Since I first heard about the West Memphis Three, I’ve supported them and believed in their innocence. Our justice system is one of the most flawed systems on the planet; I’d say it fails more than Windows. While my heart goes out to the three boys who were murdered so brutally in 1993, the three boys who were charged with the crime really seem to have nothing to do with it. If you’re not familiar with the case, you can certainly Google it or read up about it on Wikipedia, where you can find information about the documentaries about the case as well.

What it comes down to is that there was no physical evidence tying the boys to the scene, no motive, no connections at all—except for a fabricated witness, the fact that one of the boys was Wiccan, read Stephen King novels, and wore lots of black (this description also fits me at age 17; I suppose I could have just as easily been a suspect in my own Bible belt country town), and a coerced confession from a mentally challenged suspect that didn’t even fit the details of the crime.

Then, more evidence was found that shows that DNA at the scene did not match the boys convicted of the crime, but instead the stepfather of one of the murdered boys and his friend. The entire case just stinks of injustice, and I am glad that the boys are being freed after 18 years of prison.

But people are questioning the weird law that freed them, and I have to wonder about it myself. It’s a strange, rarely used law in North Carolina that allows someone to plead guilty while still maintaining his or her innocence. This law is like a big highlighter mark on our justice system itself—plead guilty so the case is closed, serve your time for a crime you may or may not have committed and still maintain that you are innocent. I have a real problem with people who know they are innocent—or at least maintain they are—copping to a crime they didn’t commit.

Many are asking why the boys used the plea bargain when they could’ve went to trial again and possibly won after the new DNA evidence was brought to life. But with cries like “Baby killers!” greeting them in the courtroom, and after 18 years in prison during who knows what happened, and with one of them facing the death penalty, I can definitely see why they’d take the deal. I know I would rather than being sentenced by a bigoted, narrow-minded community.

As Cultural Inappropriation points out, this case may not have occurred today, when religious tolerance and wearing black clothing may still not be the norm but are more widely accepted. However, change the colors of the boys’ skin to brown or black, and this same scenario happens very regularly still today. That is a reminder of how far we still need to work for a truly just world rather than prejudice, disgusting system we have set up. How many people have lost their lives because of it, you have to wonder.

The worst part about this is that now the case is considered “closed,” though it was already—and the real killer(s) of these boys is still at large. After nearly two decades, the killer(s) may even be dead.