Tag Archive for: damien echols

Paradise Lost

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One reader was kind enough to share with me that Paradise Lost was on YouTube (Thanks, Angel). It’s in 15 segments that are 10 minutes long each. Thanks to all the people who shared links with me. I was fortunate enough, yesterday, to have the time to watch all but one segment of the documentary (segment 7 wouldn’t load for me, so I skipped it), and it is an excellent documentary.

Read moreIf the footage shown in the documentary is in actual sequence of events–that is, the footage of the boys talking in the videos were recorded prior to or during trial, I believe what these boys are saying in the segments shown in the documentary is truthful. That is all I can say. If, however, I find out differently, that any of the footage comes from after the trial, I retract this statement.

I was troubled by two things I saw in the while watching the trial. I was troubled by Mark Byers’ testimony about the knife that he gave to the HBO crew while they were shooting the documentary. The crew found what they thought was flesh and blood in the crevice of the knife, and so they gave it to police.

Police sent Byers’ gift knife to HBO to the crime lab, and the DNA matched both Byers and his son, Chris. With that, the defense team decided to put Byers on the sand. Byers, however, couldn’t remember a lot of things on the stand. When he was asked tough questions about the DNA on the knife, only then does he conveniently remember he cut his thumb out of the blue, when minutes before he didn’t. It was alarming, yet it is later discussed that he had a brain tumor. This may or may not explain his erratic behavior, but it needs to be taken into account.

Also, at the end of the documentary, I was really taken back at the footage that is shown of Byers after the verdict was read. They show him in utter surprise when hearing the verdict. Why on earth would he be surprised?

Everyone else in the courtroom seemed to feel the convictions were coming, or they were overwhelmed with grief. Yet in a strange twist, he was utterly shocked! So much so, you couldn’t miss it. It makes you wonder, does he know something that no one else knew? Even Damien and Jason felt like they had lost the case before the verdict. That’s what so surprises me about Byers’ behavior. Why on earth the shock? It’s very perplexing to me.

Clearly, this case is a travesty of justice, and needs new hands and fresh eyes. Where was Byers that night? Does he have a credible alibi? How about Terry Hobbs? Does he have a credible alibi? And last, who was that guy at the fast food restaurant that was all bloody? We need many more answers, I think, before we will know the truth.

48 Hours: A Cry for Innocence, My Thoughts

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I watched this 48 Hours episode with great anticipation, because while I heard of the case, I hadn’t seen testimony of the key players to form an opinion. I also didn’t know all the details of the case.

Read moreUnfortunately, I have bad news for all of you who are looking for my thoughts. The short segment of Damien on the stand wasn’t sufficient for me to make any determinations. Damien was asked if he took part in a satanic killing, or something to that effect, to which he said no. That question was not reliable–a killer could honestly answer “no” even if he did kill, but not satanically.

Worse, all the interview segments of Damien in the present, while they are suggestive that he is honest, has little value to me. Essentially, if he is guilty, which I have no opinion on at this time, the stakes of the lie are gone, because he is paying the ultimate price already. So hence if he continues to lie, there is no stress in doing so anymore. There are actually only benefits, which causes little to no clues to leak.

Please hear me: I am not saying I believe Damien is guilty or innocent from what I have seen on this 48 Hours episode. Clearly, the evidence is supportive that he is, and I am very happy to see 48 Hours bring out this case to the public. I think there is sufficient doubt that this case needs to be looked at again. I just personally want to see the suspects talk at key times, when the stakes of the crimes were still high.

High stakes in a lie are the pressure points that burst the tomato, so-to-speak. They are so important. They are critical in most cases. It brings me back to a memory I have. I once watched a person on the stand defend their murderous behavior. Their lies leaks like a sieve. There was no doubt of their involvement. However, when this person was interviewed from prison a fair amount of time later after being convicted, if I didn’t pay attention to the facts that the high stakes were gone, I would have absolutely believe them! It was earth-shattering for me, and it demonstrated without a shadow of a doubt that high stakes are essential in deception detection. It’s a chilling reality for me, and it should be a caution to everyone who attempts to decipher deception.

Without high stakes in action, it a big road block in trying to help free the wrongly convicted. With that, we are left to go back and look at footage before or during the trial only. If no footage exists, it’s horrifying, but thankfully, with Damien footage exists.

Damien could very well be innocent. I need to get my hands on the movie “Paradise Lost”, and see if there is sufficient footage of him talking about the crime on the stand. I need to see footage before or during the trial, where I know the time of when things were recorded. Can you help me get this? Would someone donate a copy to me? Can it be downloaded online somewhere?

I know many of you are going to ask me about Terry Hobbs as well, and he is in a similar situation. The fact that his DNA is on the ligature is definitely noteworthy. It’s captures my attention, and needs to be considered –100%. But his interview is not of great value for me, either. If we speculate (pure speculation) that he is the murderer, he has had more than 16 years to gain the confidence he has gotten away with this. With that, he may feel that the stakes of his lie aren’t nearly as high, because if they had evidence, they would have hung him already, but they obviously don’t. Plus, there is currently someone else charged with the murder, and they can’t charge two people. This takes the high stakes of his lie and drops them off dramatically. So with Terry Hobbs, I also need to see footage of him back then, and taking about the key elements of this case, which may or may not exist. If Hobbs was facing a jury now, that might change things, but he isn’t, at this time.

This is precisely why I don’t review old cases. Time has an affect on all of us. We feel less guilt and remorse after decades of time. Our emotions fade, and so do the high stakes. The stakes of an old actions are not nearly as high as they once were, and we must be very cautious of this when we look for the truth. Old cases must be approached from a very different standpoint that current ones.