( CNN ) -- Three men who were convicted of killing three Cub Scouts 16 years ago will have their cases reviewed in a court hearing to see whether they should be granted a new trial , the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday . Damien Echols , Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in the 1993 deaths of 8-year-olds Michael Moore , Christopher Byers and Steven Branch . The boys ' bruised and mutilated bodies were found in May 1993 in West Memphis , Arkansas , their arms and legs hogtied with their own shoelaces . The court Thursday remanded the cases back to the lower court . The ruling means Echols , Baldwin and Misskelley will be able to present new evidence that could exonerate them . Echols ' attorneys said at a hearing in September that they want to present DNA evidence not available at the time of the trial , as well as testimony that supports arguments that Echols and the two others are innocent . `` We are very pleased that the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a new evidentiary hearing to review the convincing evidence of the innocence of Damien Echols , Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley , '' Echols spokesman Lonnie Soury said . `` These young men were convicted of a brutal crime someone else committed , and we hope the state moves quickly to overturn their convictions and seek to prosecute those responsible . '' The case , known as the West Memphis 3 , has gained advocates including some of the victims ' parents . Pamela Hobbs , Branch 's mother , said last year that she was once convinced of their guilt but began to consider the DNA evidence and believes the prosecution 's case was flawed . `` We are asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to right a terrible wrong , overturn their convictions and grant Damien as well as Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley a new trial , '' said Dennis Riordan , the lead attorney on the case , in September . The Arkansas Supreme Court , in its ruling , said that the circuit court erroneously interpreted the Arkansas DNA testing laws and that the three should have been granted an evidentiary hearing . Testing of the DNA in question was conducted between December 2005 and September 2007 , according to the Arkansas Supreme Court . The material included hair from a ligature used to bind Moore and a hair recovered from a tree stump near where the bodies were found , court documents said . The hair found in the ligature was consistent with Branch 's stepfather , Terry Hobbs , while the hair found on the tree stump was consistent with the DNA of a friend of Hobbs ' , according to the documents . Police have never considered Hobbs a suspect , and Hobbs maintains that he had nothing to do with the murders . Echols received a death sentence for the slayings , while Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison . Now 35 , Echols said in September , `` I miss the things that most people take for granted , things people do n't want , like rain . '' Echols wrote in his 2005 autobiography , `` Almost Home , '' that police questioned him a day after the bodies of the second-graders were found . The teens -- Echols was 19 at the time , Baldwin was 16 , and Misskelley was 17 -- were arrested a month later . Prosecutors successfully argued that the defendants were involved in a satanic cult and that punctures and cuts on the boys ' bodies indicated a ritual sacrifice . In addition , prosecutors secured a confession from Misskelley , although his defense attorneys argued that he had a learning disability and an IQ of 70 . They also claimed the confession was coerced , with neither Misskelley 's parents nor an attorney present , and riddled with inconsistencies . A Little Rock , Arkansas-based group trying to raise awareness about the West Memphis 3 case has brought in celebrities such as singer Eddie Vedder and actor Johnny Depp to a recent public rally . CNN 's Deb Feyerick , Stephanie Chen and Katherine Wojtecki contributed to this report .
The Arkansas Supreme Court sent the case back for a hearing . The three were convicted of the 1993 murders of three Boy Scouts . DNA evidence found at the scene did not point to the three convicted .