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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. 

Florida: Prosecutors to seek death penalty in pregnant woman's death

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Jose Soto-Escalera and Tania Wise
ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla.-- Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against the man charged with killing a woman, and their unborn child on the Treasure Coast last year.

In the court filing Monday, the state says the murder of Tania Wise encompasses a number of aggravating factors that merit the death penalty including that the crime "was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" and "committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner."

Wise was found Aug. 24, 2018 face down in a ditch in an isolated stretch of northern St. Lucie County.

She suffered head and throat trauma.

A month later, Jose Soto-Escalera was arrested for the crime .

In an affidavit outlining a complex sequence of events, one witness said Soto-Escalera had given Wise money for an abortion and believed Escalera was mad because Wise did not follow through. 

DNA evidence confirmed Soto-Escalera was the father of Wise’s baby.

Wise’s family did not want to comment on the decision to seek the death penalty, except to say this has been a very difficult time. Soto-Escalera’s attorney said his client maintains his innocence.

In the last week, the defense filed paperwork claiming Soto-Escalera’s Miranda rights were violated. 

They’ve also filed a request for a change of venue, in part because of the recent guilty verdict handed down to Checkingson Sinclair. 

Sinclair killed his wife and their unborn child in Port St. Lucie back in 2014.

The trial in the Soto-Escalera case is set for next month.

Source: wptv.com, Jon Shainman, January 8, 2019


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Florida, USA
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