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

that Axl Rose has a WM3 shirt. Thinking about it makes me smile. It feels like getting exactly what you wanted on your birthday.
    J UNE 29
    Two of the men on Death Row recently had to be shipped to an insane asylum. In these politically correct times, they’re no longer called insane asylums, though. They’re now called “long-term treatment facilities,” even though a padded room is a padded room, no matter what name you stick on it. Both men snapped and went stark raving nuts. They actually went nuts years ago, but it took a while before a judge could be convinced to even look at them. That happens all the time in here. I once saw a man go nuts and start punching the wall until both his fists were broken and bloody. They simply bandaged his hands and sealed him back up in a cell.
    The law says the state cannot execute the insane or the mentally retarded, but it’s still done quite often. The prosecutors just get an “expert” to testify that the guy is okay. They’ve killed guys who had no idea they were even being killed. The most morally repugnant execution Arkansas has carried out so far involved a man who had shot himself in the head. He only managed to give himself a lobotomy with a bullet. When asked what he wanted for a last meal, he said, “Pie.” He ate half the pie, then wrapped the other half up to save for after his execution. He couldn’t even be made to understand that he wouldn’t be able to finish the pie after his death.
    These are the kinds of things I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Sometimes I think the biggest challenge in life is overcoming the urge to recoil in horror when you see the blackness that lies slightly beneath the skin of the world.
    A UGUST 16
    Today I received a letter in the mail from Vice President Joe Biden. It was asking for money. The essence of the letter is that the Republicans are going to take over the Senate and violate my civil rights if I don’t donate money. He says that even if I can only send $5 it would help. I had to look at the envelope three times just to ensure that it was actually sent to me and I hadn’t accidentally received someone else’s mail. This is insanity. I considered writing back and informing him that my entire existence has been violated, but he could help by donating a few dollars to my fund. I decided against it. The last thing I need is to be on some Secret Service watch list.
    S EPTEMBER 11
    Every so often the wind carries the radio signal of a classic country station to the prison, and I feel like I’ll lose my mind. It’s like hearing the sound track to my early childhood. My parents listened to this music all the time, so it constantly filled our home. Sometimes I’ll hear Waylon Jennings’s voice and for a split second the sensation of being twelve years old is so overwhelming it feels like I’m short-circuiting. When I hear that Eddie Rabbitt song “Rocky Mountain Music,” it takes all my will to keep from sobbing or screaming. All of that old music—Willie Nelson, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton—when I hear it I feel like my heart is being squeezed in a fist. It hurts me beyond words, but I won’t be able to stop listening. I’ll sit frozen, listening and remembering, for as long as it lasts. George Jones. Johnny Cash. Mickey Gilley. It’s like drowning in some kind of beautiful, velvet pool of despair. Then the wind shifts direction and it’s gone again, the spell broken. I’ll completely forget about it until the next time it happens, which could be several months.
    S EPTEMBER 20
    There are only three days left of Virgo, and then we move into Libra. Libra is ruled by the archangel Zuriel, which I think is an excellent sign for the upcoming hearing. Zuriel is the archangel you call on when you are in need of balance, fairness, or help with any kind of legal matter. I never even thought about the fact that the hearing would take place under the time ruled by her until now. And now I’m even more excited about the prospect of a fair hearing. I really do have a good feeling about this hearing. If you would have asked me a year ago I would have said there’s no chance in hell of the Arkansas Supreme Court doing anything to help us in any way. I don’t feel that way now. It’s nothing concrete that I can put my finger on; it’s just something in the air. Maybe it’s Zuriel.
    In addition to the archangels of the zodiac, there are also archangels that oversee the seasons. Raphael presides over spring,