Jonathan Richman Interviews Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three
By Jonathan Richman
I’ve just met a remarkable man. Let me tell you about him.
He’s one of the “West Memphis Three” (Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley) who have been in prison since 1993 for the murder of three eight-year-old boys. This happened 15 years ago outside of West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols is on Death Row and one glance tells you he does not belong there.
We (myself and my drummer Tommy) got to Grady, Arkansas at 3:45 PM. We had been given advanced permission to interview Damien Echols, and although visiting hours ended at four, they very nicely gave us a full hour to talk with him.
A guard escorted us across the vast lawns to death row. He was pretty friendly, actually. We’d both spent time around the Marysville and Yuba City part of California so we had a little conversation about that. There were, of course, guard towers looming over you. These particular ones had guys behind Plexiglas starin’ at ya.
The prison seemed even crueler than I’d imagined. Not for squalor and overcrowding, but for the opposite. It was a brand new, sterile, ultramodern, ultra-isolated fortress. No possessions are allowed except they be made of paper. No books can be sent from a home address. No food, no vitamins, no CDs, or tapes nor can a prisoner own a CD player or recording device. There are virtually no windows unless you count the skinny rectangle made out of tinted Plexiglas that “If you twist your body enough you can see two inches of sunlight”. According to Damien, who also explained the lack of recorders and things, “They’re afraid you might record the abuse that goes on here.”
So that’s the next thing, it seems that no matter how much abuse we think goes on in a prison by the guards, we might triple it. This, at least, is the impression you get after talking to Damien and later with his wife.
“Have you ever taken a general psychology course?” He asked us. He told us of the school experiment in which students are divided into “Prisoners” and “Guards”. These experiments must always be stopped early before somebody gets hurt because the “Guards” enjoy it too much. So, why is there so much abuse here? Because there’s abuse in all guard-prisoner relationships, he said.
“You become like a dog, cringing when they’re around. You hide anything not to draw their attention. In the movies or on T.V., they show everyone on Death Row to be like Hannibal Lector. But the guards are the ones to be afraid of.”
Talking to him also gave the impression that the day-to-day tension from the abuse was more than he could tell you. Combined with the meager food, (Tommy asked him what he’d eaten that day, Answer: “A bag of chips, a pack of Skittles, canned chili. It’s in these pouches, they won’t let you have cans, so I put hot water on it….” What about breakfast? “Honey Nut Cheerios, but things like that you have to buy.” He explained that the prisoner barter system ranging from trading cigarettes to services rendered. “If you don’t have money in here, you’ll starve.”) lack of exercise, lack of sunlight and the stress from daily harassment from the guards makes health difficult, Especially if lack of sleep is part of this equation.
Since we are on the subject of food, Damien also told us that the prison grows vegetables in their own garden and feeds it to the prisoners….you’ll notice that the vegetables weren’t on his list for that day, so I say…DAMIEN: EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!
“You never go outside?” Asks Tommy. Damien shakes his head no! “They call it outside but…you know what a grain silo is? We go into a grain silo. You have to watch out for the pigeons…”
After this Tommy asks if he’s not afraid to be so candid. If there’s that much abuse won’t he likely be attacked?
“No. The only reason they’re not is because I say it. Once, (after some public statement) they said I was making them look bad. Oh, they beat me some…they starved me…” Then he told us how a priest heard about it so they had to stop. “So the only reason they didn’t do more is because the things I say get attention in the press.” He paused for a second and he said the rest slowly and deliberately, “…pretty much the only thing they’re scared of now, is that people will find out what they’re doing.”
He did say that if they couldn’t get at him directly, “They take it out on Jason [Baldwin], I mean they demoted him. They have him sweeping floors and they tell him why and they tell me why [he’s being singled out].”
But all this hasn’t stopped Damien. “In here I’ve handwritten five books.” And he does mean handwritten. Having gone in as a teenager in 1993, he has never touched a computer nor a cell phone nor a DVD for that matter.
Having read his Almost Home Vol. I, which goes by real fast, I want to read the other books. I asked him what he wanted to say to our readers. He said he wanted people to know about Almost Home Vol. I. He said you can get it on Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.
His case is now being taken up again along with that of the other West Memphis Three. An appeal is now in the works.
And thus Tommy and I met this calm, outspoken, straight talking person. He has much presence. His eyes are real dark and alert. He smiles easily, especially considering the circumstances. He also listens well. It’s not hard to picture him someday when he’s out of prison as a community leader, a distinguished author. He seems to have that type of concentration and discipline. There’s nothing sloppy about him.
Note that I said “when” he’s out of prison. It’s not exactly a foregone conclusion. In fact, this country has many statesmen-like people on death row who were put there by strange logic: Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier and Ruchell Magee come to mind. But Tommy and I left with the feeling that he’d make it out of there somehow. If you’d like to learn more about this case let me recommend a video to you: a documentary in two parts called Paradise Lost I and II. I don’t want to tell you too much, but I will say that you’ll learn…nah…watch it for yourself.
Visit www.wm3.org for more info.
This article originally appeared in Mesh Magazine, San Francisco
Another interview with Damien Echols about his art practice on Death Row can be found here
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