'A brilliant haunting painful & uplifting narrative of a hopeless childhood a wrongful conviction a brutal incarceration & the beginning of a new life.' --John Grisham In 1993 teenagers Damien Echols Jason Baldwin & 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 & public hysteria. Baldwin & 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 three men became known worldwide as a symbol of wrongful conviction & imprisonment with thousands of supporters & many notable celebrities calling 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 & wardens to portraits of fellow inmates & deplorable living conditions to the incredible reserves of patience & perseverance that kept him alive & sane while incarcerated for nearly two decades.