Episode 6 - Arkansas v. Damien Echols - DNA Propaganda Exposed

Based in Fact

In Episode 6, Kyle and Lisa talk about the May 5, 1993 murders of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore, in West Memphis, Arkansas. Their bodies were found bound and naked in a ditch in an area known to locals as “Robin Hood Hills,” a patch of woods bordering the boys’ subdivision. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. were arrested in June, 1993 and convicted after two separate trials in 1994. Beginning in 2002, the three began a 9-year saga of DNA testing that ended with inconclusive results and an Alford plea deal proposed by the killers’ attorneys in July, 2011. In 2017, podcaster Bob Ruff requested additional DNA testing using MVac, a collection method that had been in use in Utah since 2011. Ruff falsely led viewers to believe that the prosecutor was obligated to grant his request for testing, in spite of his lack of agency or authority on behalf of the killers. When Ruff’s efforts proved unsuccessful, Echols’ attorneys stepped in to continue the propaganda campaign. Kyle and I will talk about the request for testing by Echols’ attorneys and the propaganda campaign that continues with Echols’ request for DNA testing made in January, 2022.