Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three

Read Untying the Knot: John Mark Byers and the West Memphis Three Storyline:

<p>On May 5, 1993, second-graders Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore disappeared from their West Memphis, Arkansas, homes. The following afternoon, their nude, beaten, and bound bodies were discovered in a drainage ditch less than a mile away.</p><p>After a troublesome confession, three local teenagers, later dubbed the “West Memphis Three,” were arrested, tried, and convicted in early 1994. Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley received life sentences, while ringleader Damien Echols went to death row. Three years later, the documentary film “Paradise Lost” premiered on HBO, and the effect on viewers was dramatic. Many became skeptical of the verdicts and also felt one of the fathers of the victims was a better suspect—John Mark Byers. </p>