Freedom hasn’t been easy for former death-row inmate Damien Echols, said Dave Itzkoff in The New York Times. Echols, known as one of the West Memphis Three, was a teenager in 1994 when he was sentenced to death for a crime he and his co-defendants maintain they didn’t commit—the murder and mutilation of three grade-school boys. Released last year in a deal with prosecutors that required a guilty plea, Echols has written a memoir, Life After Death, which reflects on a life derailed. Now he’s out promoting both the book and his innocence. “Imagine the worst thing that’s ever happened to you and then having to talk about it over and over,” he says. It’s the price, he says, of trying to win full exoneration in the court of public opinion.
Echols has had some high-powered help in that regard, said Randy Cordova in the Phoenix Arizona Republic. A number of celebrities, including Johnny Depp, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and director Peter Jackson have all attached themselves to his cause. Echols is thankful for the support, but worries that some observers might get the wrong idea about the life he’s been leading. “People see the glamour angle or some red-carpet thing with Johnny, but they don’t know for the past month I’ve been homeless,” he says. As he continues readjusting to life on the outside, he plans to keep writing. “What I’m hoping with this book is that people will appreciate the writing style itself,” he says. “I’ve loved writing since I was 12 years old.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks groundSpeed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resignsSpeed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”