Author of the week: Damien Echols

last updated 8 January 2015

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.”