Damion Echols SK 931
2501 State Farm Road
Tucker, AR 72168
West Memphis 3

Damien Wayne Echols (born Michael Wayne Hutcheson on December 11, 1974) is one of the three members of the West Memphis 3, a group convicted of committing a triple homicide in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Echols was convicted of murder by a jury and sentenced to die by lethal injection. His conviction and sentence have been upheld by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined to review the matter. Echols was arrested on June 3, 1993, and has been in prison ever since.

The case has received considerable attention. Many critics charge that the arrests and convictions were a miscarriage of justice inspired by a misguided moral panic, and that the defendants were wrongfully convicted during a period of intense media scrutiny and so-called “Satanic panic”.
The HBO documentary films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, and a book on the convictions, Devil’s Knot by Mara Leveritt, all make the case that the convictions were wrongfully obtained and three innocent men are in prison. Another sequel, Paradise Lost 3, is currently being filmed. A second book, written earlier than Mara Leveritt’s is less supportive. That book, Blood of Innocents by Guy Reel Marc and Perrusquia, examines both sides of the case without coming to any definitive conclusion. In light of the DNA tests completed in 2007 that excluded the defendants as contributors, Perrusquia has joined those who publicly doubt whether the convictions were just.
Echols’ case has seen significant support from numerous rock and pop musicians, who have popularized the case by staging fund-raisers including benefit CDs and an art auction with some of his own work.
Echols co-wrote the lyrics to the song “Army Reserve”, on Pearl Jam’s self-titled album. Punk musician Michale Graves, formerly of The Misfits (”Resurrection” Line-up) has been writing music to coincide with Echols’ poetry. Echols and Graves worked together on an album, illusions, released October 2007.

He has published his memoirs, Almost Home: My Life Story Vol. 1. His poetry has appeared in the Porcupine Literary Arts magazine (Volume 8, Issue 2), and he has written non-fiction for the Arkansas Literary Forum.
Echols is currently seeking further delays to his execution with the results of a DNA Status Report filed on July 17, 2007, which concluded “none of the genetic material recovered at the scene of the crimes was attributable to Mr. Echols, Echols co-defendant, Jason Baldwin, or defendant Jessie Misskelley. . . .although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants.”