All right, here is my take, it may be long so forgive me in advance!
Before these murders happened, the West Memphis Police Department and members of the Crittenden (sp) county drug task force were under investigation for taking guns, drugs, and money for evidence lockers. One of the investigating officers for the murders admitted he took three guns himself from the evidence locker but was not prosecuted. The whack job who was the main prosecution witness that promoted the satanism theory against Echols was removed from his job after it was revealed that he embezzled over 30 grand from his job. This embezzlement was going on before the murders were committed. It seems like most of the investigating officers had something to hide or cover-up. Could they have gotten any luckier when these murders happened? The heat was off of them and heck if one of the cops being investigated could tell the prosecutor, yep, I took those guns and wasn't charged, well could they have asked for anything better?
Byers, the stepfather, has more than a few skeletons in his closet. Yes, he was an informant for the West Memphis PD, as well as the drug task force. He stole a bunch of jewelry and wasn't prosecuted. He had buddies on the task force as well as in the PD. Personally, I think he knew that things were coming up missing from evidence lockers and such and the investigators treated him with kid gloves so he wouldn't blow them out of the water. IMO, he killed these three boys. He admitted he beat his stepson with a belt right before he went missing. He was unaccounted for during a time when the search was going on. His story and his other stepson's don't cooberate. Plus, the teeth deal. He's got umpteen stories why he had his teeth pulled. Then, his wife turns up dead. He slips up and says she was murdered. The crime lab couldn't figure it out. Of course, they didn't have national accreditation when they did the autopsies on the original three victims, and I don't know if they raised their standards and got it back by the time Melissa Byers was sent there.
I agree Echols is strange. His psych reports are disturbing. But, he didn't have a motive, unlike Byers to kill these boys.
Misskelley, I can't even fathom the amount of coercion that went on to get the story the West Memphis Police wanted out of him. He basically feeds them back what he is told by them. Heck, he said the boys were sodomized by Echols and Baldwin, and medical evidence says they were not. And don't forget his IQ hangs out at about 70, so he doesn't have all his crayons in his box.
Baldwin has denied from day 1 he was involved. He was railroaded IMO.
Ok, off my soapbox. But, there was a great injustice here, and it needs to be rectified. Hopefully, before the state of AR puts Echols to death.