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    Summary and Analysis of Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three: Based on the Book by Mara Leveritt
    Summary and Analysis of Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three: Based on the Book by Mara Leveritt
    Summary and Analysis of Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three: Based on the Book by Mara Leveritt
    Ebook53 pages31 minutes

    Summary and Analysis of Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three: Based on the Book by Mara Leveritt

    By Worth Books

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    About this ebook

    So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of Devil’s Knot tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Mara Leveritt’s book.
     
    Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.

    This short summary and analysis of Devil’s Knot by Mara Leveritt includes:
    •          Historical context
    •          Chapter-by-chapter summaries
    •          Character profiles
    •          Timeline of major events
    •          Important quotes
    •          Fascinating trivia
    •          Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work
     
    About Mara Leveritt’s Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three:
     
    In 1993, the brutal murders of three eight-year-old boys shocked the small town of West Memphis, Arkansas. Under pressure to solve the case, and lacking physical evidence to identify any suspects, authorities set their sights on a local trio of misfit teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, later dubbed the West Memphis Three.
     
    Leveritt’s account of the case, which resulted in one death sentence and two life sentences, is by turns a shocking, appalling, and heartbreaking work of true crime writing. Likening the Three’s plight to the Salem Witch Trials, she calls America’s justice system into question, arguing that these three young men were condemned simply for being different.
     
    The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateFeb 21, 2017
    ISBN9781504044196
    Summary and Analysis of Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three: Based on the Book by Mara Leveritt
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    Worth Books

    Worth Books’ smart summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for fiction and nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

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      Book preview

      Summary and Analysis of Devil's Knot - Worth Books

      Contents

      Context

      Overview

      Summary

      Timeline

      Cast of Characters

      Direct Quotes and Analysis

      Trivia

      What’s That Word?

      Critical Response

      About Mara Leveritt

      For Your Information

      Bibliography

      Copyright

      Context

      Originally published in 2002, Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three is part of a mass movement expressing outrage over what many perceived to be the wrongful imprisonment of three young men in Arkansas, seemingly railroaded into conviction for the horrifically sadistic 1993 murder of three young boys. The 1996 movie Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and its two sequels played a major role in raising public awareness of the plight of the West Memphis Three, and over the years, celebrity supporters such as Johnny Depp and Eddie Vedder further publicized their cause.

      At the time of the book’s first publication in 2002, the West Memphis Three were still incarcerated, with Damien Echols facing the death penalty, and Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. serving life sentences. In 2011, they were released from prison following a bizarre plea deal in which the state effectively refused to admit it had been wrong. Of course, it is impossible to quantify the extent to which Devil’s Knot influenced the Arkansas court suddenly relenting. But certainly Mara Leveritt was a significant voice among the chorus of those demanding a reversal of injustice.

      Today, the West Memphis Three are free men, but they have not technically been exonerated. And, tragically, they can never get back the years of their lives they spent locked up.

      Overview

      Mara Leveritt’s book Devil’s Knot raises questions about our modern American justice system: How and why, in the absence of compelling evidence, were three young men scapegoated and—almost literally—demonized because of their lifestyle choices?

      There is no question that the circumstances that led to the now-infamous West Memphis Three murder trial were particularly horrific: In 1993, three eight-year-old boys were brutally tortured and murdered, and their bodies—bound by their own shoelaces—were thrown into a gully. One of the boys was genitally mutilated. Understandably, the people of their Arkansas town were terrified, and the case gained much sensational attention in the local media.

      But, under pressure to solve the case, West Memphis police called out three teenagers—Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley Jr.—on the spurious suspicion that they were part of a satanic cult and that the murders amounted to a ritual sacrifice. These three young men were hardly equipped to fight the legal system. They had grown up in poverty, facing family problems (for instance, Jason discovered his mother after she attempted suicide and called 911 to save her) and, at least in Damien’s case, psychological issues. Jessie, who confessed to the murders under intense police questioning, had an IQ of 80 and

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