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What the WMPD evidence file really contains
By Chris Worthington

Part One

Judge David Burnett has made the suggestion. So has District Attorney (now Judge) John Fogleman. Just a few weeks ago (as of this writing), Sgt. Mike Allen was quoted issuing the same challenge in the pages of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

They claimed that if anyone doubted that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr. are guilty of the murders of Chris Byers, Michael Moore and Steven Branch, they should examine the case file The West Memphis Police had accumulated while investigating the crime. There, they claimed, the public would find enough proof of guilt to end all doubts and show that justice has already been served in West Memphis, Arkansas.

Early last summer, I decided to take them up on their offer. Only, I was to find it was not going to be as easy to gain access to the case file as these public officials had made it sound. It turned out I was in for a long summer of having U.S. mail, e-mail, and phone attempts requesting permission ignored. So much for sincere eagerness on their part for the public to get a look at their work.

But I was determined. Perhaps when these gentlemen of Arkansas had issued their challenge, they had not counted on anyone so persistent. So why not keep trying, I asked myself? After all, The West Memphis Police Department has already allowed others in to examine the file from time to time. A frequent poster to alt.activism.death-penalty and a rabid proponent of The West Memphis Three's guilt was given access in the fall of 1998 and has been writing about it ever since. He claimed to find the overwhelming proof of guilt which has been touted without any problem -- why should Arkansas mind if someone else has a look? Finally, and perhaps tired of the nuisance I was making of myself, Capt. James Sudbury, currently of The WMPD's Criminal Investigation Division and the department's Public Relations Officer, emailed to inform me I was NOT going to be granted permission. In the department's opinion, he said, only residents of Arkansas had the legal right to view the file.

I turned to Dan Stidham to see if they could get away with this. What I needed to do was have a letter of request forwarded to The City Attorney of West Memphis, David Peeples, by a bonafide resident of Arkansas. To make doubly sure this letter gets taken seriously, it was a good idea if I told them that I write for a domain published within the confines of Arkansas. That's a fancy way of saying I've contributed an article to the WM3.org web site, and so technically am a journalist for something which can be read by the public in the state of Arkansas. Not that I ever thought of myself as such. My good friend and ally (and Arkansas resident) Greg Fleming agreed to forward this letter, and then . . . many more weeks of waiting went by. Repeated efforts to determine what the holdup was went ignored. In early September I finally managed to reach David Peeples by phone and grew encouraged. He saw no problem with my viewing the file, and had passed on his recommendation that I be allowed to Captain Sudbury. I was to expect to hear from the captain again shortly.

Then -- a letdown. Another long-awaited e-mail from Captain Sudbury arrived. His message informed me that The West Memphis Police Department was disputing David Peeples' interpretation of the applicable wordings in The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, and the matter was being sent to The Arkansas Attorney General's Office for a decision. Reading this, my spirits collapsed. I was more than just discouraged. It didn't seem like this project was ever going to get off the ground, and I was frankly starting to get sick of the whole business.

It almost came as a shock to receive an email a few weeks later from Sergeant Regina Meek (of Bojangles' drive-thru window fame) curtly stating that the decision had gone in David Peeple's favor, and that my appointment was confirmed. A little bit of the wind had left my sails, but now I really had to go through with this.

By this time, Greg Fleming was nearly as heated about the project as I was. He agreed to accompany me, and that got my courage going again. On Tuesday, November 16th, 1999, armed with Greg's neat digital camera and a personal copier I had bought just for the occasion (only because I couldn't find a rental one) we showed up at their doorstep. It was around 8:30 in the morning. For the next eight hours, we were plunged into the heart of what is really the only officially recognized documentation in existence of the case called by the WMPD: "Triple Homicide: Byers, Branch, Moore." For the last three years, for reasons simple, complex, obscure, a little eccentric and baffling often even to me, I have been growing increasingly absorbed by this case. Some would say even obsessed. I can seldom any longer dispute that. Now, I was in a place which purported to contain proof that I had been wasting my time; that the last three years of my life had been given up to a fool's quest. Was I really concerned that I would discover that these files contained proofs of guilt never mentioned until now? Proofs which would change my mind? Honestly, no. If they were there, why hadn't an eager press already latched onto them? Did I hope instead to find new proof of The West Memphis Three's innocence? No, that would be even more unrealistic. At the very least I have too much respect for the abilities of men like Ed Mallett, Dan Stidham and Brent Turvey. They would have found it by now.

Yet I had a responsibility. One that demanded that I remain open-minded, and leave behind the blinders of preconceived conclusion. I