West of Memphis Page #15

told me that my uncle's the one"

who murdered those three kids and

it's been, you know, on my mind all day.

"It's been just running

through my head."

And I was just in shock,

I didn't really know what to say.

Then, according to Michael Hobbs Jr.,

the second witness says

that his dad called this, quote,

"the Hobbs' family secret," close quote.

He said, "Only me, my dad, my uncle"

and I think maybe his mom

and someone else in the family

might have knew.

It might have been the other brother.

He called it the Hobbs' family secret,

and he said:

"If they knew I told you,

I would be in deep crap."

B RAGA:
There was one third

friend that they thought

might also have some information.

What this third witness told me:

"Michael Hobbs Jr. And I and a third

friend were playing pool in the basement."

During the game,

the third friend said something

"about the West Memphis Three case."

Then this young man,

the third witness, asked:

"What's the

West Memphis Three case?"

Might be the only teenager

in Arkansas

who didn't know what

the West Memphis Three case was.

He asked that question

and Michael Hobbs Jr.

Responded to him by saying, quote:

"My uncle killed three kids

in West Memphis," close quote.

And according to this third witness,

Michael Hobbs Jr.

Was dead serious when he said this.

He was not fooling around.

In addition to getting them to sign the

declarations under penalty of perjury,

they all took polygraph examinations.

The polygraph examiner concluded

that these three young men

were absolutely telling the truth about

what they heard Michael Hobbs Jr. Say.

I don't even think Michael knows

why he did it.

I just... You know, he knows

it happened, he knows he did it.

And it was his dad...

His dad is... Probably would know,

you know, why he did it.

We don't have any power

as defense attorneys

to call Michael Hobbs Sr. Into my office

and to ask him to tell me

whether he called this the

Hobbs' family secret and why he did.

The prosecutor can issue

a grand jury subpoena

and ask Michael Hobbs Sr.

In the grand jury

where he's under penalty of perjury

if he lies, "Did you say this?"

Why'd you say it?

What did you mean?"

And I think

that's the kind of information

that only the prosecutor can get

that could really crack this wide open.

TERRY:
I don't give a

sh*t what happened 17 years ago.

I know what didn't happen.

Me and you didn't do nothing wrong.

So f*** them motherfuckers.

CINDY:
We're proud people. We don't

have no reason to tuck our head.

You hit a bump in the road, you wasn't

expecting a speed bump being there,

but you pick yourself up on other side

of that speed bump

and go, "Damn, I didn't see

that one coming," and keep on going.

Pam's a speed bump.

I'll put her that way.

Was Terry capable? Did Terry do it?

Did I stay with a man

that possibly murdered my child?

And it does raise a lot of questions.

The court rejected every single thing

that the state argued.

Basically saying Burnett was wrong in

not allowing a hearing based on the DNA.

One, by one, by one.

Just no, no, no. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Finally the Supreme Court

has ruled in our favor.

Uh, we could not be more excited.

It was unanimous.

This is huge for Arkansas.

The Supreme Court is...

Has ruled in our favor.

The State Supreme Court

is on our side.

Finally. We won. We won.

REPORTER:
The mother of Stevie Branch,

one of the three 8-year-olds killed

in that murder,

joins us now on the phone.

What is your reaction to the ruling

by the Arkansas Supreme Court

that the killers

can have a new hearing?

PAM:
My reaction to it is,

now with the DNA evidence and things

that doesn't point

to the three men convicted,

that lets me know for sure

they didn't lay a hand on my son.

DAMIEN:
They keep constantly

pushing the date of the hearing back.

First they told us

it was gonna be in June.

Then they told us

it was gonna be in October.

Now they've pushed it

all the way back to December.

The wake of the victory was probably

the most difficult

and frustrating time for Lorri of all.

LORRI:
"Dearest Lorri, you never, ever

need to apologize for how you are feeling."

I totally understand what you said,

and why you said it,

and I'm glad you felt

you could say it to me.

This situation is so very hard.

You and Damien

have been treading water for years

and the shore never seems

to get any closer.

"It's no wonder you feel like giving up."

After years and years of filing

and hear... You know, this and that

and never-ending bureaucracy,

it keeps going back and forth.

RIORDAN:
To go 16 or 17 years and finally

have what was a remarkable victory,

and not simply for the three,

but about the whole nature

of DNA testing in Arkansas.

And then say, "Well, when will this

actually lead to Damien being released?"

And the answer being,

you know, who knows?

LORRI:
"it took me a while to understand

what you must have learned long ago."

Nothing, and I mean nothing,

comes easily with this case.

The breakthroughs are small

and the obstacles never seem

to decrease in size.

Any small piece of progress

is clawed from unforgiving rock.

All we can do is keep going.

If we keep on pounding on the wall,

it will break, because it must break.

All things eventually break.

I would love to see photos of the 1920s

house in Garton when you have them.

It sounds wonderful.

"Sending much love to you always,

Fran."

You're so worn down,

you know, you might get something

like say a common cold,

and the next thing you know, you're

laying in bed sick for next six months.

Damien, you know, he's struggling

because of the health issues

he's facing in prison,

just not having adequate nutrition,

not being able to go into the sunlight.

You know, lack of vitamin D.

His eyesight is starting to dim.

DAMIEN:
Everything in your

body is just hurting and shut down.

LORRI:
Mm-hm. It made me

wanna be nicer to you.

It did!

Sometimes it appears to me that

the attitude of the players involved

in this case are:

"Let's sweep this under the rug,

let's hope it goes away."

No one wants to admit

they made a mistake.

What about the lawsuits

that are gonna follow?

And who cares about that issue?

Let's just do the right thing,

it's simple to do the right thing.

BRAGA:
Something we had always planned on

doing was to try to get the state to agree:

"Let's just go right to the new trial,

because, of course,."

Damien and Jason and Jessie

are sitting in the cooler

"each time there's a delay.

Let's get to it."

JACKSON:
So the defense decided

to approach the state and say:

"Hey, let's skip the evidentiary hearing

and just go straight to a new trial."

BRAGA:
Two weeks ago yesterday, we

sent Patrick Benca, our local counsel,

in to have a lunch meeting with

Dustin McDaniel, the attorney general.

BENCA:
I've known Dustin from law school

and I knew he'd be approachable about it.

I wasn't sure whether he would

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