP, Inc.

We look forward to assisting the lawyers for these young men in any way possible and are cautiously optimistic that in the days ahead we will see a convergence of efforts on everyone’s behalf. We claim no exclusive right to assist these innocent young men, and are concerned that anyone would want to be the “official site” for the West Memphis Three.  Supporting the men in prison as they struggle for their freedom is a multi-dimensional task that will continue to require the efforts of many.

If the lawyers for all three young men are indeed making the arrangements mentioned in their letter and these changes are open and verifiable, we will shift our main focus to the other endeavors as set forth in our clearly defined Mission Statement; including supporting and cooperating with the wm3.org site to achieve our mutual goal of freeing Jason, Damien, and Jessie.  In furtherance of our Mission Statement and in accordance with all laws pertaining to tax-exempt organizations, we will continue to function as a vehicle to raise and disburse funds on behalf of all supporters with the continued understanding that we have no agenda or self-interests other than insuring justice for the West Memphis Three and others similarly situated.

In that what is done not what is said remains the "bottom line" we look forward to seeing the changes that the lawyers are promising implemented soon. Going forward, we intend to support them and this cause in any way deemed appropriate; yet if there is any dissension in the ranks of the lawyers, which we now do not expect, or any indication that one or more of the three young men is not receiving equal access to all defense funds then we will resume our mission to ensure openness and fairness despite any renewed personal attacks on us or our stated goals.

Please join us in congratulating all supporters everywhere who have worked in the past and will continue to work to gain the freedom of The West Memphis Three - Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Jessie Misskelley - for crimes that they did not commit.

Thank you,

Kelly Duda, President
And the board of directors of the WM3IP, Inc.

Lawyers: Funding agreement reached in West Memphis slaying case

By JON GAMBRELL
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 10:45 PM CST


LITTLE ROCK - Lawyers representing the men convicted in the 1993 slayings of three boys in West Memphis said Wednesday they had reached an agreement on how donations should be funneled to their defense.

The announcement comes after another group was formed to raise money for the three men, who sympathizers refer to as the "West Memphis Three."

In a letter to supporters, the lawyers wrote that "all have benefited" from recent DNA testing done for an appeal on behalf of death-row inmate Damien Echols. A fund accepting donations from a supporters' Web site for the three covered costs of the tests, which ran "more than a hundred thousand dollars."

"We can assure supporters that arrangements are being made to ensure that future contributions will be used to meet the needs of all our clients as they prepare for further legal proceedings in state court," the letter read.

Echols, now 33, was sentenced to death for the slayings of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. Jason Baldwin, 30, received a life sentence without parole, while Jessie Misskelley, 32, received a life-plus-40-year sentence for the killings.

The three victims disappeared May 5, 1993, while riding bicycles in their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood. The bodies of the three Cub Scouts were found the next day in a watery ditch near their homes.

John Philipsborn, a longtime attorney for Baldwin, previously said he hadn't seen any of the recent large donations that have come into the trust and legal defense fund in Echols' name, which is controlled by his wife Lorri Davis. Wednesday, Philipsborn said lawyers had held "several days of productive discussions" about the funding before issuing the letter.

"The process has been improved for all concerned," he said.

Dennis Riordan, an attorney for Echols, declined to elaborate.

Other supporters recently launched a group called The West Memphis Three Innocence Project, aiming to create a nonprofit group to equally fund defense efforts for all three men. Statements attributed to Baldwin and Echols on a Web site about the case said the men wouldn't accept any funds from the new group.

"We're tentatively optimistic about the possibility of changes being made, and hope that a resolution can occur quickly," Kelly Duda, a member of a group that organized the new project, said Wednesday after the announcement by the lawyers.

On the Net:

Supporters' Web site with Echols' fund: http://www.wm3.org

The West Memphis 3 Innocence Project: http://www.wm3innocenceproject.com

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

From the WM3 Attorneys

23 January 2008
OPEN LETTER TO SUPPORTERS OF THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE

As the lawyers who represent Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley in their respective state and federal court challenges to their 1994 murder convictions, we feel it necessary to reply to questions that have been publicly raised recently about whether conflicts have arisen between the three defense teams.

Each of us is ethically obligated to vigorously promote the legal interests of our individual clients. Nonetheless, despite the fact that the cases of our clients are in different procedural postures, we have worked cooperatively whenever legally possible because the ultimate interests of Jason, Jessie, and Damien are the same.

All three are accused of jointly committing crimes of which all three are innocent. Evidence that exculpates one therefore exculpates all. That is plainly true of the critically important DNA testing that has been conducted on behalf of our clients in recent years. Our clients obtained the court order authorizing that testing only by pledging to underwrite its cost which, given its extensive scope, has run into more than a hundred thousand dollars.

The defense has had to pay those fees thus far because the State of Arkansas has no mechanism to fund such testing, which all parties in this case agreed had to be conducted by an out of state accredited laboratory. Only the generous donations of supporters enabled the defense teams, and the State, to conduct that testing, which is on going.

Counsel for all of our clients have participated in obtaining judicial determinations as to which evidentiary items would be subjected to testing. All have benefitted from the discovery that while DNA evidence of potential suspects has been recovered from the crime scene, none of that DNA came from Baldwin, Misskelley and Echols. All of us have assisted in the development of the recent findings by the nation's leading forensic pathologists that the victims suffered pastmortem animal predation. Those findings have devastated the state's theory that the victims suffered ritualistic satanic injuries, a theory that the state employed at the trials of all three defendants.

We have the greatest thanks for all who in the past have financially assisted the legal efforts to free Jessie, Jason, and Damien. Much work remains to be done. We have complete confidence that Lorri Davis and others who have organized past fund raising efforts have done so with integrity and with the aim of seeing justice done, and we can assure supporters that arrangements are being made to ensure that future contributions will be used to meet the needs of all our clients as they prepare for further legal proceedings in state court.

Dennis P. Riordan
Donald M. Hogan
Counsel for Damien Echols

John Phillipsborn
Blake Hendrix
Counsel for Jason Baldwin

Michael Burt
Jeff Rosenzweig
Counsel for Jessie Misskelley

Attorney: Fund for 1993 slaying suspects not going equally to all

By JON GAMBRELL
Thursday, January 17, 2008 6:45 PM CST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Supporters of the three teens convicted in the brutal 1993 slayings of three West Memphis boy say they've raised more than $1 million for their court appeals from rock star donors and the Internet-savvy.

But a longtime attorney for Jason Baldwin says he and those defending Jessie Misskelley haven't seen any of the recent large donations that have come into the trust and legal defense funds of death-row inmate Damien Echols. Meanwhile, other supporters of the men known to sympathizers as the "West Memphis Three" are setting up a nonprofit corporation to funnel donations equally to the three.

"What we're talking about here is simple and uncontroversial _ it's about accountability and it's about transparency," said Kelly Duda of a new group called The West Memphis Three Innocence Project. "This is about making sure there are sufficient funds to support all three men, not just one."

John Philipsborn, a San Francisco lawyer for Baldwin, said he took the case after rock band Pearl Jam and punk rocker Henry Rollins raised money for DNA testing of evidence from the killings. That money, which Philipsborn described as entering the "tens of thousands" of dollars, came six years ago along with a small lump sum for the attorneys on the case.

Since then, Philipsborn said he and attorneys representing Misskelley haven't seen matching funding, though an Internet site about the case asks supporters to donate to the "Damien Echols Trust Fund."


"If a million dollars has been raised, I know nothing about that," Philipsborn told The Associated Press from Honolulu. "I think it is fair to say after the amazing generosity of Pearl Jam and Henry Rollins, the non-Echols teams have not seen a lot of funding."

Dennis Riordan, a San Francisco lawyer representing Echols, said he had canceled checks sent to Philipsborn's law firm for more than $10,000 in 2005 and 2006. Philipsborn said the money was used to pay investigators working on the case. Riordan said much of the money raised went to forensic testing and experts used during Echols' recent appeal in federal court.

"There is none of that testing and the result of it that favors any defendant more or less than any other defendant," Riordan said.

Riordan said Echols' wife Lorri Davis signs the checks that come out of the bank account for donations. Davis did not return calls for comment Thursday.

Echols, now 33, was sentenced to death for the slayings of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. Baldwin, 30, received a life sentence without parole, while Misskelley, 32, received a life-plus-40-year sentence for the killings.

The three victims disappeared May 5, 1993, while riding bicycles in their quiet, tree-lined neighborhood. The bodies of the three Cub Scouts were found the next day in a watery ditch near their homes.

Police arrested the three teenagers after a confession by Misskelley in which he described how he watched Baldwin and Echols sexually assault and beat two of the boys. Misskelley said he ran down another boy trying to escape. Prosecutors say the killings stemmed from the teens' participation in a satanic cult.

The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the convictions, but a later documentary about the case sparked interest across the Internet, as well as among celebrities. Last month, about 150 supporters of the men, including Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines, rallied on the steps of the state Capitol.

Echols' appeal claims that evidence from the crime scene that could be tested for DNA showed no sign of the three convicted in the killings. The appeal also includes testimony from forensic experts saying the genital mutilation that one victim suffered came from animals rather than a knife blade. However, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Wednesday that none of the new evidence exonerated the three.

The West Memphis 3 Innocence Project filed with the Secretary of State's office last month as a nonprofit corporation. The group says it will file to become a federally recognized nonprofit in the coming days and post its application on its Web site.

While Echols faces execution, Duda said it makes no sense to pour money only into his legal defense.

"Each man has his separate issues on appeal that he has to face and will have to successfully overcome to walk out of prison," Duda said. "And they walk out of prison through different doors."

On the Net:

Supporters' Web site with Echols' fund: http://www.wm3.org

The West Memphis 3 Innocence Project: http://www.wm3innocenceproject.com

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

Money at Root of Effort to Free WM3

Supporters of W. Memphis trio feud over funds for defendants
By Marc Perrusquia

Thursday, January 17, 2008

As the West Memphis Three brace for hearings they hope will secure their release from prison this spring, supporters who have long proclaimed their innocence are locked in a distracting feud.

The division focuses on money -- more than $1 million -- raised to pay for new DNA testing of evidence linked to the 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys.

Those tests have raised questions about the case and have given new life to claims by convicted killers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley that they've been wrongfully imprisoned the past 15 years.

Nonetheless, a splinter group of West Memphis Three supporters has launched a rival fund-raising organization, saying it is fed up with the handling of a legal defense fund that's attracted large donations from wealthy Hollywood actors and musicians along with smaller gifts from citizens across the country.

Leaders of the new organization contend there's been no accounting of defense funds raised so far and that the money hasn't been evenly split among the three defendants.

"How much money has been raised in the name of the West Memphis Three? ... How much of that money is being devoted to the defense of all three of them?'' reads an Internet Web site launched this week by the just-founded West Memphis 3 Innocence Project Inc.

Founded with assistance from one of the original defense lawyers on the case and an author who wrote a book about the murders, the nonprofit organization also aims criticism at Echols' wife, Lorri Davis.

A New York landscape architect, Davis, 44, married Echols, 33, eight years ago after learning of the case and corresponding with him by letters sent to Arkansas' death row. She has emerged as a leading advocate for the West Memphis Three and has become the defendant's primary fund-raiser.

"Isn't it a clear conflict of interest for a spouse of one of the WM3 to have what appears to be ultimate control over funding that is intended for all three young men?'' asks the new Web site that seeks donations of its own on behalf of the three defendants.

West Memphis 3 Innocence Project president Kelly Duda said he likes Davis and applauds her efforts but said she's given no public accounting of her fund-raising efforts. Among concerns, Duda said when he and associates contributed money, they didn't receive receipts.

"People have been asking these questions for a long time. The house of cards is crumbling,'' Duda, a Little Rock filmmaker, said Wednesday. "Donors have a right to know where their money is going and how it's being spent. That's not happening.''

Davis declined to discuss details of the fund she controls but said she's received no complaints from defense lawyers representing the three.

"They are all happy with the way the money is being spent,'' Davis said. Indeed, Echols' San Francisco lawyer, Dennis Riordan, said he had no misgivings about Davis' fund-raising.

"It's all accounted for,'' Riordon said. Suggestions to the contrary by the new organization are "absolutely false,'' he said.

Davis' New York publicist, Alice Leeds, dismissed the new group's assertions, saying her client's devotion to the case has left her with a mound of bills. "Right now, she's about $40,000 in debt,'' Leeds said.

Leeds also questioned the motives of two people affiliated with the new organization -- board member Mara Leveritt, who wrote a book, "Devil's Knot," about the West Memphis murders; and Paragould, Ark., lawyer Dan Stidham, Misskelley's original attorney. Stidham consulted with the new organization before becoming a full-time judge this month and has often been paid expenses for speaking to groups about the case.

"These individuals have been making their names and money ... by using this case for years,'' Leeds said. "It is about self-interest.''

-- Marc Perrusquia: 529-2545

© 2008 Scripps Newspaper Group — Online

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