Editing West Memphis Three (section)

===Echols' and Baldwin's trial===
Three weeks later, Echols and Baldwin went on trial. The prosecution accused the three young men of committing a Satanic murder. The prosecution called Dale W. Griffis, a graduate of the unaccredited [[Columbia Pacific University]], as an expert in the [[occult]] to testify the murders were a Satanic ritual.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/1994/mar/09/witnesses-call-boys-deaths-work-group-trappings-oc/?print=1|title=Witnesses call boys deaths work of group with trappings of the occult|newspaper=[[The Commercial Appeal]]|date=March 9, 1994|access-date=February 23, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018000152/http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/1994/mar/09/witnesses-call-boys-deaths-work-group-trappings-oc/?print=1|archive-date=October 18, 2012|first=Bartholomew|last=Sullivan}}</ref> On March 19, 1994, Echols and Baldwin were found guilty on three counts of murder.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wuYyAAAAIBAJ&pg=5353,3505240&dq=baldwin+echols+and+misskelley&hl=en|title=Teens Found Guilty In Boys' Slayings|work=[[Free Lance-Star]]|date=March 19, 1994|access-date =December 4, 2010}}</ref> The court sentenced Echols to death and Baldwin to life in prison.<ref name="CB"/>

At trial, the defense team argued that news articles from the time could have been the source for Echols' knowledge about the genital mutilation, and Echols said his knowledge was limited to what was "on TV".

The prosecution claimed that Echols' knowledge was nonetheless too close to the facts, since there was no public reporting of drowning or that one victim had been mutilated more than the others. Echols testified that Detective Ridge's description of their earlier conversation (which was not recorded) regarding those particular details was inaccurate (and indeed that some other claims by Ridge were "lies"). [[Mara Leveritt]], an investigative journalist and the author of ''[[Devil's Knot]]'', argues that Echols' information may have come from police leaks, such as Detective Gitchell's comments to Mark Byers, that circulated amongst the local public.<ref name="Leveritt03"/><ref name = "courttv"/> The defense team objected when the prosecution attempted to question Echols about his past violent behaviors, but the defense objections were overruled.<ref>{{cite book|title=Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three|last=Leveritt|first=Mara|year=2003|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-7434-1760-7|page=245}}</ref>