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The Case of Damien Echols (Live from the Church of Rock and Roll)
📻 Episode #73
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Oct 01, 2018
About This Episode
As a teenager, Damien Echols along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley—known as the West Memphis Three—was convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, AK. There was no DNA linking the WM3 to the crime, and some of the DNA found at the crime scene even seemed to implicate the stepfather…
The Case
As a teenager, Damien Echols along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley—known as the West Memphis Three—was convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, AK. There was no DNA linking the WM3 to the crime, and some of the DNA found at the crime scene even seemed to implicate the stepfather of one of the victims. The case gained national attention soon after the teenagers’ arrests when word was leaked that the murders were committed as part of a satanic ritual. A key prosecution witness in the second trial was a self-proclaimed cult expert who stated that the murders bore “trappings” of the occult. This testimony, combined with testimony about books Damien Echols read and some of his writings, plus evidence that he and Jason Baldwin liked heavy-metal music and several black t-shirts were found in Jason Baldwin’s closet, helped to convict the two teenagers. Damien Echols was sentenced to death; Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life without parole, and Misskelley was sentenced to 40 years. Following a 2010 decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding newly produced DNA evidence and potential juror misconduct, the West Memphis Three negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors. After serving more than 18 years in prison, all three of the WM3 took the Alford Plea, which meant that the state of Arkansas admitted no wrongdoing. While in prison, Damien was ordained into the Rinzai Zen Buddhist tradition. Today he teaches classes on Magick around the country and works as a visual artist. He and wife Lorri live in New York City with their three cats. He is the author of High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Rowand the *New York Times *bestseller Life After Death and Yours For Eternity(with his wife Lorri Davis). This episode was recorded live in front of a studio audience at the opening of The Church of Rock & Roll.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:08:46“Speaker 4: Like Starbucks, Now, yeah, that's exactly what it was like. Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, churches were like Starbucks is there, Speaker 1: And if you didn't belong to, you know, one of Speaker 1: these mainstream for that area, mainstream fundamentalist religions. You were Speaker 1: automatically viewed as suspicious. You know, you you were Satanic.”
00:32:19“Speaker 1: The only thing that saved me was, you know, really, Speaker 1: quite frankly, the vanity of the politicians that were involved. Speaker 1: They allowed cameras in the courtroom. They thought, you know, Speaker 1: this was going to be a slam dunk thing. Nobody's Speaker 1: going to question this. They're going to send Jason off”
00:54:04“Speaker 1: just the case last night. I would have people like Speaker 1: twenty one year old kids who have no idea who Speaker 1: the hell I even am, don't care. They were coming Speaker 1: to the commitment ceremonies, wanted to do the commitments not Speaker 1: because it was me, but because they love each other.”
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