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Arkansas Supreme Court Decision Allows New DNA Testing in Case of the ​“West Memphis Three,” Convicted of Killing Three Children in 1993

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On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court decided 4-3 to reverse a 2022 lower court decision and allow genetic testing of crime scene evidence from the 1993 killing of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis. The three men convicted in 1994 for the killings were released in 2011 after taking an Alford plea, in which they maintained their innocence but plead guilty to the crime, in exchange for 18 years’ time served and 10 years of a suspended sentence. 

Why the guillotine was the first “egalitarian” execution tool

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Most of us know the basics of the guillotine - it's a French contraption suitable for killing royalty and any pesky roving Highlanders. But while we associate the old chopper with taking care of princes of the universe, its real purpose was egalitarianism. Or, at least, that was its stated purpose. Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin was sickened by the spectacle of public execution and wanted to abolish it completely. In the late 1700s, this was unthinkable. After some strategizing, Guillotin got an angle on it. There was a reason why the rich paid a purse to executioners. They wanted to ensure that their deaths were quick and painless. The poor didn't have that luxury. They often didn't even have the luxury or the power to bribe their way into deaths that might be made painless. Slow hanging, draw-and-quartering, and burning weren't unusual. The rich, on the other hand, got themselves such sweet deals that some nobility demanded that they be hanged with a silk rope, as a sign of status.

In the 1790s, after the resentment of the privileges of the rich and titled had boiled over, Guillotin and his supporters made the point that "The Machine" meant a humane, painless death for rich and poor. They figured that taking away the spectacle was the first step towards abolishing the death penalty altogether. They were, to put it mildly, wrong. A civilian assembly granted the quick, painless death to everyone, but the sheer scale of the executions made them a spectator sport. The man who wanted to abolish the death penalty saw his name forever associated with a machine designed for execution.


Source: io9.com, August 9, 2012

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On October 9, 2011, France celebrated the 30th anniversary of the enactment by President François Mitterrand of the law abolishing the death penalty. Thanks to the abolitionists of the time, chief among them Justice Minister Robert Badinter, France became the 35th country to abolish capital punishment. Today, France's voice continues to be heard, through advocacy groups such as Ensemble Contre La Peine de Mort (Together Against the Death Penalty - ECPM), to achieve one day universal abolition. http://www.abolition.fr
Location: France
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