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Four students at the University of Central Arkansas have begun challenging other students “to learn the facts” about the
infamous 1993 murders of three children in West Memphis, and the arrests and trials that followed. The four were part of a
new student organization called the Demand Justice Panel.
The panel’s faculty sponsor is Lanette Grate (above), a lecturer in the school’s writing department. Grate was recently
awarded a $3,000 UCA Foundation Grant to further her work with the panel. Foundation grants are intended to support
creative programs with ties to the community. In awarding the grant, Grate said, a member of the grant committee told her,
“Sometimes you just have to fund controversy.”
Students Treva Chrisman, Cory Ingram, Beau Jones and Mason Brothers formed the panel for the group’s first
appearance, which was held Oct. 26 as part of a series at UCA’s Honors College. When asked why she became
interested in the case, Chrisman, a sophomore majoring in interior design, said: “I hate to think a bad fashion choice I made
when I was 15 or 16 could convict me for the rest of my life.”
Amy Widner, news editor for UCA’s student newspaper, The Echo, reported that, “Audience questions led to a
discussion about police corruption.”
Widner’s report, in the Nov. 1, 2006 edition of The Echo, continued:
“Some students said they were skeptical about how much of a role corrupt police played in the West Memphis case or in
general. [Honors College instructor Doug] Corbitt said interviews he’s conducted with juvenile detention detainees have
opened him up to the possibility.
“The stories have been awfully similar,” Corbitt said. “I know it’s scary to think about, but the police department could be
corrupt. I hope it isn’t true, but I’ve been doing this for five years and keep getting the same story. But by talking about
things like this—hey, this is how we keep society honest, folks. Discussion can create the drive for you to become lawyers,
police, journalists—by getting involved and doing something about it,” Corbitt said.
The panel is modeled on the historic Panel of American Women, which sent groups across Arkansas to discuss the
sensitive subject of racisim in the aftermat of the desegregation crisis at Little Rock’s Central High School. See The
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.
The panel has scheduled another presentation at UCA next spring. Organizers hope to make the panel available to lead
discussions about the West Memphis case at colleges and high schools throughout Arkansas.
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University Funds Panel on WM3 Controversy
By Mara Leveritt
Friday November 10, 2006
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