David Burnett | |
---|---|
Member of the Arkansas Senate from the 22nd district | |
In office January 1, 2013 –December 31, 2016 | |
Preceded by | Jeremy Hutchinson |
Succeeded by | Dave Wallace |
Member of the Arkansas Senate from the 15th district | |
In office January 1,2011 –December 31,2012 | |
Preceded by | Steve Bryles |
Succeeded by | David J. Sanders |
Personal details | |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Sonja Burnett |
Residence(s) | Osceola,Arkansas,U.S. |
Alma mater | University of Arkansas (B.S. 1963,J.D. 1966) |
Occupation | Jurist |
Website | www |
David Burnett (born 1942 or 1943 [1] ) is an American Democratic politician and former member of the Arkansas Senate. Before he entered the Senate,Burnett had been a judge. [2] Burnett is known as the trial judge of the controversial West Memphis Three trial during which he made several serious mistakes. [3]
Burnett was the presiding judge in the murder trials of Jessie Misskelley,Damien Echols,and Jason Baldwin,collectively known as the West Memphis Three. In February 1994,after a jury convicted Misskelley of one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder,Burnett sentenced Misskelley,then 18 years old,to life in prison plus 40 years. [4] In March 1994,after a jury convicted Echols and Baldwin of three counts of capital murder,Burnett sentenced Echols to death and Baldwin,17 at the time,to life in prison without parole. [5]
In 2007,new DNA testing became available that was not technologically possible at the time of the crime. It produced evidence that hairs found at the crime scene did not match Misskelley,Baldwin or Echols but did possibly match the stepfather of one of the victims. Based on this new information,all three defendants asked Burnett for a new trial. In September 2008,Burnett denied retrials for all three,saying the new evidence was "inconclusive". [6]
In September 2008,Daniel Stidham,a judge since 2001 who had been Misskelley’s attorney in 1994,testified at a post-conviction relief hearing for the men. Stidham testified under oath that during the trial Burnett erred by making an improper communication with the jury during its deliberations. Stidham overheard Burnett discuss taking a lunch break with the jury foreman and heard the foreman reply that the jury was almost finished. According to Stidham,Judge Burnett responded,"You'll need food for when you come back for sentencing";when the foreman asked what would happen if the defendant was acquitted,the judge closed the door without answering,thereby implying that he thought the three were guilty. Stidham then testified that his own failure to put this incident on the court record and his failure to meet the minimum requirements in state law to represent a defendant in a capital murder case were evidence of ineffective assistance of counsel,thus requiring Misskelley's conviction to be vacated. [7]
In January 2010,Burnett denied motions for Baldwin and Misskelley to receive new trials based on inadequate representation during their original trials. [8]
In November 2010,after Burnett had retired from the bench and been elected to the Arkansas Senate,the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered new evidentiary hearings for all three defendants based on the new DNA evidence. The state's high court rebuked Burnett's 2008 decision not to grant Echols a new trial based on the DNA evidence. [9]
All three men were released from prison in August 2011 after they pleaded guilty to first-degree murder using an Alford plea,which allows the defendant to maintain their innocence while conceding that there is enough evidence to possibly convict them at trial. The men were resentenced to time served (18 years and 75 days) and immediately freed. [10] In a February 2012 interview,Burnett stated,"I'm not real happy with the outcome. I would have preferred to see them have a new trial.”He stood by his actions,saying,"Frankly,everything I did was affirmed by the Arkansas Supreme Court." [11]
In May 2010,Burnett defeated Blytheville Mayor Barrett E. Harrison in the Democratic primary for the state's 15th Senate district to succeed the term-limited Sen. Steve Bryles. [12] Burnett took almost 64 percent of approximately 8,600 votes cast. [13] Burnett won election in the general election running unopposed. [12] Due to redistricting,Burnett ran for re-election in 2012 in the 22nd Senate District. He was elected both in the Democratic primary and general election without opposition.
In 2015,Burnett introduced a bill in the Arkansas Senate that would have abolished the death penalty in Arkansas. [14] The bill failed to pass,officially dying when the state Senate adjourned sine die (when the chamber ended its business for the legislative session). [15] In November 2016,Burnett was defeated in his re-election bid by Republican state Rep. Dave Wallace,losing by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent. [16] The race was the first that Burnett faced any opposition since the 2010 Democratic Primary for the state Senate 15th District's Democratic nomination,having run unopposed in the general elections of 2010 and 2012.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | David Burnett | 5,472 | 63.7 | N/A | |
Democratic | Barrett E. Harrison | 3,121 | 36.3 | N/A |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | David Burnett | N/A | 100 | N/A | |
Democratic hold |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | David Burnett | N/A | 100 | N/A | |
Democratic gain from Republican |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Dave Wallace | 14,453 | 60.4 | N/A | |
Democratic | David Burnett (I) | 9,477 | 39.6 | N/A | |
Republican gain from Democratic |
In United States law, an Alford plea, also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia, an Alford guilty plea, and the Alford doctrine, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence, but accepts imposition of a sentence. This plea is allowed even if the evidence to be presented by the prosecution would be likely to persuade a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This can be caused by circumstantial evidence and testimony favoring the prosecution, and difficulty finding evidence and witnesses that would aid the defense.
The West Memphis Three are three men convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, United States. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley Jr. to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin to life imprisonment. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the juveniles killed the children as part of a Satanic ritual.
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations is a 2000 American documentary film directed and produced by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and the sequel to their 1996 film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, about the trials of the West Memphis Three, three teenage boys accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is a 1996 American documentary film directed, produced and edited by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky about the trials of the West Memphis Three, three teenage youths accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas.
The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30 – October 2, 1919, at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas where African Americans were organizing against peonage and abuses in tenant farming. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. Estimates of deaths made in the immediate aftermath of the Elaine Massacre by eyewitnesses range from 50 to "more than a hundred". Walter Francis White, an NAACP attorney who visited Elaine shortly after the incident, stated "... twenty-five Negroes killed, although some place the Negro fatalities as high as one hundred". More recent estimates in the 21st century of the number of black people killed during this violence are higher than estimates provided by the eyewitnesses, and have ranged into the hundreds. The white mobs were aided by federal troops and local terrorist organizations. Gov. Brough led a contingent of 583 US soldiers from Camp Pike, with a 12-gun machine gun battalion.
Free the West Memphis 3 is a compilation album released in October 2000 by Koch Records as a benefit for the legal defense of the West Memphis Three, three men who, while teenagers in 1994, were tried and falsely convicted of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The album was organized by guitarist Danny Bland, Eddie Spaghetti of the Supersuckers, and Scott Parker, who served as executive producers of the project.
Joseph Berlinger is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. Particularly focused on true crime documentaries, Berlinger's films and docu-series draw attention to social justice issues in the US and abroad in such films as Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Crude, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger and Intent To Destroy: Death, Denial and Depiction.
A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogation techniques. When some degree of coercion is involved, studies have found that subjects with highly sophisticated intelligence or manipulated by their so-called "friends" are more likely to make such confessions. Young people are particularly vulnerable to confessing, especially when stressed, tired, or traumatized, and have a significantly higher rate of false confessions than adults. Hundreds of innocent people have been convicted, imprisoned, and sometimes sentenced to death after confessing to crimes they did not commit—but years later, have been exonerated. It was not until several shocking false confession cases were publicized in the late 1980s, combined with the introduction of DNA evidence, that the extent of wrongful convictions began to emerge—and how often false confessions played a role in these.
The Varner Unit is a high-security state prison for men of the Arkansas Department of Correction in Varner, Choctaw Township, unincorporated Lincoln County, Arkansas, United States. It is located along U.S. Highway 65, near Grady, and 28 miles (45 km) south of Pine Bluff. The prison can house over 1,600 prisoners, and it includes a 468-bed supermax facility. The supermax and non-supermax facilities are separate from one another.
Richard Jason Ofshe is an American sociologist and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his expert testimony relating to coercion in small groups, confessions, and interrogations.
Stephen L. Braga is an American lawyer, best known for his pro bono representation of Martin Tankleff and the West Memphis Three. He also represented Michael Scanlon, the number two target in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. Braga is currently the Director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law. In addition, he chairs the national white collar practice at Bracewell LLP.
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three is a 2002 true crime book by Mara Leveritt, about the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old children and the subsequent trials of three teenagers charged with and convicted of the crimes. The names of the three teens convicted - Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley - would come to be known as the West Memphis Three. Leveritt's book revolves around the central idea that the three teenagers' convictions stemmed from "Satanic panic" rather than actual evidence. The book also focuses on one of the victim's stepfathers and his possible connection with the murders. All three teenagers convicted were released on August 19, 2011. A film based on the book, Devil's Knot, was released in 2013.
A citizen's right to a trial by jury is a central feature of the United States Constitution. It is considered a fundamental principle of the American legal system.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were a team of American documentary filmmakers that have won cult fame and critical acclaim. The duo are probably best known for their trilogy of Paradise Lost films about the so-called West Memphis Three, and for their 2004 Metallica documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Though they often worked together, Berlinger and Sinofsky also separately directed their own projects.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is a 2011 American documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and sequel to their films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000). The three films are about West Memphis Three, three teenage boys accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas. Purgatory offers an update on the case of the West Memphis Three, who were all recognized guilty of the murders in 1994 but kept on claiming their innocence since then, before culminating with the trio's attempt at an Alford plea.
West of Memphis is a 2012 New Zealand-American documentary film about the West Memphis Three that was directed and co-written by Amy Berg, and produced by Berg, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson, and Damien Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis. It was released in the US by Sony Pictures Classics to critical acclaim, and received a nomination for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.
Devil's Knot is a 2013 American biographical crime drama film directed by Atom Egoyan and adapted from Mara Leveritt's 2002 book of the same name. The film is about the true story of three murdered children and three teenagers, known as the West Memphis Three, who were convicted of killing the three children during the Satanic ritual abuse panic. The teenagers were subsequently sentenced to death (Echols) and life imprisonment, before all were released after eighteen years.
Blueford v. Arkansas, 566 U.S. 599 (2012), was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that clarified the limits of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The Supreme Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar retrial of counts that a jury had previously unanimously voted to acquit on, when a mistrial is declared after the jury deadlocked on a lesser included offense.
Damien Wayne Echols is an American author, who first became known as one of three teenagers, the West Memphis Three, convicted of a triple murder in 1994 despite the dubious prosecution case and lack of physical evidence. Upon his release from death row in 2011 under an Alford plea, Echols authored several autobiographical and spiritual books. He has been featured in multiple books, documentaries, and podcasts about his spiritual works and the West Memphis Three case.