[Blitzer:] You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, deadly chaos in Pakistan as NATO supply trucks headed for Afghanistan from Pakistan come under explosive attack. Plus, it's been almost two years since a massive terror siege in Mumbai, India killed more than 100 people. Now there are serious fears it could happen right here in the United States. We're going to show you what New York City is doing to prepare. I'm Wolf Blitzer, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. But first, let's go to Arkansas where right now a man convicted two decades ago of a brutal child murder is waiting for a new verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court reviewing whether he and two other men should get a new trial. CNN's Deborah Feyerick has more on this gut-wrenching case.
[Deborah Feyerick, Cnn Correspondent:] With tales of brutal satanic rituals, the murders of three boys have haunted West Memphis for 17 years.
[Unidentified Male:] We the jury find Damian Echols guilty of capital murder.
[Feyerick:] Now the story continues, possibly turning on a hair like this found at the grisly crime scene. [on camera]: What is it that you hope that you get from the Arkansas Supreme Court?
[Damian Echols, On Death Row:] What I want is a new trial. I want to go back in front of a jury and in front of the state of Arkansas and present all of the evidence that we have now and show where the mistakes were made during the original trial. I want to be vindicated in front of everyone.
[Feyerick:] We meet Damian Echols at the supermax prison about an hour's drive south of Little Rock, Arkansas. He's almost 36 and has spent half his life on death row. Two friends also convicted of the murders are serving life sentences. [on camera]: You were asked at the trial did you kill Christopher Buyers and your was then?
[Echols:] No.
[Feyerick:] And your answer is now?
[Echols:] No, absolutely not.
[Feyerick:] Michael Moore?
[Echols:] No, absolutely not. Even though it's been 20 years, you never get used to being asked that. It's the kind of thing that screws with your head for the rest of your life, to have people that constantly ask you that question, it's like being kicked in the stomach over and over and over again.
[Feyerick:] Chris, Michael, Stevie, best friends found naked in the woods where they played, their hands and feet hog- tied with their own shoelaces. [on camera]: Those sterile images of those little boys down by the creek, how did those images affect you?
[Echols:] I didn't see those all the up until it was during the trial. So it was still sort of abstract to me. They were just names. That's when it really hit me and it does something to you when you see something like that, it cracks you inside.
[Feyerick:] After the boys were discovered here, police searched the area, and yet they found no physical evidence linking Damian Echols and his two friends to the crime scene. There was no DNA, no fingerprints, nothing even suggesting a satanic ritual which prosecutors allege was the motive for the murder. Since being convicted, all three have maintained their innocence. Police and prosecutors stand by their case saying the convictions speak for themselves. Echols' defense team claims it has new information pointing to someone else. That has in many this small Midwestern town questioning whether the verdict may have been wrong.
[Echols:] We have come up with a lot of evidence now that wasn't available at the time I went to trial.
[Feyerick:] For Damian Echols, life or death now could come down to a single hair found in the shoelaces used to tie up one of the boys. DNA testing suggests the hair could belong to the stepfather of another victim Stevie Branch. The stepfather Terry Hobbs has denied involvement. Police have closed the case and did not consider him a suspect. [on camera]: Why would police come to you? What was your alibi?
[Echols:] I didn't fit in the town where I lived. I only dressed in black. I had, you know, pretty outrageous hairstyles. At the time that the police say the murders took place, I was actually on the phone with three different people. The problem was the attorneys I had at the time, the public defenders never even called them to the witness stand. Never even ask them about this kind of stuff.
[Feyerick:] The Arkansas attorney general now on the case now tells us, "We take the utmost care in handling the appeals of death sentences handed down by Arkansas jurors. We're committed to fairness and justice." The family of one of the victims is among those who believe justice was done. [on camera]: Is it just enough for you to be found innocent or do you need for somebody to be found guilty?
[Echols:] I guess I don't absolutely need it, I'll survive without them finally putting someone else on trial for this. But it would be a tremendous sense of closure for me. If they don't, then you're always going to have people looking at you, wondering.
[Feyerick:] It's a loose end.
[Echols:] Yes, it is.
[Feyerick:] A loose end, possibly tied up Echols hopes if he is granted a new trial. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, West Memphis, Arkansas.
[Blitzer:] What a story. The future of hundreds of NASA workers now up in the air after what happened to them today. And a disturbing discovery in the deadly fight against drugs on the border with Mexico.