West Memphis Three Attorney Not Stopping Until Real Killer is Found

PARAGOULD, Ark. — Defense attorney Dan Stidham was just 30 years old when he was handed a capital murder case nobody else wanted to touch. The gruesome slayings of three, 8-year-old boys in 1993 had triggered a palpable “Satanic Panic” in the Bible Belt community of West Memphis, Arkansas. Within a month, three teenage outcasts — who would come to be known as the West Memphis Three — were taken into custody. Stidham’s client, 17-year-old Jessie Misskelley, had offered up a coerced confession after 12 hours of interrogation. But the inconsistencies and impossibilities in Misskelley’s statement raised red flags in the mind of the young public defender. His client, as well as the others, were innocent, and Stidham knew it with every fiber of his being.

“These kids were innocent, and they lost the best years of their lives,” Stidham said. “It was cowardly the way the state of Arkansas put this thing to bed.”

Misskelley, along with Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols, were rounded up, arrested, tried, and sent to prison with lengthy sentences — Echols to Death Row. Other than a false confession, no other evidence exists that linked the three to the crimes.

Now, Stidham breaks his 30-year silence in his unforgettable, chilling account, A Harvest of Innocence: The Untold Story of the West Memphis Three Murder Case, in which he exposes new details that up until now only he knew about the West Memphis murders. A case that has become synonymous with wrongful convictions.

“The killer is alive today. I am sure of it,” Stidham said in his book. “The real killer will never be prosecuted or even pursued by the State of Arkansas, which would like very much for this sad chapter in its history to simply disappear. But I cannot let that happen.”

Stidham’s book contains details never shared in previous documentaries or books about the West Memphis Three case — truths that only Stidham, the one attorney who worked the case from beginning to end, could tell. He hopes that exposing what happened will allow him to close the door on a case that tormented him for years and help exonerate the three innocent teenagers who spent decades in prison because of the malevolence of the police, prosecution and judge.

A Harvest of Innocence is an intimate, unsettling and balanced look at what the case did to Stidham himself, to the victims’ families, and to the West Memphis Three and their families. It is a no-holds-barred exposition of the politics and unbridled ambition of a few men who destroyed so many lives.

The West Memphis Three murder case remains one of the most discussed true crime stories today. In April 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled to allow evidence from the murders to be retested using new DNA technology.

“They arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned three innocent young teenagers for decades,” Stidham said. “Who really did this and why? That someone is out there still.”

About the Author

Dan Stidham has been a full-time Arkansas District Court Judge since 2008. During his 20 years in private law practice, Stidham was engaged in a broad range of litigation, including as a public defender. It was in this capacity that he became deeply involved in one of the most well-known murder trials in American history, a triple homicide of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993, the subject of A Harvest of Innocence.

Stidham is a frequent speaker on college campuses and at professional meetings around the country regarding the West Memphis Three case; criminal law issues including criminal justice reform, police interrogation tactics, Miranda, false confessions and forensic issues; Satanic Panic; media issues in a high-profile case; and wrongful convictions.

For more information, please visit www.danstidham.com, or connect with him on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554241046586.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Harvest-Innocence-Untold-Memphis-Murder/dp/B0CMYZ2BT7/

A Harvest of Innocence: The Untold Story of the West Memphis Three Murder Case

ISBN-13: 979-8865244936

Paperback: 348 pages

Available from Amazon.com

Praise for Dan Stidham:

“A Harvest of Innocence is the definitive book about this horrifying story.”

Dan Zupansky, host of True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers Podcast

“This week, we are very happy to be recommending A Harvest of Innocence: The Untold Story of the West Memphis Three Murder Case by Dan Stidham and Tom McCarthy … this is a must-read book in my humble ‘Garage’ opinion. Maybe it’s just my fascination with this case, but I couldn’t put this down, and anytime I am reading something about any of the persons in this case, I am always taking notes. So, if it’s new and expanded information to me, I make a note. I made 97 notes on Dan Stidham’s book.”

Nic Edwards from True Crime Garage Podcast

“I started and just couldn't set it down! So well-written, so informative, such heartfelt human caring, and all your work for Jessie done intelligently, with persistence, and unbelievable mental acuity and strength ... all made this a masterpiece! In all my training, education, bookwork, college courses, etc., I have never picked up a book and been enthralled to read it cover to cover in a short period of time, taking it all in and living it with the author.”

— Dr. Jayne Niskey

“Dan Stidham is a modern-day Atticus Finch and only he can tell the real story of the WM3 murder case.”