Before the undersigned Notary Public, duly qualified and acting in and for said county and state, appeared Ann Tate, to me well known to be the affiant herein, who stated the following under oath:
"1. I, Ann Tate, am a resident of Jonesboro, Arkansas. I was born in 1952.
2. I was working in the Jonesboro Juvenile Detention Unit when Jason Baldwin first arrived. I worked there full-time for about two years. I usually worked a 12-hour shift between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
3. My usual routine when I arrived on the Unit was to look at the Unit log. That log would inform me what had happened during the day shift. I would then check all of the cells. I would do a count of the detainees. I would then make entries every 15 minutes in the log book while I was on the Unit and on duty.
4. The purpose of the Unit log was to account for where everybody was, and what they were doing. It provided staff information to help manage the Unit. I would also hand out snacks to the detainees. If a new detainee arrived while I was in the Unit, I was often the person who would book the person in.
5. When detainees were brought into us, they were given standard clothing: an orange top and pants and blue flip-flops. Any street clothes or personal items were put into a bag and stored.
6. Part of the routine when new arrivals came was for us to keep them in their cells for a period of time. This allowed us, as staff members, to check out their attitude and behavior.
7. When Jason Baldwin first arrived on the Unit, he was put into the cell closest to where the staff member who monitored activities in the Unit was seated. We wanted to keep an especially close eye on him at first, because he was the subject of a well-known case. Also, we were not sure how he would behave, or how other detainees would behave towards him.
8. Joyce Cureton was my supervisor on the Unit at that time. She was the person who had made the decision about how we would be managing Jason Baldwin while we got to know him, and saw how he fit in with others.
9. When Jason first came onto the Unit you could tell that he was fearful. After a while, he adjusted to the routine. Because of his friendly personality, he fit in well with the others, and I do not remember his having any trouble with any of the other inmates.
10. Based on my interactions with Jason and my observations of him, I can state that he was well mannered and well behaved. He was never a disciplinary problem for the staff and he acted politely and with respect towards other detainees.
11. Jason Baldwin and some of the other detainees were white. There were a number of black detainees as well. Jason got along well with everyone regardless of race. I do not remember hearing, at any time, that Jason had any kind of incident with another detainee, or was reported to have been threatened in a serious way by anyone.
12. I also remember a detainee named Michael Carson being placed on the Unit. Carson had blondish hair. He wasn't big for his age. He was sort of thick or chunky. My recollection is that he had been to the Juvenile Unit more than once before Jason Baldwin got there.
13. Prior to my reviewing and signing this affidavit, I was shown copies of some of the Detention Unit's records by private investigator Tom Quinn. Mr. Quinn identified himself as a private investigator working for Jason Baldwin's lawyers.
14. One of the documents I reviewed was a Unit log for September 1, 1993. The log shows Michael Carson being put in a cell with another detainee named Jason Duncan. I remember Jason Duncan as being another one of the white inmates who was present on the Unit while Jason Baldwin was there. Sue Weaver, one of my colleagues at the time, made the notes that were shown to me by Mr. Quinn for the date September 1, 1993. I recognize her writing.
15. The next page of the log shown to me that follows the entry about Carson being put in a cell with Duncan identifies me as having been on the Unit. That would have probably been the beginning of my shift. According to the Unit log, Carson arrived on the Unit on September 1, 1993 at 1:10 a.m.
16. Mr. Quinn also asked me to review the Unit log for September 4, 1993. I recognized my handwriting and my initials by the log entrees. There was an entry on that evening at 8:15 p.m. that reads: "Jason B., Daniel & Michael/cards - others still talking. Jason D. listening."
17. I remember exactly where Carson and Baldwin were sitting at the time of the observations in the notes. I was sitting in the pod at the time. Their table was in front of me. The tables in the recreation room used by the boys each had four seats that were attached to the table. Baldwin was sitting in a seat to my right, and Carson was sitting in a seat to Baldwin's right and directly facing me. Jason Duncan was at the table but not playing cards, and that is why I noted that he was listening. The other person at the table would have been Daniel Biddle, another inmate. Biddle was eventually involved in an escape.
18. The log entrees that I made were typical of the sorts of entries that staff on the Unit would make. Part of what we were concerned about was to monitor the associations between detainees on the Unit; which detainees seemed to get along, and how they behaved when they were together. This was a sound way of managing the detainees. The maintenance of the log allowed us to pass information from one shift to the other so that we had information with which to manage our groups of detainees.
19. At the time that Jason Baldwin was on the Unit, the count would vary, but was usually no more than 12 or 13 persons. We were able to get a fairly good reading on personalities of each of the detainees, at least insofar as they behaved on the Unit, and in their communications with us.
20. Mr. Quinn also reviewed with me an interview report prepared by a law enforcement officer named C.A. Beall who apparently interviewed Michael Carson on February 1, 1994. In that interview, Carson explained that Leonard, Xavier, and a little black kid would come up and 'mess' with Jason Baldwin, and that Carson then basically stood up for Jason.
21. I remember Leonard Haskins and Xavier Redus, who were the young men referred to. Both of those young men were black. There were, as I mentioned before, other black inmates on the Unit. I do not remember any problems between Leonard, Xavier, and Jason Baldwin, or between Jason and any other black inmates for that matter.
22. According to additional entries that Mr. Quinn reviewed with me, it appeared to me that according to the Unit log on September 7, 1993 Michael Carson was released to his mother and father to go to CYS, a youth facility, and that September 7, 1993 was Carson's last day on the Unit at least for that specific period of time.
23. I remember being shocked when I heard that Michael Carson was testifying for the prosecution in the case against Jason Baldwin. Based on the observations that I had made of Carson while I had seen him on the Unit not only in September of 1993, but on other occasions as well, he was a kid who liked to call attention to himself. He did things to try to show off.
24. Jason Baldwin was a different personality. He was quiet, and did not call attention to himself by showing off, or by trying to make himself the center of attention. My view of Jason was that he was reserved and respectful, and that he would warm up to people if he felt comfortable with them. Based on the several months I was around Jason Baldwin, I would have found it highly unusual for him to have made any statements to Michael Carson about the charges against him, or to have confessed criminal activity to Carson. In a period of 6 or 7 days, Jason would not have had a lot of time to get to know Carson. I do not recall Carson as being one of Jason's friends.
25. I never heard of Jason admitting to anyone, in any way, that he was involved in the killings for which he was charged. As far as I know, Jason Baldwin always denied his involvement in the killings, and it was not my experience with him that he would talk about his case, or would make reference to the killings of the three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas.
26. While I was clearly an authority figure as far as Jason Baldwin was concerned, the fact that I never heard of Jason discussing his case around other people is significant because the Juvenile Detention Unit staff members would get information from detainees who often talked about one another. Staff members were careful to listen to things that were said by one detainee about another, even if it seemed as though what was said was rumor. Information about what the boys were talking about helped us manage them.
27. Based on my experience with Michael Carson I would have been surprised if he had not made it a point to tell other detainees that he had heard something significant about Jason Baldwin's case from Jason. While I do not know whether Michael Carson was truthful in his testimony against Jason Baldwin, I find it highly unusual, given my knowledge of the daily life in the Detention Unit, that no one other than Michael Carson ever claimed that Jason Baldwin admitted having been involved in the killings in West Memphis. Carson was on the Unit one week of the months that Jason Baldwin was housed there.
28. None of the detainees that I observed Jason talking to on a regular basis ever reported that Jason had said anything about having participated or been involved in the killings. Based on my observations of him, and the reports about him that I received from other staff members and detainees, I find it highly unlikely that Jason would have spoken with Michael Carson about anything that he deemed private, or personal.
29. At no time did any law enforcement officer, prosecution lawyer, or defense lawyer ever talk to me about Michael Carson or Jason Baldwin, or any part of this case. No investigator other than Mr. Quinn has ever talked to me about the matter.
30. I would have been willing to talk to the defense or the prosecution about either Michael Carson or Jason Baldwin or both.
31. Based on my observations of him, and on the way he had conducted himself on the Unit, I would have been willing to testify on Jason Baldwin's behalf at any penalty hearing on the subject of Jason Baldwin's good behavior, good attitude towards staff and general ability to get along with people in a custodial setting.
32. Included in the information I would have provided was that based on my months of observation of him, Jason was a quiet and a shy person. He was not talkative. He was simply not the kind of person who would have spent any time talking to a stranger, especially one who was asking him about his case.
33. If called to testify in court, I would provide truthful and accurate testimony about all the subjects that I have covered here."
Further the affiant sayeth naught.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereunto set my hand this 19th day of May, 2008
