all of it adding up to an apparent slam dunk in the case against jason baldwin and damien echols. >> o to court, they were always standing along the walkway when they would lead us into the building, you know, screaming, holding signs. wishing death on me. >> damien and jason's trial for the murder of three young boys in west memphis, arkansas, began on february 28th, 1994. >> crowds around the courthouse were irate, and they believed these were three kids who, in some kind of ritual involving satan, had murdered and mutilated three 8-year-old boys. >> mara leveritt wrote "the devil's knot: the true story of the west memphis three." she questions the strength of the prosecution's case. >> they had very little to go on and to present to the jury. and so they made the decision that they were going to say this was an occult slaying and that's why it all happened, because these guys were dabbling in the occult, and they brought in an expert witness, they said, named dr. dale griffiths. and he was going to be their expert in the occult. >> dennis riordan is damien's attorney. >> this is a

all of it adding up to an apparent slam dunk in the case against jason baldwin and damien echols. >> standing along the walkway when they would lead us into the building, you know, screaming, holding signs. wishing death on me. >> damien and jason's trial for the murder of three young boys in west memphis, arkansas, began on february 28th, 1994. >> crowds around the courthouse were irate, and they believed these were three kids who, in some kind of ritual involving satan, had murdered and mutilated three 8-year-old boys. >> mara leveritt wrote "the devil's knot, the true story of the west memphis three." she questions the strength of the prosecution's case. >> they had very little to go on and to present to the jury. so they made the decision they were going to say this was an occult slaying and that's why it all happened, because these guys were dabbling in the occult, and they brought in an expert witness, they said, named dr. dale griffiths. and he was going to be their expert in the occult. >> dennis riordan is damien's attorney. >> this is a man who has a ph.d. from a diploma mi

hit this one boy real bad and then he started screwing him and stuff. >> jessie said he watched damien echolsin tie up the 8-year-olds, beat them, cut them, and sodomize them. >> so you saw damien strike chris byers in the head. what did he hit him with? >> with his fist. >> his confession gave police the break they needed so badly. but with that statement, he sealed his own fate, and that of damien echols and jason baldwin. his confession itself was full of contradictions and inconsistencies. but once it was out, almost no one would believe jessie would have admitted to doing something he hadn't done. in this so-called confession, he got a lot of the key points wrong. that the evidence could not back up. >> and the police knew it. >> and they ran with this confession? >> and so did the prosecutors. >> despite the inconsistencies, jessie's statement still seemed so convincing at the time that even his own father briefly believed he was guilty. >> when they first had him in court, i heard the evidence, you know, and everything. i somehow, i thought he'd done it. >> i had never heard you say th