Editing West Memphis Three (section)

==Aftermath==

===Criticism of the investigation===
There has been widespread criticism of the handling of the [[crime scene]] by the police.<ref name="Leveritt03" /> Misskelley's former attorney Dan Stidham cites multiple substantial police errors at the crime scene, characterizing it as "literally trampled, especially the creek bed." The bodies, he said, had been removed from the water before the coroner arrived to examine the scene and determine the state of [[rigor mortis]], allowing the bodies to decay on the creek bank and to be exposed to sunlight and insects. The police did not telephone the coroner until almost two hours after the discovery of the floating shoe, resulting in a late appearance by the coroner. Officials failed to drain the creek in a timely manner and secure possible evidence in the water (the creek was sandbagged after the bodies were pulled from the water).

Stidham has called the coroner's investigation "extremely substandard." There was a small amount of blood found at the scene that was never tested. According to HBO's documentaries ''[[Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills]]'' (1996) and ''[[Paradise Lost 2: Revelations]]'' (2000), no blood was found at the crime scene, indicating that the location where the bodies were found was not necessarily the location where the murders actually happened. After the initial investigation, the police failed to control disclosure of information and speculation about the crime scene.<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=25 }}</ref>

According to Leveritt, "Police records were a mess. To call them disorderly would be putting it mildly."<ref name="Leveritt03" /> Leveritt speculated that the small local police force was overwhelmed by the crime, which was unlike any they had ever investigated. Police refused an unsolicited offer of aid and consultation from the violent crimes experts of the [[Arkansas State Police]], and critics suggested this was due to the WMPD's being under investigation by the Arkansas State Police for suspected theft from the [[Crittenden County, Arkansas|Crittenden County]] drug task force.<ref name="Leveritt03" /> Leveritt further noted that some of the physical evidence was stored in paper sacks obtained from a supermarket (with the supermarket's name printed on the bags) rather than in containers of known and controlled origin.

When police speculated about the assailant, the juvenile probation officer assisting at the scene of the murders speculated that Echols was "capable" of committing the murders," stating: "it looks like Damien Echols finally killed someone."<ref name="Leveritt03" />

Brent Turvey, a forensic scientist and criminal profiler, stated in the film ''Paradise Lost 2'' that human bite marks could have been left on at least one of the victims. However, these potential bite marks were first noticed in photographs years after the trials and were not inspected by a board-certified medical examiner until four years after the murders. The defense's expert testified that the mark in question was not an adult bite mark, while experts put on by the State concluded that there was no bite mark at all.<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 |pages=399, 404}}</ref> The State's experts had examined the actual bodies for any marks, and others conducted expert photo analysis of injuries. Upon further examination, it was concluded that if these marks were bite marks, they did not match the teeth of any of the three convicted.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239894/|title=''Revelations: Paradise Lost 2''. HBO. 28&nbsp;July&nbsp;2000 Broadcast. March 17, 2006|website=[[IMDb]]|access-date=February 19, 2007}}</ref>{{refn|group=n|In 2011, Echols would reflect that, should investigators attempt to proceed to trial with the same evidence compiled in 1993 and with the external scrutiny which had not then existed, he and his co defendants would not have been brought to trial, stating: "They knew that there would be more people watching this, more attention on this case. They wouldn't be able to pull the same tricks. Basically, when we went to trial the first time, they came in with ghost stories, rumors, [[innuendo]]. Really, things that had nothing to do with the case whatsoever."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.kait8.com/story/15300169/west-memphis-3-echols-baldwin-misskelley-speak |title=West Memphis 3: Echols, Baldwin, Misskelley Speak |work=kait8 |date=August 19, 2011|access-date=March 6, 2021}}</ref>}}