The West Memphis Three.

Chiisai_Pholcidae68

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/29/justice/piers-morgan-west-memphis-three/#

While I watched this with my mother, I was in awe of Damien's perseverance.

I saw the goodness of The Buddha and the beauty of kamma in him.

Finally, I saw that there is always, in some form or another, a way out.


:clap:

Bhogakapala

Just don't forget - there's a lot that remains unknown in that case. It's easy to believe that Echol's is innocent, especially when you digest the media that was generated to push that point. However, it was also very easy for people in his community to believe he was guilty, based on a similarly uncritical digestion of cherry-picked facts and character assasination.

My point is that it's dangerous to simply "go" with an emotional response to the case and the personalities surrounding the case. One of the things that is so remarkable about the West Memphis Three case is that it is such a powerful illustration of the cultural biases that different demographics around the country hold. It was largely a bias against "wierd, misfit, metal-head teenagers" that put these kids behind bars. Later, it was largely an implicit bias against "redneck, fundamentalist Christian ignorant rural people" which cast suspicion on different characters surrounding the story and served to absolve the originally convincted individuals of guilt in the minds of cosmopolitan, liberal folks.

One way or another, it's a very fascinating and tragic story. Several small children died a gruesome death in a community plagued, quite obviously, by many social ills. Lots and lots of dukkha.

riverflow

If they were REALLY guilty, the authorities would not have let them go. They knew they didn't have a real leg to stand on, despite all the rhetoric. I actually live in West Memphis, and a lot of people I've spoken to around here thought the whole thing was very dubious to begin with.