Damien Echols was convicted of three counts of capital murder for the 1993 deaths of three eight-year-old boys—Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore—in West Memphis, Arkansas. As part of a group the media labeled the West Memphis Three, Echols was accused by prosecutors of leading the killings as part of a Satanic ritual. Because of his alleged ringleader status, he was the only one of the three teenagers sentenced to death, while his co-defendants, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., received life sentences. The case gained international attention as a major wrongful conviction scandal. No physical evidence tied the teenagers to the scene, and the convictions heavily relied on a coerced confession from Misskelley and public hysteria regarding the occult.