Month: January 2022

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Beyond the Arc Sports Uncategorized

The Young Grizzlies Have Put the NBA On Notice

Ja Morant after a windmill dunk against the Washington Wizards (Photo credit: Memphis Grizzlies)

Recently, Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane told BasketballNews.com, “I think [why it clicks] has to do with our culture, with our locker room. We don’t have any egos. I mean, I think it starts at the top with Ja Morant, Jaren [Jackson Jr.], Dillon Brooks, myself — we’re all on one agenda, and that’s winning basketball games. Nothing really gets in the way of that mentality and that mindset. It’s always about winning.”

That culture is a big reason why the Memphis Grizzlies currently sit third in the Western conference with a record of 35-17. The second youngest team in the league has put the rest of the NBA on notice. 

Ja Morant has been on a tear this season and was selected as starter for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game, which was announced last Thursday. Morant is the the first Grizzlies guard to appear in the game, and the youngest Grizzlies player to compete in the event at 22 years old. He will become the second Grizzlies player to start an NBA All-Star Game, joining Marc Gasol (2015) and fourth All-Star in franchise history (Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph).

Currently, the Murray State alum has a franchise record of six consecutive games of 30 point-performances. On Friday night in a win 119-109 against the Utah Jazz, Morant secured his first triple-double of the season with 30 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds that marked the highest-scoring triple-double in franchise history.  It was his fourth career triple-double.

After the win against the Jazz, Morant was thankful for the All-Star nod and was happy about being able to see his family, especially his grandmother who is battling illness. He said, “It has been big time — it was much needed getting to see my family during this time. Getting the All-Star starting nod and being with them when my name was called, obviously was something I wanted to do, to be able to do, and I was able to do that. Thankful for the organization letting me be able to go spend time with my grandma. Coming back, I was the same Ja as before the announcement was made, go out and prove myself to try to win the game.”

Morant was more happy about the win than he was about the triple-double.

The Grizzlies strive with the next-man-up mentality. Players and coaches have been out due to injury and the NBA’s health and safety protocols (Covid-19). And the team has kept winning through it all. 

After the 115-95 victory against the Washington Wizards on Saturday, Taylor Jenkins with emphasis said, “Great effort by our guys. We don’t care about the schedule, we just come out and play.”

No matter who the opponent is, the Grizzlies always try to give maximum effort in win or losses. 

Last November in their first meeting, the Wizards routed the Grizzlies 115-87. And the players remembered to return the favor. Bane said after the game, “Most definitely, we are a much different team now than what we were then. We were trying to find our identity earlier in the year.They smacked us pretty good at their place, so we definitely wanted to come out and set the tone tonight. Even just coming off of a game last night.”

Let’s not forget the sequence of the year!  The block-to-dunk might go down as the highlight of the NBA season. 

Jenkins described it as “Incredible. He was actually joking with the bench,” he said. “We call them ‘cycles,’ defense to offense. Multiple possessions together. Desmond [Bane] has the incredible block. That was, on top of what Ja did earlier in the year, one of the best blocks I’ve probably ever seen, especially in transition. Des going up there and meeting the guy up at the rim and it turns into that highlight reel on the other end. What a sequence there. Incredible on both ends.”

He added, “I, internally, was celebrating big time because I recognized the sequence that had just happened. I think I was sitting down on the bench when Des [Desmond Bane] goes up neck and neck to block that shot. That got me out of my chair. Then I see the quick outlet. Then I see Jaren [Jackson Jr.] making a selfless play for his teammate. The highlight was just a stamp on it. In a way, it was like an awe and pause. I had to catch myself there. What an unbelievable sequence.”

When the Grizzlies are having fun on the court, they are hard to beat. “It’s the ultimate fun,” said Jenkins. “I love this group, love what they stand for. They stand for having fun with each other and competing with each other. That’s what I tell myself before every game. We’ve got to go out there and do that. Luckily, we don’t have to repeat that to the group that much because they own it. It’s a credit to them.”

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: Catching Up With Valerie June

Valerie June got her start playing Bluff City coffee houses. Now she’s a major Americana star, bringing her spiritual folk to people all over the world. She recently earned her first Grammy nomination for “Call Me A Fool,” a duet with another of Memphis’ favorite daughters, Carla Thomas, from her most recent album, 2021’s The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers.

The video for “Call Me A Fool” was directed by Sam Cannon, with art direction by another Memphis ex-pat, acclaimed photographer Tommy Kha. We can’t embed the “Call Me A Fool” video here, so you should slide over to YouTube and watch it at this link.

Val’s latest single — “Why the Bright Stars Glow,” in which she enlists the help of Stax star and living legend Mavis Staples — is another shot of hope from the dreadlocked songstress. For the one-take video, she referenced Prince’s classic “When Doves Cry” clip and doubled up the fun.

What’s better than one Valerie June? TWO Valerie Junes!

You can keep up with all the latest from Valerie June at her very prolific YouTube channel, where she leads guided meditations and drops gems like this one, a cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You In The End.” This simple clip shows you Val’s raw talent. Even though she’ll be appearing with her band in big venues during her upcoming spring tour, she’s still got the charm and chops Memphians remember from the coffee shops.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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News News Blog

Seminary Receives $1 Million Grant for Black Church Studies

Memphis Theological Seminary (Credit: Memphis Heritage).

Memphis Theological Seminary (MTS) has received a $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish the House of Black Church Studies at MTS.

MTS president Jody Hill said, “With the addition of the House of Black Church Studies, Memphis Theological Seminary can now celebrate that we have houses of study dedicated to equipping leaders in our student body’s three largest congregational settings: the African American Church; the Cumberland Presbyterian Church; and the Methodist Church.”

The House of Black Church Studies will enhance MTS’s capacity to carry forward its efforts to prepare and support pastors and congregational lay ministers primarily of the African-American Baptist and Pentecostal traditions to serve their local congregations.

The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. It is a three-phase initiative designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future.

Dr. Karren Todd, program director for the House of Black Church Studies, says, “As an alum of MTS, I am excited to be a part of this new and necessary work for the Black Church. Our mission is to ensure an ongoing commitment to enrich the work and witness of Memphis Theological Seminary as a theological and spiritual resource for the Black Church Context.”

Lilly Endowment launched the Pathways initiative in January 2021 because of its longstanding interest in supporting efforts to enhance and sustain the vitality of Christian congregations by strengthening the leadership capacities of pastors and congregational lay leaders.

“Theological schools have long played a pivotal role in preparing pastoral leaders for churches,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Today, these schools find themselves in a period of rapid and profound change. Through the Pathways Initiative, theological schools will take deliberate steps to address the challenges they have identified in ways that make the most sense to them. We believe that their efforts are critical to ensuring that Christian congregations continue to have a steady stream of pastoral leaders who are well-prepared to lead the churches of tomorrow.”

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Sundance 2022: Truth is Better Than Fiction

Aubrey Plaza breaks bad in Emily The Criminal.

 

The good part about having a virtual Sundance pass is the wealth of great films it provides. The bad news is that, since you’re not fully immersed in the Park City bubble, real life goes on, and you may not get to watch everything that looks good. I’ve certainly been feeling that tension over the last week, and trying to be judicious with my picks. That means skipping everything that will be shown this weekend at Crosstown Theater as part of Indie Memphis’ satelite screening program. 

A still from “What Travelers Are Saying About Jornada Del Muerto” by Hope Tucker.

The exception was the short film “What Travelers Are Saying About Jornada Del Muerto,” the short film by Memphian Hope Tucker, which will screen Saturday, January 29, at Crosstown. It’s essentially montage of shots from the Trinity test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945, overlaid with online reviews from people who visited as tourists. You know me, I love the experimental stuff, and this one certainly scratched that itch.

Colin Farrel in After Yang (Image courtesy Sundance Institute)

Through happenstance, I watched two films in a row that dealt with the thorny question of our relationship with artificial intelligence. The first was After Yang, which was one of the first films I added to my schedule when the Sundance website went live. Mononym-ed director Kogonada adopted a short story from Alexander Weinstein that recalls the Brian Aldiss classic “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” which became Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence. When Jake (Colin Ferrel) and Kyra (Jodi Turner-Smith) adopted a daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) from China, they wanted to make sure she felt connected to her roots, so they purchased Yang (Justin H. Min), an android who would be a surrogate older brother. Now, Mika is four years old, and Yang is a trusted part of the family. But when he suddenly malfunctions (in a great scene that shows the family competing in an online dance game), Jake runs into trouble. He bought Yang as a refurb from a fly-by-night store that isn’t there any more, and the manufacturer won’t honor the warranty. When he consults a gray market android repair service, he uncovers the secrets of Yang’s past, and the independent existence his “son” had hidden from him. 

After Yang looks great, and the underlying story is strong, but it only has one speed. Ferrel and Turner-Smith are both more than capable, but they are reserved to the point of flatness. The film is interesting, but more admired than loved by me. 

David Earl and Charles Hayward in Brian and Charles (Courtesy Sundance Institute)

The other half of my inadvertent A.I. double bill took an entirely different approach. Brian and Charles by Welsh director Jim Archer is a comedy about an eccentric inventor (David Earl, who shares a writing credit on the film) who is tired of developing the egg belt and pinecone bag, and decides to swing for the fences by building a robot. He succeeds beyond his wildest dream, and his creation dubs itself Charles. Brian is an unlikely Dr. Frankenstein, and he throws himself into parenting his creation, who progresses to toddler stage very quickly. Brian wants to shield Charles from the dangers he knows come with being an outsider, but the robot wants to explore and see the world. Their little household is thrown into crisis when Brian’s jerky neighbors discover Charles and steal him to work on their farm. 

Brian and Charles is charming, with a pair of good performances by the leads and a well-attuned screenplay. But the jokes never rise above the chuckle level, and the indie film quirk level is set to “cloying.” Still, I enjoyed both After Yang and Brian and Charles for their thoughtfulness. 

Aubrey Plaza breaks bad in Emily the Criminal. (Courtesy Sundance Institute)

Aubrey Plaza was the driving force behind Emily the Criminal, as she found the screenplay by John Patton Ford and spearheaded the production by agreeing to take on the title character. Emily is struggling as a caterer in Los Angeles, even though she has a degree that would qualify her for high-paying advertising jobs. She has a DUI on her record, because she was the least-wasted person in her friend group that went to a music festival, and had the bad luck of getting pulled over when she tried to drive everyone home. One of those friends (Megalyn Echikunwoke) is trying to help her get a good job out of guilt, but nobody wants to hire a felon. Meanwhile, a co-worker steers Emily toward a lucrative freelance opportunity: working as a “dummy shopper” using stolen credit card information to buy big screen TVs, which are then sold on the black market. Emily quickly learns that she can make a killing crime-ing, but she’s torn between the promise of the straight life and going full Walter White — especially since her natural talents seem to lean toward breaking bad. 

Plaza, like many who started out in comedy, is an incredibly good actor when she turns her timing and control toward drama. Ford’s screenplay is a finely honed machine, and the jittery camerawork works perfectly, especially in a harrowing scene where Emily has to brazen her way through a car heist while surrounded by gangsters twice her size. You can be forgiven if you get a strong Uncut Gems vibe from Emily the Criminal, but I loved this film. 

Maika Monroe gets paranoid in Watcher by Chloe Okuno. (Courtesy Sundance Institute)

Another strong entry in the narrative category is Watcher by director Chloe Okuno. A slick, Hitchcock-by-way-of-De Palma riff on Rear Window, the film is driven by some ace production design (one thing this Sundance has in abundance is great-looking interiors) and a charismatic performance by lead Maika Monroe as Julia, a newlywed who abandons her acting career to move to Romania with her husband, where she finds mostly ennui with a side order of menacing peeping tom. 

Lucy and Desi (Courtesy Sundance Institute)

The nonfiction films continue to be very strong this year. Lucy and Desi is a passion project for Amy Poehler. Given full access to the Desilu archives and the couple’s personal effects by daughter Luci Arnaz Luckinbill, Poehler’s film goes a lot more in-depth into Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s unlikely and historic relationship, and explores the couple’s unrivaled legacy of television innovation more than the recent biopic starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem (which was infected with a terminal case of Sorkin-ism). 

The Janes (Courtesy Sundance Institute)

The best doc I saw at Sundance is also superior to the fictionalized version of the story. The Janes from directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes is the story of the Chicago-area feminist collective which provided illegal abortions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The clearly told doc features some incredible interviews with people on both sides of the issue, including the policemen who ultimately busted the Janes in 1972. The cast of characters, it turns out, were much more interesting in real life, and the film’s stories of the day to day, cloak and dagger proceedings of the group, and the darkly funny story of how it all came apart, just exposes what an incredible missed opportunity its Sundance selection Call Jane was. The Janes is an HBO production that will premiere on the company’s streaming service later this year, and it is not to be missed. 

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News News Blog News Feature

State Lawmakers Want Transparency on Refugee Children Program

Credit: Julie Ricard/Unsplash

State leaders want transparency from the federal government on the flow and placement of refugee children throughout Tennessee in a report issued Friday.

State House and Senate leaders created the Joint Study Committee on Refugee Issues last May after media stories of “overnight flights of children into the Chattanooga area.” Those stories described a plane carrying children arriving in the East Tennessee city in the middle of the night. 

The news sparked a controversy among conservatives in the state. Their concerns rose to the White House. In May, press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that Tennessee just happened to be centrally located and that the children “are simply on their way to unite with relatives and sponsors, to meet sponsors in the state, or just traveling through Tennessee until they reach another destination to unite with family members or legal sponsors.”

However, state officials pressed for more information on the federal program that oversees unaccompanied alien children (UAC) and how it operates in Tennessee. The study committee’s report said that there were few answers from the feds. 

The report said Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests went unanswered and phone calls were not returned. In one conference call about the flights, officials with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), could not tell Tennessee officials about future flights, the locations the minors were going to, or answer many other questions about these activities. ORR officials gave only general information about the program and pointed further inquiries to policies available on a federal website.

In June, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds asked for a federal Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the matter. In a letter to U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, the governors called these murky flights part of “the current border crisis” and a hearing should “address the Biden Administration’s failure to provide notice and transparency in their movement of unaccompanied migrant children into states.”

Right around the time of the mysterious Chattanooga flight full of refugee children, stories of abuse began to surface about the main agency that managed those children in Tennessee. Only one group at the time, the Georgia-based Baptiste Group, ran a residential facility to support these children in Tennessee. After investigations, three employees of Baptiste’s Chattanooga-based La Casa de Sidney were arrested. 

The facility’s license was suspended but couldn’t be revoked immediately under due process. Proceedings in the case were ongoing as of the time of the report’s publication Friday. No children now stay at the home. 

The Baptiste Group hoped to establish another home for refugee children in Memphis in 2019. The group had a $3.7 million grant from the federal government to house children at the former South Side Middle School. But the deal fell apart under scrutiny by Chalkbeat Tennessee and members of the Shelby County School Board. Records uncovered by the state study group said “the Baptiste Group received [$14.1 million] in Memphis. There is no known Baptiste Group facility in Memphis.” 

Another agency, Bethany Christian Services, is now the sole agency managing refugee children in state but the group does not provide any residential services. That organization said it offered services to 2,117 Tennessee children and families in 2020. 

Beyond that, the federal government’s movement of refugee children through and in Tennessee remains murky. The report gave an eyewitness account from a Knoxville businessman who said he saw a large number of “Hispanic” children on a flight escorted by a man who said he was taking them “to a shelter in Chattanooga.” Another witness said he saw 20 Gray Line buses in Downtown Knoxville filled with passengers, “who appeared to be young Latinos, got off the buses, which appeared to be a rest stop … stayed for about a half hour. They re-boarded and the buses left Knoxville for an unknown destination.” 

For all of this and more, the joint committee’s Friday report recommends a host of changes that may see bills proposed in this session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

Among them are: 

• A resolution that the federal government must seek state approval before locating refugee children in Tennessee.

• New reporting requirements for residential child care agencies to disclose their contracts, and regular census counts. 

• Revocation of licenses of facilities (like La Casa de Sidney) when employees are charged with criminal behavior connected to their duties at the facilities. 

• Support for the “Migrant Resettlement Transparency Act,” introduced in Congress by Tennessee senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty. 

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News News Blog

Report: Memphis Crime Rates Declined in 2021

(Credit: Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission)

Major violent crime declined in the second half of 2021, according to the latest data from the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission. 

These crimes, which include murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, rose sharply here in 2020 as they did in most urban centers across the United States. Violent crime was up 24 percent in Memphis in 2020, compared to 2019, with big increases in murders and aggravated assaults.

(Credit: Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission)

The trend continued in the first half of 2021, with violent crime rates up 13 percent in Memphis. However, early data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) show a 2 percent increase in violent crime for Memphis for all of 2021, “indicating an actual decline during the last half of 2021,” according to the Crime Commission.

“Whether or not this is the beginning of a longer downward trend is something time will tell but it is encouraging,” said Crime Commission president Bill Gibbons. “Still, our major violent crime rate remains above what it was in 2019 before the pandemic and substantially above what it was in 2011, the lowest point in our violent crime rate in many years. 

This is not the time to slack up on efforts to reduce violent crime but rather just the opposite.

Bill Gibbons

“This is not the time to slack up on efforts to reduce violent crime but rather just the opposite.” 

Major property crimes continue a three-year decline. (Credit: Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission)

Major property crimes, like burglaries and motor vehicle thefts, continued a three-year decline last year. These crimes were down 5.5 percent in Memphis in 2021, compared to 2020.

Categories
Music Music Blog

The Flow: Live-Streamed Music Events This Week, January 27-February 2

Jeremy Scott (Credit: Jeremy Scott)

This week culminates in Groundhog Day, where the famous little critter peeks out to see what the spring holds. (It’s also known as Imbolc in the Celtic tradition, that midway point between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox). Peeking out from our groundhog dens is a good metaphor for the pandemic life, when you think about it. When we’re not looking for an early spring, we’re looking for a future life without masks or threat of contagion. These days, we’re looking for both, and lo! There on the horizon are reasons for hope, not least of which are the many live-streamed shows that Memphians deliver with aplomb. Huzzah to them, and huzzah to us. Stay safe and, if there’s any doubt, stay in your den and listen to the sounds streaming all around you.

ALL TIMES CST

Thursday, January 27
7 p.m.
Max Kaplan & the Magics — at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
Website

9 p.m.
Devil Train — B-Side Memphis
Facebook YouTube Twitch TV

Friday, January 28
7 p.m.
Jason D. Williams — Birthday Bash at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
Website

10 p.m.
Jeremy Scott & the Drip Edges and Alicja-Pop
— Record release at B-Side Memphis
YouTube Twitch TV

Saturday, January 29
7 p.m.
James the Fang & Serious Sam Bennett — at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
Website

9 p.m.
Jackson Stokes — at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
Website

10 p.m.
Sister Dynamite — at B-Side Memphis
YouTube Twitch TV

Sunday, January 30
6 p.m.
Jamalama — at B-Side Memphis
YouTube Twitch TV

11 p.m.
Rich & Anne — at B-Side Memphis
YouTube Twitch TV

Monday, January 31
10 p.m.
Evil Rain — at B-Side Memphis
YouTube Twitch TV

Tuesday, February 1
No live-streamed events scheduled


Wednesday, February 2
5:30 p.m.
Richard Wilson
Facebook

7 p.m.
T. Jarrod Bonta — at Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
Website

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Uncle Goyo’s Mexican Restaurant to Open in February

Greg Diaz, owner of the TacoNganas food trucks, is opening his first Memphis restaurant, Uncle Goyo’s Mexican Restaurant, in late February at 1730 South Germantown Road in the Thornwood community.

The high end restaurant will have “very authentic Mexican food,” says Diaz. Instead of the chalupas and other fare people find in many local “Tex Mex” restaurants, Diaz says, “They’re going to be able to find stuff made from scratch. Like mole. I’d say there are about 30 items on the menu.”

Greg Diaz and his wife, Daisy. (Credit: Greg Diaz)

Diaz will not be selling the same food at Uncle Goyo’s that he sells in his food trucks. “We’ll have some some other tacos. We’ll have something very similar.”

And, he says, “We have both an executive chef, a sub chef, and other chefs from Mexico City to be the teaching staff.” Israel Loyo is Uncle Goyo’s executive chef.

Israel Loyo is Uncle Goyo’s executive chef (Credit: Greg Diaz)

His restaurant is “literally next door to Moondance (Grill). You can pass in front of my door to get there. We’re remodeling. The upholstery people are making the booths, fixing up the bar. We’re right in the middle.”

The color scheme will be “talavera” colors, which Diaz described as vibrant blues and other colors. It’s the colors artists use in Mexico when making plates and other creations. “Vibrant Mexican art is what I’d call it.”

A large mural depicts a lady making tortillas, Diaz says. “I had it shipped in from Mexico.”

A large mural at Uncle Goyo’s Mexican Restaurant

Asked where the name “Uncle Goyo” comes from, Diaz says,  “‘Goyo’ is an endearment for ‘Gregorio.’ Gregorio is my name, my grandfather was Gregorio, my uncle — my mother’s brother — was Gregorio. My mother, after having nine children, decided to name her last one Gregorio.”

Diaz, who has four locations and eight food trucks, was born in Mexico City. He said in a recent Memphis Flyer interview, “I was raised by a single mother of 10 children. And she still managed to open a restaurant and then turn it into a chain of eight restaurants.”

He says he’s been cooking since he was born, but his main job is pastor of Nueva Direccion church. And, he says, he’s probably best known for being the executive director of Las Americas, a youth development center. 

As to how he got into the food business, Diaz says in the interview, “There’s always food around. We feed kids all the time. So, I thought, ‘I’m going to open up a taco truck to make some money to offset the cost of a lot of the food we served kids and youth.’”

The TacoNganas food truck was so well received, Diaz expanded to what are now four locations and 58 employees.

Asked why he felt he has come so far with his business, Diaz told the Memphis Flyer, “I think the hand of God is on top of us.”

“Uncle Goyo’s Mexican Restaurant” will be open for lunch and dinner and, eventually, breakfast, Diaz says.

And if you’re looking for Diaz at his many food locations, he says, “I’m going to be everywhere.”

Categories
News News Blog

New DNA Tests Sought In West Memphis Three Case

(Credit: Wikipedia)

New DNA testing has been requested in the West Memphis Three case for recently rediscovered evidence once claimed to be lost or burned. 

Damien Echols, one of three convicted of 1993 murders committed in West Memphis, asked the Crittenden County Circuit Court to allow the review in a petition filed Monday. Specifically, he wants the ligatures — the shoelaces used to tie the young victims’ arms and legs — to be tested with new DNA collection technology. 

Echols hopes new clues from the analysis could exonerate himself, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, known collectively as the West Memphis Three. The three were teenagers when they were accused and convicted of the murders of three younger boys, Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and James Moore. The West Memphis Three were released in 2011 after they entered Alford pleas, which allowed them to claim their innocence but also admit prosecutors had enough evidence to prove their guilt to a jury. 

“Echols knows that his DNA is not on those ligatures because he had no role in committing these murders,” reads the petition from Echols’ attorney Patrick Benca of Little Rock. “Others might not be so certain, though, and who those others are surely needs to be determined if it can be ‘in the interests of justice.’”

The petition comes after evidence in the case was rediscovered in December. Echols tweeted at the time that “we know that none of the evidence was destroyed,” and “my attorney was in the evidence room this morning and saw it with his own eyes. Every piece is still there.” 

The petition also outlines the tough and lengthy process required to find that evidence; namely, the ligatures used in the murders. In 2020, a true crime documentary asked if new DNA testing methods might yield new results in the case. Scott Ellington, the prosecutor in the case, “balked” at the idea at the time, according to the petition. 

One of Echols’ attorneys later asked Ellington about testing the evidence again, and at that time the prosecutor “had no problem” with the idea. The two agreed on the evidence to be tested: “the victims’ shoes, socks, Boy Scout cap, shirts, pants, and underwear, as well as the sticks used to hold the clothing underwater, and the shoelaces used as ligatures to bind the victims,” according to the petition. They even selected a private California laboratory to run the tests. But none of the evidence was ever transferred, no explanation was ever given, and “it just never occurred.”

In March, Ellington was elected to a new position. He was replaced as prosecutor by Keith Chrestman, to serve until the end of 2022. 

Chrestman, the new prosecutor, told Echols’ attorney that some of the evidence in the case had been “lost” after the three entered their Alford pleas. Some of the evidence was “misplaced,” according to the court papers, and some of it “was destroyed by fire” in a building fire.

Chrestman also told attorneys that the court had jurisdiction over the evidence and those officials would have to grant authority to see it. Still, he asked the West Memphis Police Department (WMPD) to catalog any remaining evidence. Chrestman did not respond to emails or requests from Echols’ attorneys after April 2021, they said. 

Those attorneys filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request against the WMPD to see the evidence. In fall 2021, West Memphis city attorney Michael Stevenson invited Echols’ attorney, Benca, to a WMPD evidence storage facility “to ascertain what was there and what was not.” 

“That visit proved productive with the finding of the most important evidence for present purposes — the ligatures used to bind the murdered children — misfiled at the police department,” Benca wrote in the petition. 

Echols and his attorney are now asking for those ligatures, the little boys’ shoestrings, to be tested using the “M-Vac system.” Company officials describe it as “kind of like comparing a hand broom to a carpet cleaner,” when it comes to collecting material that might contain DNA. 

Benca said the shoestrings already provided biological material used as evidence in the case, which is not surprising “given that the ligatures are the pieces of evidence that we can most confidently say were necessarily handled by the killer(s) who wrapped them around the victims’ limbs and then knotted them into place.”

“No one knows, of course, whether additional testing of the ligatures with the new M-Vac DNA collection technology will lead to the recovery of new DNA samples for testing or not,” Benca wrote. “But one thing for certain is that such evidence will definitely not be found if testing with this new technology is not done.”

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News News Blog News Feature

School Board Renames District, Approves Closures and Mergers

Credit: Shelby County Schools/Facebook

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

The board of the newly-branded Memphis-Shelby County School District on Tuesday endorsed a sweeping facilities plan that includes closing two schools, merging another two schools, and relocating several schools and programs, among other changes.  

District officials said many of the changes are designed to better use schools with declining enrollment, address overcrowding at other schools, and move students out of buildings with millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.

The board agreed Tuesday night to close Alton and Shady Grove elementary schools after this school year. Alton students will instead attend A.B. Hill Elementary, and Shady Grove students will attend either Dexter K-8 School or White Station Elementary.

Dexter elementary and middle schools will merge to form Dexter K-8 School, and Mt. Pisgah Middle School will expand to include ninth grade.

In addition, three schools will relocate:  

  • Maxine Smith STEAM Academy, a middle school, will move and share the East High School campus.
  • Northwest Prep Academy and the district’s Adolescent Parenting Program will move to the building formerly occupied by Airways Middle School.
  • Airways Achievement Academy, a K-8 school, will move to the building formerly occupied by Norris Elementary.

The changes are part of the district’s “Reimagining 901” initiative, which the board unanimously endorsed Tuesday.

The plan also calls for rezoning high school students in Memphis’ Riverwood neighborhood from Ridgeway High School to White Station High School, and for refocusing academic programming at Bolton High School on what the district calls “agristem” — agriculture, automotive, science, technology, engineering, and math careers.

Superintendent Joris Ray called the wide-ranging facilities plan the “first step to a new day” intended to revolutionize public education in Memphis. 

Ray’s initial “Reimagining 901” proposal, presented last year, included constructing five schools, expanding 13 existing schools, and closing 13 to 15 schools by 2031. Ray responded to critics who said the district is rushing the changes.

“Parents, I hear you. Community, I hear you. But we can’t wait on doing what’s right for children,” Ray said in an impassioned speech before the board’s vote. “I’m committed to doing everything in my power to ensure all of our students have a world-class education, because this work is personal to me, because I was once one of those kids.”

Minutes later, the board unanimously passed the facilities plan, with no discussion, among 30-some other action items. The vote covered the district’s initiative to change its name from Shelby County Schools to Memphis-Shelby County Schools. 

In a separate vote, the board approved renewing the charter contracts of several schools, including KIPP Memphis Academy Middle and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary, two schools administrators had recommended for closure due to low test scores.

Before the votes Tuesday, 21 people addressed the board, most expressing either excitement or dismay about Maxine Smith STEAM Academy’s move from Middle College High School to East High School.

Andy Rambo, the father of an eighth grader at Maxine Smith STEAM Academy and of a junior at East High School who also attended Maxine Smith, commended the district for the move, and said it will make it much easier for parents like him.

Rambo also said he’s confident that combining two schools will lead to better educational opportunities for “all of Memphis’ babies,” including his 18-month-old son.

“It is a scary thing as a parent to trust a significant part of the social-emotional development of your child to someone,” Rambo said. “We cannot be more happy and confident in the decisions we’ve made.”

Conversely, Stephanie Ferreira, the mother of two East High School students, pleaded with the board to hold off on moving Maxine Smith to East and asked for “due diligence and investment” in working with parents and answering their questions.

“The position that we’re in as parents is one of confusion regarding a plan that many of us have just learned about over the past several weeks,” Ferreira said, adding many “walked away from the [district’s community] meetings with unanswered questions about a plan that was vague.”

Ray later defended the district’s plan as well-founded in extensive research, and also disagreed with complaints from some people that they weren’t well-informed about the proposed facilities plans.

“We don’t make haphazard decisions. We don’t just act without consulting the community, without asking the right questions, without garnering feedback,” Ray said. 

While board member Althea Greene acknowledged some parents and community members are concerned about the changes, she said she is happy with the plan and the board’s decision. 

“As we ‘Reimagine 901,’ we realize that things will have to change,” she said.

Asked after the meeting about the board’s lack of discussion before voting, Greene said members asked questions and discussed the proposal at previous committee meetings, and it was good they didn’t have to “waste time” at Tuesday’s business meeting.

Board Chair Michelle McKissack echoed Greene’s comments, saying the proposals approved Tuesday are not just about facilities, but also about the district “firing all of its cylinders” at its mission.

“It’s going to be difficult and not everyone is going to fully agree with it, but you have to look at the big picture and that’s what ‘Reimagining 901’ is all about,” she said. “It’s all about not just approving our school buildings, but what’s happening in the buildings.” 

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.