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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. 

Louisiana death row inmates testify to 'indescribable' heat at Angola prison

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Louisiana Death Row
Two inmates from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola testified to what they called “indescribable” heat levels on the death row tiers, during the first day of a federal trial in Baton Rouge on Monday. The suit was filed by three offenders who said preexisting medical conditions put them at a higher risk for heat-related illness and death.

In early July, District Judge Brian A. Jackson ordered temperature data be collected on Angola’s death row for three weeks to determine how hot it really gets on the tiers, which are not air-conditioned. However, during that same time, prison officials took steps to try to lower the temperatures that might have irrevocably damaged the data gathering.

“I’m very, very troubled by this,” Jackson said Monday, after hearing prison officials installed window awnings and tried blasting the tiers’ outer walls with water cannons to attempt to lower the indoor temperatures.

He said what was even more “illogical” was why the steps were taken -- in violation of a court-order to keep all else equal during the evidence gathering period -- when prison officials said they didn’t even expect the efforts to work.

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Source: nola.com, August 5, 2013
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