Life After Death

While I found this book to be informative, Echols comes off as very one dimensional. I never believed the West Memphis Three were guilty because Satanic panic in the 90's was for fearmongerers and religious extremists and they couldn't prove it existed. They still can't. The only sacrificial lambs were the three murder victims and the three innocent boys they sent to prison.My personal opinion is it was always one of the boy's fathers or a family member who killed them.There is no question that this book, while eloquent and intelligently written gives us a look into the mind of Damien, it is disjointed and a bit chaoitic.I sincerely hope these boys are exonerated and the real murderer arrested and put in prison someday. But if justice isn't served in this lifetime, perhaps in the next.

I’m only on the second chapter but I’m sucked in!

I bought this book upon its release utterly convinced that Echols was completely innocent, and have only recently discovered that he's still a controversial figure for many. I felt such pain to think that he and his friends had been horribly wronged by the justice system, and also by me, as I had accepted the guilty verdicts on the West Memphis Three years before at the time of their convictions. Because of my remorse about this I promoted the book to anyone who would listen. But here's what happened: The more I read, the more I felt like Damien Echols maybe wasn't such a cool person, after all. And I REALLY struggled with feeling this way, i.e., I felt guilty about the inconvenient questions that would come into my head. I did not look into any stories/websites/discussions about his case during my reading of the book at all (though I recently have). And while Marilyn Manson had always struck me as a loser, I didn't feel particularly concerned about his friendship with Echols, so that wasn't an issue for me either. But by the time I got to the end of the book I honestly had some really unsettling questions about Echols' character. I came away at times with the impression that Echols was being outright dishonest, and as someone who'd invested time, effort, and money to support him I felt annoyed that he was insulting me with unnecessary lies. An example: He essentially claims that as a teenager he was wholly unfamiliar with anything and everything having to do with esoterica of any kind that could be described as occult or even New Agey. He claims to have been utterly surprised and baffled by the cops asking him about stuff he'd never heard of, like "pyramids"...Echols is making this claim as an adult author---not as a terrified kid who's being interrogated. He has already described the intense connection that he'd had with his first love --a young woman who (he says)self-identified as a witch. He's described them as having been totally wrapped up in each other. Echols tells us that he was disenchanted with the brand of Christianity that he'd grown up with, that he'd adopted the hair/clothing styles that many describe as "Goth", and that in general he wasn't feeling a deep connection to the mainstream in his community. So would it have been totally understandable for him to have some curiosity about esoteric practices? Of course. Does that mean he perpetrated crimes against children? Of course not. But do I trust Echols as a truthful author? No. It's a shabby thing to try to manipulate your readers and supporters by purposely misleading them.What disturbed me even more was the lousy way Echols treats Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley in the book. He downplays their suffering in prison to an extent that I found offensive. And as another reviewer here pointed out, the two of them would likely have never ended up in prison if not for their association with Echols. Jason Baldwin, in particular, supported Echols arguably to his own detriment.This is getting long, so some shorthand : Echols seems (even for a victim of a protracted trauma) incredibly egocentric; strikingly judgmental; frequently unkind; unwilling to own his own shortcomings and mistakes; and distressingly disingenuous at times. In addition, I'm baffled and put off by his complete failure to express concern and caring about the children who were murdered, or for their families. In fact, he never expressed so much as an OPINION about the murders, as in "what a monstrous thing this was". This seems an incredibly odd omission, particularly because Echols' behavior early on (mockingly blowing kisses to the victims' families, making unsympathetic, bemused statements when asked about the murders on camera, etc.) can only have added to their pain and rage, and to their belief that he was guilty. Can Echols not understand this, even as an adult? If in the beginning they believed he was guilty and opposed his release, can he blame them -- especially given how heartlessly he behaved toward them in their grief? (Baldwin and Misskelley did not behave this way.) Does Echols want to express any caring for the murdered children and their families at all? To the extent that he cops to any poorly chosen behaviors that would have affected others' perceptions about his guilt he minimizes them to the point of just being false. He acknowledges no regrets about his own behavior, and focuses on his suffering exclusively. Echols' version of events suggests that he is purely the blameless victim of a senseless, hysterical witch hunt (a falsehood I used to believe), and that his suffering has so far outweighed anyone else's in this collection of tragedies that he has consistently declined to offer any thoughts on the victims or their families.I've just found an article written by Marc Perrusquia, an investigative reporter who has been reporting on Echols since the beginning and has some interesting things to say at [...]I'd encourage anyone who reads Life After Death to read Perrusquia's article as well, though it is far from complete. There's a lot more to the picture than Damien Echols has presented in his book. That much is clear.Re: Echols' writing: It's often very good. He's an intelligent man in many ways. I wish him well in the future, i.e., I hope that he lives honestly, humbly, wisely and compassionately ---with himself and with others. In future I'd suggest to him that a candid discussion (of how his own messed up behavior as a teen contributed to his troubles, and to those of others) would be a good idea. There could be tremendous benefit from some honest talk about that. IF THIS REVIEW WAS AT ALL HELPFUL WOULD YOU KINDLY PRESS THE "HELPFUL" BUTTON? I'm trying hard to be helpful, and am puzzled, as almost all of the book reviews by others have some "helpful" or "not helpful" votes. Also just seeing "Read it" as a comment would totally make my week. Hello hello, Is there anybody out there?

No matter what your views on crime and punishment in the United States in general, or on the death penalty in particular, Damien Echols' memoir is certain to move you, challenge you, and devastate you. I only became aware of the "West Memphis Three" story a few years ago. I've since watched the HBO "Paradise Lost" documentaries with alternating degrees of sympathy and horror. I've always wanted to believe that our justice system functions (mostly) fairly and objectively, despite the occasional awful revelations of prisoners wrongfully imprisoned for years or even executed. Surely these were anomalies. Tales of brutality by prison guards? Well, those guys had it coming as an additional dose of punishment for their crimes. Echols' beautiful and heart-breaking memoir has forced me to examine my beliefs.If you have not watched the three "Paradise Lost" documentaries, please do so, as they extensively cover the mind-bogglingly corrupt investigation into the murders of three young boys and the ensuing trial that landed Echols on Death Row and his two co-defendants with life sentences. In particular, the final documentary,  Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory , summarizes the first two films, and includes the events leading up to the trio's long-awaited freedom. Echols devotes very little time to these events because so much information is already available, but readers of his memoir should view them in order to gain a more complete picture of this travesty. Instead, Echols focuses on his impoverished upbringing and his eighteen years on Death Row, as he and others fought for his exoneration. When he writes of the stifling heat in the tiny, tin-roofed shack he inhabited in his childhood, you can almost feel it yourself. When he writes of mosquitoes feasting on his flesh in his prison cell, I could feel my own skin crawl.The prison life he depicts is much like what we all imagine from movies and TV shows: abusive guards, horrible food, lack of sleep, etc. But Echols informs us that sadistic guards are the norm, rather than the exception. We also learn about the overwhelming filth, both of the prison itself and of some of the inmates due to their less than stellar hygiene practices. His misery in his cell due to cold winters was dwarfed only by the stifling summers. Time ceases to have any meaning other than bringing him closer to execution. Echols also writes in depth of his spiritual journey that led him from being raised Protestant to exploring Catholicism on his own as a teen. His general thirst for knowledge and his keen interest in spirituality led to an ongoing study of Buddhism while he was imprisoned.It's hard to believe that if not for a couple of filmmakers who decided to make a documentary of the trial of the so-called "satanic" murders of three children, Echols may be dead today. These filmmakers quickly realized that the real story was not about Satanism, but rather it was about the entire Arkansas justice system that was willing to throw away the lives of Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley. They were garbage - poor white trash, so what did it matter? Who cares if a sick child-killer is still on the loose as long as the public's bloodlust was sated? Evidence clearing the involvement of the three was not enough for the courts; it was only years of effort on the parts of Echols' supporters - celebrities and otherwise, and most significantly, his tireless wife, Lorri - that finally forced Arkansas to act. In other words, Echols was freed not by the normal means of little things like evidence, DNA, and alibi, but rather by public shame, scorn, and embarrassment from which Arkansas could no longer hide.I've finished this book, but I still can't stop thinking about it. It depicts a life that I can barely imagine, but Echols depicts it all unflinchingly and without an ounce of self-pity, to which he is certainly more than entitled. There will never be another memoir like this, not only because Echols' beautiful writing skill is unlikely to be possessed by any other death row inmate, but also because any who have been wrongfully convicted are unlikely to be spared like Echols.

I know it's almost three years late with this review. I don't want to miss anything out as there are many points that need addressing.Especially considering the death penalty is still being used in the States.Before I continue, consider you might run into what seems to be SPOILERS which won't be my intention, but I'm just warning in case. Also, I don't dislike Americans. Every country has their faults. It just feels as though some states are a step away from burning suspected witches at the stake.That's literally what almost happened to the author here. Had he not taken the Alford plea (hopefully spelt right now), there seems little doubt he'd be alive now.The book explains not only life on death row, but the back history of someone who'd been persecuted for years before being arrested.Reading about death row is horrific, but in a way it's even worse to know the betrayal that lead to an innocent man being accused of murder, along with his friends. There's undoubtedly so much hatred and venom coming from those claiming be righteous. Many underestimate the destruction these individuals cause to innocent lives. From what I've read and my own experiences when it comes to packs of braindead followers; the majority, particularly that Jerry Driver, had decided Damien was going down after first laying eyes on him. This isn't uncommon behaviour but it is disgusting that such persecution exists. It is also unprofessional and doesn't make sense. I've met some nut jobs but Damien was locked up by those in need of some psychiatric assistance themselves.As I was reading this, I could feel the hostility of those in the town and the obvious witch hunt taking place. And this was being done to a minor two years beforehand. This person was quickly made a scapegoat, blamed for a crime committed by someone else. I don't really want to go into details about who could have done it. It's a sickening miscarriage of justice. I never finished other books relating to death row because the torture is another kind of inhumane, still accepted by those that only really want to see someone die. I recognise the mentality. We've all heard others talk about what "should" happen to murderers and never is it acknowledged the possibility the accused could be innocent. I've personally always been against the death penalty, even when I've been sickened by crimes committed against innocents. Those in power have to be rational.Taking someone's life for killing, innocent or guilty, isn't rational! The very fact that person could be innocent and yet could still be executed, is sick beyond belief.Being from the UK, I remember reading and watching documentaries about condemned such as Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis. DECADES AGO, before the death sentence was abolished over here. For those that don't know, Derek Bentley had a low mental age and didn't even pull the trigger. I add this because it also reminded me of some of the inmates mentioned in 'Life After Death'.Damien also describes others on death row. When he talks about them, you start to see how they've been completely stripped of their spirit along with everything else. By then, all that's being killed is a shell.Who punishes those in power?The question usually asked to every anti-death penalty believer is "What if you lost someone to murder?" Well answer this: What if someone you cared about ended up condemned for something they didn't do?I've noticed quite a few people judging the WM3 for taking the Alford plea. Jason Baldwin would have stayed inside from what I've read, but he couldn't watch his friend die. Anyone with any sense would have done the exact same thing without question. Now some people insist "Oh no, no, I would have kept fighting!"That is very easy to say when not in that position. It's a good job they took that plea.Now an important issue I feel was overlooked. Some people might not think it was serious but I do because it involves medication. From what I'm aware, Damien has been judged quite severely for how he reacted during the trial. Whenever it's been brought up, I think he described his actions as foolish. What needs to be acknowledged is that he was on Anti-Depressants at the time. I don't know what he'd been prescribed but from experience of taking them myself and loved ones also, I know you cannot take anyone seriously when they're under the influence of that particular medication. Although everyone is affected differently, I can say one can go as far as giggling like an idiot even after suffering a loss. Even though those drugs are needed, they are often prescribed for the sake of it. And then it would have been hell alone being forced to stop abruptly. Obviously he was forced to go without them. Aside from the withdrawal symptoms, all the memories return and are much more intense. This is an important subject because Damien has been ridiculed for his every movement, not only by some so-called body language "experts" but at the trial and just afterwards, every little comment he made was taken literally. I personally didn't see what the fuss was about or what everyone expected, but it is important to know that it wasn't a simple case of a teenager being a bit obnoxious. Apart from anything else, you must also remember that if a person knows they're innocent, in their minds, they're probably expecting someone else to come and save the day. Topped with having their mood heightened by what actually is a mind-altering drug, they may come across as being outrageous. I cringe when I remember what I was like on those tablets. I reiterate this because people bring up how Damien was behaving at the time.There seems to be little awareness over such matters which I consider barbaric in itself.I recommend this book to anyone. Anyone. It gives an insight into a world we're ignoring. We cannot pretend there are not innocent people waiting to die. That doesn't mean we have to ignore the victims, it means all the more reason to find answers.I will probably add more later. I enjoyed reading this. Some of the comments were hilarious.

Now I'm definitely biased with this review in the sense that the West Memphis Three case is something I've followed for a long time and it's what began my interest in supporting the change that's needed in the criminal justice system. But that doesn't change how good a read this is.Reading this book you get an insight into what it was like to be Echols on death row for all those year, how it effected him mentally and physically, and how difficult it must have been for him to just get through each day. A great read.

I have followed the WM3 case over the last few years, having read Damien's previous book Almost Home, and seen the three Paradise Lost documentaries, as well as the Peter Jackson & Amy Berg documentary West of Memphis. I enjoy Damien's writing, despite the odd nasty comment, as other reviewers have mentioned -- some of the things he says serve to remind you that he's just a regular everyday guy with a few petty prejudices, not the wise leader he's sometimes made out to be.If you are buying this book, you need to know that about 80% of it is an exact reprinting of Almost Home. Another 10% appears to be reprinting of Damien's blog posts campaigning for help with their case over the last few years. The final 10% is new material, from what I can tell.With a name like "Life After Death", I expected the book to primarily focus on Damien's experience after coming out of prison, but that part amounts to barely a chapter. There is, for example, a picture of he and his wife in New Zealand with Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, but no information about that trip. This smacks of false advertising.I don't criticise Damien here, so much as the publisher. Repackaging previous work in a new book without making this clear to those purchasing is a rip-off.You might enjoy this if you haven't already read Almost Home.

How sad is it that the US is so corrupt. There's lots of innocent men and women out there sitting on Death Row, I'm sure Damien etc aren't the only ones. In fact I know they're not. Don't always believe what you read in the media. Some people who are incarcerated are good guys, some are innocent. The amount of people who're suffering mental health issues is unreal. They need medical help rather than being locked up to rot. Yes there's people who are born evil, people who do deserve to be punished but this book shows that there are exceptions to the rule

beautifully written. really shows how insightful he is about everything that's happened to him. no bitterness for the people that made him feel like he was an ''other''. im glad its not another prisoner novel because that would distract the reader for the insightful intelligent person that he is. full of imagery definitely one for a literature fan to be honest. there were parts that reminded me of toni morrisons beloved especially the part were he talks about the barn like house that he moves too. very good use of language to convey such beautiful but eerie imagery