Life After Death: The Shocking True Story of a Innocent Man on Death Row

Published by the Penguin Group
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    Copyright © 2012 by Damien Echols Publishing
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Echols, Damien.
    Life after death / Damien Echols.
    p. cm.
    ISBN 978-1-101-59858-0
    1. Echols, Damien. 2. Death row inmates—United States—Biography. 3. Prisoners—United States—Biography. 4. False imprisonment—United States. I. Title.
    HV8700.E33A3 2012 2012026115
    364.66092—dc23
    [B]
    While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
    Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity.
    In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.

for Lorri

Silently I sit by
    Watching men pace their cells
    Like leopards
     
    Biting their nails
    With furrowed brows
    The scene speaks for itself
    —
Damien Echols,
Varner Super Maximum Security Unit, Grady, Arkansas

AUTHOR’S NOTE
    W hat you’re about to read is the result of many things I’ve written in the past twenty years, including parts of a short memoir self-published in 2005. I was sent to Death Row in 1994, and almost immediately I began keeping a journal. I didn’t date most of my writings, it was simply too painful to look at days, months, years slipping past, the reality outside just beyond my reach. Many of the journals I kept are gone, stolen or destroyed when guards raided the barracks—anything personal or creative is a prime target in a shakedown. I’ve included as much as I could of what remained, and I hope the subject or context of these entries is helpful in placing some of them. Others don’t need a time stamp. The conditions I have described in the prison system—the sadness, horror, and sheer absurdity that I’ve seen many human beings subjected to—will not have changed by the time you hold this book in your hands.

PREFACE
    S aint Raymond Nonnatus, never was it known that anyone who implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided. To you I come, before you I stand. Despise not my petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me.”
    Saint Raymond Nonnatus is one of my patron saints. I would be willing to bet that most people have no idea that he is the patron saint of those who have been falsely accused. I like to think that means I have a special place in his heart, because you can’t get much more falsely accused than I have been. So me and old Raymond have struck a bargain. If he helps me out of this situation, then I will travel to all the world’s biggest cathedrals and leave roses and chocolate at the feet of every one of his statues that I can find. You didn’t know saints liked chocolate? Well then, that’s one thing you’ve already learned, and we’re just getting started!
    I have three patron saints in all. You may be wondering who the other two are, and how a foul-mouthed sinner such as