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Damien Echols Life After Death

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“Since 1973, more than 155 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. (Staff Report, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, 1993, with updates by DPIC). From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3 exonerations per year. From 2000-2011, there was an average of 5 exonerations per year” (Facts). These numbers are astonishing considering the fact that Americans trust the judicial system to put the guilty people in prison, not the innocent ones. With the presumably guilty people incarcerated, the actual guilty ones get to walk free without worrying if the police are going to come for them. This was a theme in Damien Echols’ book; Life After Death, saying many times that he was one of the individuals that was innocent. He has a different point of view than most people considering that he was in prison and he uses that to help show that there are others that are innocent besides him. …show more content…

The first of these ideas is, “I sit in this cell now, filling someone else’s place. It is a murderer who should be here, not me” (Echols, 326). By this he means that he is doing the time for someone else. In his case, they arrested the wrong people. He goes on to question if it was done on purpose, if he is in prison because someone wanted him there. In May of 2010 he wrote “They want to promote a man who not only helped condemn three innocent men, but has also allowed a child-murderer to walk free for seventeen years” (Echols, 354). By “they” he is talking about most of the community and the man they are promoting is Fogleman. Fogleman was the prosecutor that helped get Damien sent to death row. By this time Damien has a following and with his “fame” he is trying to do some good even though he is stuck in

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