Jessie Misskelley
After the Arkansas Supreme Court denied his direct appeal in 1996, Jessie filed a Petition for Relief under Rule 37 the following year. (Rule 37 deals with ineffective assistance of the original trial counsel) The Petition was amended in early 2001. Because the original Petition was filed in a timely manner, it is an avenue of appeal that is still available to be pursued, as shown in this Joint Status Memorandum filed on June 2, 2004.
However, in 2000, work began on developing evidence that would support an “actual innocence” claim. After visiting the WMPD with an evidence analyst in November and discovering there was potential for DNA testing to exonerate his client, Stidham filed a motion with Judge Burnett. He asked for permission to have the evidence properly preserved and to test/retest certain items.
In March of 2001, the State filed a response to Stidham’s motion. While Brent Davis apparently had no objection to evidence being preserved, he did object to having the evidence tested. In May 2001, Stidham wrote and reminded Judge Burnett about the new state law allowing inmates to seek testing/retesting of evidence, regardless of the prosecutor’s wishes. He asked for a hearing on his motion. Judge Burnett did not respond.
In February of 2002, Dan finally asked Judge Burnett to have the hearing set in front of a different judge. After all, his original motion — so far essentially ignored by the Court — was filed in November of 2000. In March, the Judge responded and offered a few potential hearing dates. But because Stidham’s initial motion was filed prior to the new post-conviction DNA testing statutes came into effect, he wanted to file an amended Petition. Stidham asked for time to file and agreed to allow opportunity for the prosecution to respond before a hearing was finally scheduled. In late 2002, Misskelley filed the amended Petition.
In 2003, Judge Burnett entered an Order for Preservation of Evidence, without holding a hearing. At this time, the requested DNA testing is proceeding. Judge Burnett finally signed the Order for DNA Testing, which was filed June 2, 2004. Getting all parties to agree on what specifically would be tested, where it would be tested, etc., was a time consuming process. As of August 2006, we are still waiting on the completion of the testing. Once we have an update to report, it will be posted on our News page.
While Dan Stidham remains one of Jessie’s staunchest supporters and deserves our thanks for standing by his client for so many years, Jessie has an impressive new legal team of attorneys conducting his appeals. They are working in conjunction with Damien and Jason’s lawyers on DNA issues and investigation.
Write to Jessie at:
Jessie Misskelley, Jr. #103072
P.O. Box 600
Grady, AR 71644-0600
Please remember his prisoner ID number (#103072) must be included in the address. The prison mail rules are here, and we strongly suggest everyone take the time to read them.
Further information about the West Memphis 3:
