The Accused Innocent

The Accused Innocent Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible directly in response to the communist Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. The trials were held for the many men and women who were accused of performing witchcraft; those who did not confess to witchery were hung while those who did confess faced only jail time. Almost 300 years later, three teenage boys, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin, were accused for murdering three eight-year old boys as part of a satanic sacrifice in 1993 (Source E). Although the Salem Witch Trials took place many years before the West Memphis Three case, both events involved the singling out and punishment of innocent Americans accused of dealing with the devil.
The Salem Witch Trials began in Salem, Massachusetts in the winter months of 1692 when Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece of Reverend Parris, began to have fits described as "beyond the power of natural disease to effect" by Reverend John Hale (Source B). The girls screamed, threw things about the room, uttered strange sounds, and crawled under furniture. The girls also complained of being pinched and pricked with pins. A doctor, historically assumed to be William Griggs, could find no physical evidence of any ailment. As other young women in the village began to exhibit similar behaviors, they began to accuse women and men who lived in their town of bewitching them. By the time the girls were finished accusing the innocent citizens of their village, nineteen had been hung, one had been crushed to death, and as many as thirteen others died while in prison. On May 6 1993, West Memphis was shaken by the news of the discovery of the mutilated bodies of three eight-year-old boys. Rumors of who murdered the boys spread like wildfire through the town. It was soon well known that the boys had been cut with a knife, raped, and at least one of the boy’s genitals had been cut off (Source F). By 12:00 p.m. the next day, police were questioning suspects Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin. After weeks of questioning, Jessie Misskelley confessed that he and his two other accomplices had murdered the three eight-year-old boys. The three young men were arrested and put on trial. Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin were sentenced to life in prison, whereas Damien Echols was put on death row. There was no evidence that the three teenage boys had murdered the eight-year-olds but because there was “evidence” that the boys were satanic worshippers, they were accused (Source D). Eighteen years after being sentenced to life in prison and death row, the West Memphis Three were released on August 21, 2011 after new evidence showed that one of the boys’ father’s DNA was found at the crime scene. In order to be released, all three of the men had to confess to murdering the three little boys. Although innocent, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley confessed to the crime and were released at last. The West Memphis Three and the Salem Witch Trials can be closely related due to the false accusations of the innocent men and women. In the Salem Witch Trials, people were accused of witchcraft and worshipping of the devil, whereas in the case of the West Memphis Three, they were accused of murdering three eight-year-old boys as part of a sacrifice for the devil. Both cases resulted in punishment due to the lack of evidence and the lack of belief from the officials of the law. If the police and court officials would have looked for evidence and listened to the suspects’ pleas, many lives could have been saved. Although the Salem Witch Trials took place centuries before the West Memphis Three, they can still be closely related because they both dealt with satanic rituals. Even though the Salem Witch Trials dealt with the accusations of over nineteen men and women, it can be tied to the West Memphis Three because the nineteen men and women who were accused and punished were also innocent just as Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were. The men and women in the Salem Witch Trials did not get a chance to speak out. They had to confess to witchcraft or be killed. The West Memphis Free had to confess to murdering the boys in order to be released from prison. In both cases, the innocent had to act guilty in order to be free.