West Memphis Three includes three teen Jessie Misskelley Jr., Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin who have spent their whole adult lives in prison for a crime they did not commit. They have been convicted of murdering three 8-year-old boys Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore in West Memphis, Arkansas, in May 1993. They were sentenced to life in prison or death. They have already served 17-years of imprisonment.
At a benefit concert at Little Rock, Arkansas’ Robinson Hallm, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines performed Eddie Vedder and Johnny Depp joined Patti Smith on stage in support of three West Memphis boys on Saturday 28, 2010. Misskelley and Baldwin are serving life sentences while Damien Echols is on his death row and has applied for a new trial. He may live one more month on this planet. On September 30, the Arkansas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Echols’ appeal for a new trial.
Depp hosted a benefit concert to call attention to the trio’s case. To gather support for the West Memphis 3 and to collect money for the legal fees, the concert was arranged. The father of Jessie Misskelley Jr. said that “he feels really good that people who don’t know him that well are also stepping up for his innocence.”
Vedder and Depp both played acoustic guitar while Smith performed “Dancing Barefoot,” her 1979 album Wave. The trio was later joined by Dhani Harrison, Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper (the former three recently formed the supergroup Fistful of Mercy and performed in Seattle last Thursday), and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines to perform another Smith song, “People Have the Power.
Several more celebrities have stood behind the accused and the relatives of the accused are happy that they are not alone in their fight for justice against their children. Jessie Misskelley, Jr., Jason Baldwin, and Damien Echols have been in prison for the past 17 years.
Johnny Depp reading Damien Echols’ journal – Voices for Justice – West Memphis Three
People Have the Power benefit concert video from youtube
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