Dixie Chicks Singer Wins "West Memphis Three" Defamation Suit

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CBS/AP) A federal judged has ruled Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines didn't defame a father mourning for his murdered stepson and has ordered the man to pay the singer's legal fees.

Nearly two decades ago, Terry Hobbs' stepson Stevie Branch was murdered and three boys were convicted of the crime.

But ever since, there has been a parade of celebrities fighting for the freedom of the convicted killers known as the "West Memphis Three."

In 2007, Dixie Chicks singer Maines joined the cause, but Hobbs felt she went too far and tried to pin the murder on him.

He sued for defamation and now a federal judge says not only is Maines innocent, but Hobbs must pay her legal fees amounting to $17,590.

Branch was one of three 8-year-old boys slain in 1993. Hobbs claimed Maines accused him of the killings in a letter posted on the band's Web site and in comments she made at a Little Rock rally in 2007 in support of the three men convicted in the deaths.