A Harvest of Innocence (2023)

   

In a case based on a lie, only one man knows the truth. Attorney Dan Stidham breaks his self-imposed 30-year silence to expose details only he knows about the infamous West Memphis 3 murders. Exposing what happened will allow him to close the door a case that tormented him for years and to help exonerate the three innocent young men who spent decades in prison because of the malevolence of the police, prosecution and the judge.

he West Memphis 3 Murder case, which captured the worlds attention in the 1990s to such extent it remains one of the most discussed true crime stories even today, has become synonymous with injustice.The details of the case were lurid, horrifying beyond description. On May 6, 1993, the bodies of three eight-year-old boys were pulled from a fetid drainage ditch in West Memphis, Arkansas. Their hands bound with their own shoelaces, the boys had been beaten and sexually mutilated, police said. Deep in the Bible Belt, townspeople began to speak of Satanic Ritualistic killings and demand immediate arrests. Within a month of the brutal murders a beleaguered police department served up three young men from the wrong side of the tracks.Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, and Stidham's client, Jessie Misskelley Jr., were rounded up, arrested, tried and sent to prison with lengthy sentences- Echols to Death Row.

Other than a False Confession there was no other evidence linking the three to the crimes. A Harvest of Innocence is an intimate, unsettling, and balanced look at what the case did to Stidham himself, to the victim's families and to the West Memphis Three themselves. It is a no-holds-barred exposition of the politics and unbridled ambition of a few men who destroyed so many lives. 

The true story of the wrongful conviction of the infamous West Memphis Three, Life After Death is a powerful and unflinching first-person account of life on death row.



In 1993 three teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley Jr, were arrested and charged with the murders of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. The ensuing trial was rife with inconsistencies, false testimony and superstition. Echols was accused of, among other things, practising witchcraft and satanic rituals - a result of the 'satanic panic' prevalent in the media at the time. Baldwin and Miskelley were sentenced to life in prison. Echols, deemed the ringleader, was sentenced to death. He was eighteen years old.

In a shocking reversal of events, all three were suddenly released in August 2011. This is Damien Echols' story in full: from abuses by prison guards and wardens, to descriptions of inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane for nearly two decades. Echols also writes about his complicated and painful childhood. Like Dead Man Walking, Life After Death is destined to be a classic.

West of Memphis, a documentary produced by Peter Jackson (director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Fran Walsh, details the campaign to have their sentences overturned. The West Memphis Three are also the subject of Paradise Lost, a three-part documentary series produced by HBO.

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'Damien Echols suffered a shocking miscarriage of justice. A nightmare few could endure. An innocent man on death row for more than eighteen years, abused by the very system we all fund. His story will appal, fascinate, and render you feeble with tears and laughter.' Johnny Depp

'This is a stunning piece of work. Such hope while faced with injustice. Damien teaches us how to live.' Eddie Vedder

'Wrongfully imprisoned by willfully ignorant cops, prosecutors and judge, Damien Echols draws on all his wits and his unique view of humanity to survive eighteen years on death row. My admiration for him, and the strength of his spirit, increases with every page.' Peter Jackson, Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter

'The life of Damien Echols is a journey similar to that of the metal that becomes a samurai's sword. Heated and pounded until it becomes hardened, it can hold its edge for centuries.' Henry Rollins

'Even for this remarkable young man, every day was a struggle, and his survival, his sanity, is won on every page. This is a deeply moving book, almost Dickensian in its moral scope: religion, hypocrisy, evil in office, with virtue and good fellowship finally triumphant. And no irony.' Weekend Australian

'In this searing, finely wrought memoir, Echols recalls his poverty-stricken childhood, the trial of the West Memphis Three, and the harsh realities of life on death row...In one journal entry that survived the guards' purge, Echols contemplates what he misses the most while in prison. The answer is a heart-wrenching and simple commentary on American prison life: "In the end it's not the fruit I miss most...I miss being treated like a human being."' Publishers Weekly

'Exceptional memoir by the most famous of the West Memphis Three...bare facts alone would make for an interesting story. However, Echols is at heart a poet and mystic, and he has written not just a quickie one-off book to capitalize on a lurid news story, but rather a work of art that occasionally bears a resemblance to the work of Jean Genet...Essential reading.

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