In 1993, teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.—who have come to be known as the West Memphis Three—were arrested for the murders of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas. The ensuing trial was marked by tampered evidence, false testimony, and public hysteria. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison; while eighteen-year-old Echols, deemed the “ringleader,” was sentenced to death. Over the next two decades, the WM3 became known worldwide as a symbol of wrongful conviction and imprisonment, with thousands of supporters and many notable celebrities who called for a new trial. In a shocking turn of events, all three men were released in August 2011.

Now Echols shares his story in full—from abuse by prison guards and wardens, to portraits of fellow inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane while incarcerated for nearly two decades.

In these pages, Echols reveals himself a brilliant writer, infusing his narrative with tragedy and irony in equal measure: he describes the terrors he experienced every day and his outrage toward the American justice system, and offers a firsthand account of living on Death Row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail. Life After Death is destined to be a riveting, explosive classic of prison literature.

達米恩．艾寇斯Damien Echols

1974年生，在密西西比州、田納西州、馬裏蘭州、奧勒岡州、德州、路易西安納州和阿肯色州長大，十八歲那一年跟傑森．鮑德溫和傑西．米斯剋利（後來人稱西曼菲斯三人組）因羅賓漢山謀殺案被誤判有罪，並判處死刑，在死囚區服刑十八年，2011年三人接受所謂的艾佛德認罪協議，在阿肯色州政府同意下獲釋。HBO製作的三集紀錄片《失樂園》（Paradise Lost），以及彼得傑剋森和法蘭華許製作的《非法的正義》（West of Memphis）都以西曼菲斯三人組為主題。艾寇斯自費齣版瞭一本迴憶錄《快到傢瞭》（Almost Home）。他和妻子洛莉．戴維斯目前定居於紐約市。

譯者簡介

賴盈滿

倫敦政經學院科學哲學碩士，現專事翻譯，譯有《海拉細胞的不死傳奇》《娥摩拉》《神話簡史》和《資訊：一段歷史、一個理論、一股洪流》等書。