In 1993, teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie
Misskelley, Jr.-who have come to be known as the West Memphis
Three-were arrested for the murders of three eight-year-old boys in
Arkansas. The ensuing trial was marked by tampered evidence, false
testimony, and public hysteria. Baldwin and Misskelley were
sentenced to life in prison; while eighteen-year-old Echols, deemed
the "ringleader," was sentenced to death. Over the next two
decades, the WM3 became known worldwide as a symbol of wrongful
conviction and imprisonment, with thousands of supporters and many
notable celebrities who called for a new trial. In a shocking turn
of events, all three men were released in August 2011.
Now Echols shares his story in full-from abuse by prison
guards and wardens, to portraits of fellow inmates and deplorable
living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience,
spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane while
incarcerated for nearly two decades.
In these pages, Echols reveals himself a brilliant writer,
infusing his narrative with tragedy and irony in equal measure: he
describes the terrors he experienced every day and his outrage
toward the American justice system, and offers a firsthand account
of living on Death Row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail. Life
After Death is destined to be a riveting, explosive classic of
prison literature.
The definitive memoir by Echols of the West Memphis Three, who was falsely convicted of committing three murders, and an unforgettable account of his 18 years on death row.
