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

Michael over summer, Gabriel over autumn, and Uriel over winter. That means this week we move out of Michael’s season and into Gabriel’s. Not only does Gabriel rule autumn, she’s also over the cups suit in the tarot deck and is the archangel of emotions. Anytime a lot of cups cards come up in a person’s tarot reading you know that Gabriel’s energy is very active in that person’s life.
    It’s nine days until the Feast of the Archangels and ten days until the hearing.
    S EPTEMBER 30
    Today was the hearing before the Arkansas Supreme Court. I haven’t heard all the details yet, but I’ve been told it went well.
    I’m exhausted. The guards spent the day doing their best to destroy everything in my cell. They took my books, my journal, my shoes, and left a pile of destruction behind. I was told it’s because the prison is tired of me doing interviews. Every time a camera crew comes in here it’s another chance they’ll catch a glimpse of what goes on back here. That makes the officials extremely uneasy, so they decided to teach me a lesson. I guess they want me to lie quietly on my concrete slab while they’re trying to kill me. I’m trying to look on the bright side—since I have nothing to read, I have more time to meditate.
    I’m very curious to hear all about how the hearing went and what happens next. I hope the court won’t take too long to make a decision. Seventeen years is long enough.
    I’ll write more soon. Right now I’m just tired beyond words.

Twenty-seven
    T he oral argument, when it finally happened, was a mob scene. I watched on the news, seeing hundreds turn out for the event from nearby and as far away as Australia. I was granted a full evidentiary hearing—after which we would be going back down to circuit court for a new trial with the old evidence and all the new evidence, without a jury, and with a new judge.
    O CTOBER 5
    The days are passing so quickly. This is the only time of year when I want to slow time down. I spend the entire year trying to get here as fast as I can, then once I’m here I want to slam on the brakes. I’m beginning to have those moments when the feel of autumn is so strong it drowns out everything else. Lately it’s been making me think about the perfect sound track for a Halloween party.
    The top of any Halloween music list has to be the theme song from the movie
Halloween
; right on its heels is “Pet Sematary” by the Ramones. For some reason I’ve always equated the old Van Morrison song “Moondance” with Halloween, too. I love that song. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus is an October classic, as well as anything by Type O Negative. And Midnight Syndicate. If you’ve never heard anything by Midnight Syndicate, look them up right this moment. If you distilled the raw essence of every spooky story you ever heard, you would have Midnight Syndicate. I have a friend who swears by them, believing them to be a vital element of any Halloween party. To finish off the list you must have “The Lyre of Orpheus” by Nick Cave and “I Feel Alright” by Steve Earle.
    Strangely enough, I’ve already heard the first Christmas song of the season. It was the one by Paul McCartney—“Wonderful Christmas Time.” One of the radio disc jockeys wanted to be the first person to play a Christmas song this year. Shortly afterward the prison forced me to fill out a form indicating who I wanted my remains to be released to.
    O CTOBER 12
    Rat season is about to start. There are two seasons in here: rat season and cricket season. During the summer the prison is overrun with big black crickets. Once the weather starts turning cold, the rats from the surrounding fields all come into the prison in search of food and warmth. I prefer the rats to the crickets because they’re quieter. The crickets can drive you to the breaking point with the chirping and singing. It’s not like when you hear them outside. In here everything is concrete, and it echoes. A single cricket in here can make more noise than ten outside. They get into the drains and crawl spaces and scream like banshees for days at a time. When they start to die, they’re everywhere. Once I was taken down the hallway and the whole floor was littered with dead crickets.
    The rats are a millions times more destructive, but at least they do it quietly. You have to be constantly on guard against them because they’ll eat holes in everything. They’ll gnaw your books, shred your clothes to make