Bite mark claimed in W. Memphis slayings

By The Associated Press

WEST MEMPHIS — WEST MEMPHIS -- An attorney for a death row inmate is seeking to obtain bite impressions from his client and two others convicted in the slayings of three 8-year-old West Memphis boys.

Alvin Schay, attorney for Damien Wayne Echols, filed the motion in Craighead County Circuit Court contending new evidence exists that one of the victims had incurred a human bite.

Prosecuting Attorney Brent Davis said Thursday that he would oppose the motion unless he is shown that a bite mark exists.

''There was no evidence in the autopsy that any of the three victims sustained a bite mark,'' Davis said. ''I don't feel that bite mark impressions should be provided so their expert can try to find something in the autopsy photographs that he says is a bite mark. It just sounds like a fishing expedition.''

No testimony in the case indicated that any of the victims had bite marks although all had been severely beaten and one of the victims had been sexually mutilated.

Echols, 24; Jason Baldwin, 21; and Jesse Lloyd Misskelley, 22, were convicted in 1994 of the May 1993 slayings of Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steven Branch, whose bodies were found in a shallow drainage ditch in West Memphis.

Echols was sentenced to death, and Baldwin was sentenced to life in prison without parole on each count. They were tried in Craighead County in a change of venue. Misskelley was tried separately in Clay County after making statements to police implicating all three suspects. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years for convictions on one first-degree murder charge and two counts of second-degree murder.

The Supreme Court rejected appeals by all three.

Davis said the Craighead County Circuit Court also is considering an earlier motion by Echols' lawyer that requested that a necklace recovered in the case be turned over for testing of blood. Davis said he would not oppose that motion.

Circuit Judge David Burnett has set a hearing for Feb. 9.