Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Page #4
it be nice if I knew who done it?
That way I could buy
my dad a truck.
'Cause at the time, I think,
the reward was like $30,000.
I said yes, I could use that- You
know, that money- The reward money,
But I- You know,
But I didn't know
who done it, though.
Younger Gitchell: our intentions for
wanting to talk to Jessie Miskelly
Were for the purpose
of giving us some names
Of individuals that
he may know firsthand of
Or ever heard of
who were involved
In the cult activity
or Satanism.
In the course of
What was a very long day
of interviewing,
Jessie Miskelly
goes from being
A source
of information
To being a suspect
who has,
According to the tape-Recorded
statements,
Confessed to involvement
in this crime.
Ladies and gentlemen
of the jury,
This statement that
Mr. Miskelly gave
To the west Memphis
police department
Is a false story.
Dan Stidham:
no one in 1993 understood
The phenomenon
of false confessions.
We now know we're not
gonna let the police
Take a kid
off the street,
Interrogate him
for 12 hours,
And yet only have
41 minutes of audiotape
To support this
so-Called confession.
Jessie:
well, in a year from now,
Hopefully I can be out
and be with my family.
I'll hopefully be
married to Susie.
Hopefully Ill have
a kid.
You know,
I love kids a lot.
I think
Ill have some.
Younger Dan Stidham:
Jessie is mildly retarded.
It's much easier
To get a confession
out of someone
Who is 17
and operating
At maybe a five-
Or six-Year-Old level
Of intellectual
functioning
Than it is someone
who graduated from Harvard.
The police, you know-
They questioned me
For, like,
11 or 12 hours.
And finally I just got
tired, you know?
My mind was,
you know,
Draining me out.
You know what Im saying?
I couldn't- I couldn't
focus no more.
My body was draining.
I wanted to go home
and be with my dad.
You can tell
the difference
Between a real,
bona fide,
Valuable confession
and a false confession
By looking at
How well do the things
Stack up with the objective
facts of the crime?
And what Jessie Miskelly
talked about
Doesn't stack up to
what the evidence shows.
Don Horgan:
with, you know, persistentpolice follow-Up questioning,
He keeps moving the time of the
offenses later and later in the day
Until finally,
with leading questions,
The police get them-
Get Jessie to place
the time of the crimes
After the time
the kids disappeared.
Jessie:
it was my voice that you heard.I was saying what the
police wanted me to say.
Everything that I said
really came from the police
Like, "well,
you told me earlier
Something about this
and this and that. "
That's when I said,
"okay. "
That's when I repeated
what they said.
A lot of good cops
To try to get
an answer to
Who's responsible
for a terrible crime.
So, certainly, you know,
pushing hard-
There's nothing wrong
with pushing hard.
It's having your end
in mind so fixed
And you're so determined to
ensure that a particular person
Be held responsible
for a crime,
That you
lose sight of-
Of, you know, how
coercive your tactics are.
That's where you-
You step over the line.
overreached with Jessie Miskelly.
The presence
of false confessions
And how frequently
they play a key role
In securing convictions
for the prosecution-
It's been very
well-Documented now.
And that's what happened
in this case.
And it continues to happen all over the
country, and it's gone on for decades.
But it's only now
that people are beginning
To really, you know, understand
the scope of that problem.
I said what the police
wanted me to say.
That's the reason
why I said that.
Was it true?
No, it was not true.
Did I run anybody down?
No, I did not.
I didn't kill nobody.
I have nothing to hide.
I have nothing
to be ashamed of.
All right, your verdicts
are in good form
And read as follows:
"We the jury, having found
Guilty of first-Degree murder
in the death of Michael Moore,
Fix his sentence
at a term of life
In the Arkansas
department of corrections.
Count two - We the jury, having found
Jessie Lloyd Miskelly
Guilty of second-Degree murder
in the death of Steven Branch,
Fix his sentence
at a term of 20 years
In the Arkansas
department of corrections.
Count three - We the jury, having found
Guilty of second-Degree murder
in the death of Christopher byers,
Fix his sentence
at a term of 20 years
In the Arkansas
department of corrections. "
Is this your unanimous
verdict, ladies and gentlemen?
- Yes.
- All right,
You will receive a life
sentence plus 40 years.
And that will be
the judgment of the court.
Prison's not
a safe place,
Jessie, sweetie.
I'm gonna mail him
a skirt.
One down, two to go.
Hopefully the same thing
will happen to the next two
And we'll get
the same verdict.
All right, gentlemen, if you'd
have your clients stand, please.
Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Echols,
if you'd stand.
In your case,
Mr. Baldwin,
You'll be
adjudicated guilty
Of three counts
of capital murder.
You'll be sentenced
To the Arkansas
department of corrections
To a term of life without
possibility of parole
On each
of the three counts.
Damien Echols shall be sentenced
You'll be administered
a continuous intravenous
Injection of
a lethal quantity
Of an ultra short-Acting
barbiturate
In combination with a
chemical paralytic agent
- Into your body until you are dead.
It's my obligation
to let you know
You do have
a right to appeal,
And you need to consider
that with your attorneys.
He'll be in your custody,
Mr. Sheriff,
For immediate transportation
to the department of corrections
To carry out the orders
of this court.
Male reporter:
questions aboutwhether justice was served
Has loomed in this case
since the verdicts.
The HBO documentary
"paradise lost"
Gave the case
worldwide attention.
Since the films, thousands are
questioning the convictions.
16 years ago,
I believe,
I saw the documentary
"paradise lost. "
It was on HBO.
I got involved in the case
thinking that
There was maybe some way
I could make a difference.
Is there something
about the way
Damien Echols was
treated as a teenager
That you can
relate to?
I can remember being
kind of looked upon
As a freak or,
you know, different,
Because I didn't dress
like everybody else.
So I can empathize
with being judged
By how you look
as opposed to who you are.
- I'd like to say something,
if you don't mind. - Woman: sure.
I would love to sit down
with some people
That I have heard
make statements,
That are
in the public eye,
And actually talk
to them and say,
"This is what
really happened
That was not shown
on the documentary. "
And I think they'd have a
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"Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/paradise_lost_3:_purgatory_15567>.
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