On the Challenges of the Alford Plea

Bracewell’s Stephen Braga recently talked with lawyer Lloyd Liu about his experience representing Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three and the application of an Alford plea for a piece published in the Washington Lawyer.

In 2009, Braga began pro bono representation of Echols, who was part of the infamous West Memphis Three. Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin were charged with the murder of three eight-year-old boys in the early 1990s in West Memphis, Arkansas. Echols received the death sentence.

Braga negotiated an agreement for Echols in 2010 to maintain his innocence, but also plead guilty via the compromise device of an Alford plea.

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