Many people believe that the West Memphis Three were guilty.  They were found guilty the first time by a unanimous jury and plead guilty the second time before waiting for a retrial. 

The three had no legit alibis.
All of this is documented information from legal documents and the mainstream media.
   
Misskelley confessed three separate times, once with his lawyer present.  Misskelley also told two other people about the crime before he was arrested. Baldwin told someone else he committed the crimes.  Echols was seen in muddy clothes near the crime scene. He bragged about the murder to two other teenagers, stating he killed the three boys. Echols is reported to have either told or bragged about the crime to four people before he was arrested. Echols also had a history of psychiatric treatment. His reported actions included brutally killing a dog, starting fires at his school, threatening to kill his teachers and parents and stating he liked to drink blood.

Fibers on the murdered victims’ clothing were found to microscopically similar to things in the Baldwin and Echols homes. The serrated wound patterns on the three victims that were consistent with, and could have been caused by, a knife found in a lake behind appellant Baldwin’s parents’ residence.

Echols' stated under cross-examination that he was interested in the occult. A funeral register found in his room with hand-drawn pentagrams and upside-down crosses. Echols' journal contained morbid images and references to dead children.  

http://wm3truth.com/   

There was no hysteria around ritual abuse and satanic ritual abuse.  http://childabusewiki.org/index.php?title=Ritual_Abuse