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Jessie. >> 17 years. >> jessie's father says he had a good heart but his son struggled in school and he didn't make it past the ninth grade. >> at the time he was 17 years old. he came from a family that was a big family. he was a rough kid. he was low functioning in school. he had been in special ed from the time he started school. >> low functioning. >> iq i think at 72 is what he's been measured at. >> and what does that mean? how does he compare to a normal student? >> well, if the normal student is 100, then a 72 in our state, i believe that a 70 is the cutoff for mental retardation legal...

You know, dirt poor family. >> damien echols grew up here. in marion, arkansas, a mile or two from west memphis. his best friend jason baldwin lived nearby. and so did a boy named jessie misskelley. >> always protect young kids, yeah. >> jessie misskelley sr. is little jessie's father. >> when is the last time you talked to jessie? >> i met him at his home on a cold, winter day to learn more about his son. >> everybody loved him. little kids called him uncle jessie. >> 17 years. >> jessie's father says he had a good heart but his son struggled in school and he didn't make it past the ninth gra...

>> iq i think at 72 is what he's been measured at. >> and what does that mean? how does he compare to a normal student? >> well, if the normal student is 100, then a 72 in our state, i believe that a 70 is the cutoff for mental retardation legally. and so he was just above that. and he had been in special ed until he'd finally dropped out in high school when he was 16, a year earlier than this. >> jessie knew damien echols and jason baldwin but not very well. they lived in a neighborhood close by. what was your world? what was your day like? what was your life like? >> poor white trash. i thin...

Represented or not being advocated for in the way that they deserved to be and so i became a special ed teacher and i see now more and more that americans in north carolineans are not being represented and served in the way they should be. i have a plat form now, the people of north carolina put me in a position where i have a microphone and i have a platform to talk about things that i believe are important. and i want to use that voice and that platform to represent them. >> you know, when we watched you on "american idol" and seen your great success in music, the one thing that you never le...

Advocated for in the way that they deserved to be and so i became a special ed teacher and i see now more and more that americans in north carolineans are not being represented and served in the way they should be. i have a plat form now, the people of north carolina put me in a position where i have a microphone and i have a platform to talk about things that i believe are important. and i want to use that voice and that platform to represent them. >> you know, when we watched you on "american idol" and seen your great success in music, the one thing that you never learn about is someone's pe...