Circuit Court of Arkansas

The trial court of general jurisdiction in Arkansas, organized by circuit and county, whose judges preside over jury trials in matters of law in both civil and criminal cases. The circuit courts trace to the state judicial department created by the Constitution of Arkansas of 1836. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., known as the West Memphis Three, were tried and convicted of the 1993 murders of three children in Arkansas circuit court proceedings (Craighead County, on change of venue from Crittenden County), presided over by Circuit Judge David Burnett; the three entered Alford pleas and were released in 2011 after Circuit Judge David Laser accepted the pleas. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/