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app or on Apple Podcasts. American Scandal uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some

elements, including dialogue, might be invented, but everything is

based on historical research. This episode contains descriptions of murder and violence against children.

Listener discretion is advised. It's 1997 in Paragold, Arkansas.

34-year-old attorney Dan Stidham sits in his office, surrounded by stacks of paperwork.

It's been three years since the teenagers Jesse Miss Kelly, Damien Eccles, and Jason Baldwin

were convicted of murdering three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.

Stidon represented Ms. Kelly at trial and has continued working for him unpaid ever since.

It's not been easy.

Last year, Stidham and other lawyers representing Eccles and Baldwin,

took the cases to the Arkansas Supreme Court,

but judges there backed the original verdict.

Still, Stidham remains convinced.

All three young men are innocent, and he's determined to prove it.

A criminal profiler named Brent Turvey

has recently volunteered to examine the forensic evidence against the so-called West Memphis 3,

and now he's come to Stidham's office to present his findings.

Turvey pulls a manila envelope from his briefcase and spreads out a series of graphic photos on the desk.

Stidim stands up. He's seen the images before, but they're still shocking.

He looks at Turvey. Yeah, these tell a story, don't they? But I don't think they tell the state's story.

...