In , the men were convicted of killing Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore a year earlier and leaving their naked bodies in a ditch in West Memphis, Ark.
Echols was sentenced to death. Misskelley and Baldwin were ordered to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Defense attorneys, along with celebrities and legal experts, have long said the men were wrongly convicted. In the 17th century, more than people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were executed during the mass witch hunt hysteria in Salem.
Following the trials and executions, many involved in the cases publicly confessed their errors and in , the state of Massachusetts officially apologized for the trials. Echols says he identifies with the witch trials, which for many, epitomize paranoia and injustice in the judicial system. They accused me of being a Satanist, of committing human sacrifices and all these things which were the exact same things as the people back then. Fortunately they weren't able to kill me like they were the people they hung here.
When he was 19, Echols was sentenced to execution by lethal injection for being the ringleader of the infamous West Memphis 3. The three were let out of prison in , after more than 18 years of incarceration. Salem, Echols says, is a spiritual Mecca for people who are different. Echols now lives in a historic 18th century home with his wife, Lorri Davis, 49, whom he met and married while on death row.
Davis first reached out to Echols after she saw a documentary about the case. They married in a Buddhist ceremony in a prison visiting room in It was the first time the two had ever touched. While Salem residents are overwhelmingly supportive of Echols, with some strangers even approaching him to ask for a hug, the year-old controversial case still captivates the nation. The 8-year-olds were found dead, naked and hogtied with their own shoelaces in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis in May of Prosecutors believed that the crime was part of a Satanic ritual which led them to suspect Echols, a teenager who practiced the Wiccan brand of witchcraft and who dressed in black.
He had a passion for heavy metal metal and the occult. HBO produced a series of documentaries bringing the case into the public eye. Despite intense pressure from celebrities and the public, the state would not grant the men a new trial.
However, prosecutors offered the plea deal. Echols says he was told, "You can sit in prison, hope you survive all this time and maybe have a chance of suing the state or you can sign the agreement and maybe go home before the week is out.
It leads to the "outside" where, without once actually setting foot outside the prison walls, you're locked inside a tiny, filthy concrete stall, much like a miniature grain silo. There is one panel of mesh wire about 2ft from the top of one wall that lets in the daylight, and you can tell the outdoors is beyond, but you can't actually see any of it.
There's no interaction with other prisoners, and you're afraid to breathe too deeply for fear of catching a disease of some sort. I went out there one morning, and in my stall alone there were three dead and decaying pigeons, and more faeces than you could shake a stick at. When you first enter you have to fight against your gag reflex. It's a filthy business, trying to get some exercise. In the movies it's always the other prisoners you have to watch out for.
In real life, it's the guards and the administration. They go out of their way to make your life harder and more stressful than it already is, as if being on Death Row were not enough. I didn't want these people to be able to change me, to touch me inside and turn me as rotten and stagnant as they were.
I tried out just about every spiritual practice and meditative exercise that might help me to stay sane over the years. I've lost count of how many executions have taken place during my time served. It's somewhere between 25 and 30, I believe. Some of those men I knew well and was close to. Others, I couldn't stand the sight of. Still, I wasn't happy to see any of them go the way they did. I have the shape of a dead man on the wall of my cell. It was left behind by the last occupant.
He stood against the wall and traced around himself with a pencil, then shaded it in. It looks like a very faint shadow, and it's barely noticeable until you see it. It took me nearly a week to notice it for the first time, but once you see it you can't unsee it. I find myself lying on my bunk and looking at it several times a day. It just seems to draw the eyes like a magnet.
God only knows what possessed him to do such a thing, but I can't bring myself to wash it off. Since they executed him, it's the only trace of him left. He's been in his grave almost five years now, yet his shadow still lingers. He was no one and nothing. All that remains of him is a handful of old rape charges and a man-shaped pencil sketch.
Perhaps it's just superstition, but I can't help but feel that erasing it would be like erasing the fact that he ever existed. That may not be such a bad thing, all things considered, but I won't be the one to do it. At one point I entertained thoughts that perhaps the living inmates weren't the only ones trapped on Death Row. After all, if places really are haunted, then wouldn't Death Row be the perfect stomping ground?
At some time or another it's crossed the mind of everyone here. Some make jokes about it, like whistling to yourself as you pass the cemetery. Others don't like to speak about it at all, and it can be a touchy subject. Who wants to think about the fact that you're sleeping on the mattress that three or four executed men also claimed as their resting place? The silence on Death Row is something that seems to unnerve guards when they first get assigned here. That's because every other barracks sounds like a madhouse.
There are people screaming at the top of their lungs 24 hours a day, it never stops. Screams of anger and rage, begging, threatening, cursing — it sounds like the din of some forgotten hell. These are the "regular" prisoners.
As soon as you step through the door of Death Row it stops. Sleep deprivation is a direct result of the lights. They turn them off every night at Then they're turned right back on at 2. If you could fall asleep the moment the lights went out, then sleep through all the guards' activity, you would still get only four hours of uninterrupted sleep. It's not possible, though. Doors slamming, keys hitting the floor, guards yelling at one another as if they're at a family reunion — it all wakes you up.
You can never sleep very deeply here anyway, because you have to stay aware of your surroundings. Bad things can come to those caught off guard.
One of the first things I learned when I arrived was how to cook on a watt lightbulb. This is accomplished in one of two ways.
The first is by using the bulb directly, as a heat source. To use the bulb like an oven, you first cut the top off a soda can with a disposable razor blade. You then fill the can with whatever you want to cook — coffee, or leftover beef stew, for instance. You make certain the can is completely dry, not a single drop of water on it, and then balance it on the lightbulb.
After 20 or 30 minutes, whatever is in the can will be hot enough to burn your mouth. You have to be certain the can is dry, because the bulb will explode in your face if water drips on it. You can always tell when someone has made this mistake — the explosion sounds like a shotgun blast. For a split second today I could smell home. It smelled like sunset on a dirt road. I thought my heart was going to break. The world I left behind was so close I could almost touch it.
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