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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. 

For compensation, former Death Row inmate Damon Thibodeaux must prove innocence, state reiterates

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Louisiana Death Row
The Louisiana attorney general's office Friday continued putting the onus on Damon Thibodeaux to prove his innocence if he wants to be compensated for his 15 years on Death Row. It's not enough, they said, that Jefferson Parish dropped its prosecution of Thibodeaux.

Thibodeaux, 40, was released from prison in 2012 after District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. conceded he could not have faith in the former Marrero resident's confession to raping and killing Chrystal Champagne, 14. Thibodeaux has been convicted of killing the girl in Bridge City in 1996. 

The teenager left her Westwego apartment to walk to a nearby grocery and never returned. Her beaten and partially nude body was found the next day in the wooded Mississippi River batture under the Huey P. Long Bridge.

Thibodeaux, who was related to the teen, confessed after an all-night, nine-hour interrogation to killing her. That led to his 1997 conviction of first-degree murder and the death sentence.

Louisiana law allows people wrongly convicted of crimes to receive $25,000 per year for up to 10 years of incarceration. The state caps the award at $250,000. The state also allows as much as $80,000 for educational and medical expenses after release from prison.


Source: Paul Purpura, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, June 18, 2014
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