They were convicted of murdering Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers, all eight years old, in a satanic ritual on May 5, 1993. According to their legal team, their only crime was not conforming to the way teenagers should dress, act, or behave in the Bible Belt area.
Since then, they have consistently proclaimed their innocence. Judge Dan Stidham represented 17 – year – old Misskelley Jr in the case.
He told The Sun that the belief in satanic rituals “gripped the Mid South and the nation” and that it was likely to happen again. Judge Dan said, “The one opponent I couldn’t beat was Satanic panic. This literally had frightened the Mid South here in the United States and affected the entire nation. Back then, our culture was a lot different than it is today, and of course there’ll be a repeat of this, it seems like it’s on a 300 – year cycle. As the world has become a bit more sophisticated and less superstitious, and with the advent of the internet, back then we were in the midst of a moral panic, at least here in America. The FBI stepped in and actually conducted a survey and were not ever able to find or connect any homicide in the United States to a satanic ritualistic homicide.”