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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. 

Death penalty sought in North Carolina child abuse death

Published
Charles Thomas Stacks
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man has been found guilty of first-degree murder and felony child abuse in the death of a 2-year-old boy.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports a Forsyth County jury deliberated several hours before returning its verdict on Friday in the trial of 33-year-old Charles Thomas Stacks. 

The same jury will determine Stacks' sentence.

Forsyth County paramedics and Winston-Salem police found Jaxson on Aug. 16, 2015, at the house Stacks and his wife, Megin, rented. 

Prosecutors say Charles Stacks was friends with the boy's mother, who stayed at the house periodically in August with the boy and his sister.

Prosecutors said evidence showed Charles Stacks tortured Jaxson through abuse that culminated in slamming the boy repeatedly on the ground, causing a brain injury from which he died three days later.

Death penalty sought


Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a North Carolina man convicted of killing a 2-year-boy and who they say was the drug dealer and pimp for the child's mother.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports the sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin Monday for 33-year-old Charles Thomas Stacks of Winston-Salem. 

Stacks was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the death of Jaxson Sonny Swain in August 2015.

Evidence showed Stacks repeatedly slammed the child on the ground.

Prosecutors said Stacks was angry that Jaxson's mother owed him for drugs and that she left him alone with Jaxson and without any heroin. 

They say Stacks whipped, kicked and hit Jaxson because he wasn't potty-trained and didn't call him "sir."

Prosecutors said Stacks was the pimp and drug dealer for Jaxson's mother.

Sources: sfchronicle.com, witn.com, Associated Press, April 14, 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: North Carolina, USA
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