The Love Letters of Lori Davis and Damien Echols

In world where love can be fabricated on a "reality" show, it is not surprising that Damien Echols and Lori Davis found each other in a fantastical circumstance.

Empathy met apathy as beautiful letters were exchanged, containing basil leaves and cloves, in a effort to connect Echols into her wold. The two were married in 1998 behind a prison wall, and fought valiantly for Echol's freedom for thirteen years.

Echols and Davis have gone through the trials and tribulations of any married couple, except their courtship started on Death Row. The New York Times has posted a massive feature on their tremendous love story, highlighting many of the struggles that they had to endure along the way.

Damien Echols was part of the "West Memphis Three", referring the three men who were convicted in 1994 of killing three boys in West Memphis. While Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin were given life sentences, Echols was sent to Death Row.

During a screening of a documentary based on their case, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," a riveted Davis felt the need to contact Echols personally to convey the injustice of his situation.

"They had a question-and-answer session after the movie, and everyone more or less voiced the same opinion: How could this happen?' Davis wrote him. 'I came home that night and couldn’t sleep.'

She was adamant.

'Damien, I’m prone to being maybe a bit obsessive, maybe a bit too idealistic, definitely too sensitive, but . . . I couldn’t stop thinking of you in that place — knowing — it was all so very wrong. . . . It breaks my heart that you are where you are and forced to endure it, so I am committed to doing whatever I can to make your life a little more bearable. '

She was optimistic."

It appears that her passion for him was met with distance, due to the melancholy conditions of death row, and Echol's ambivalence to communicate to the outside world. At one point he wanted to become a monk. In her reply to this change she stated,

“I just want you back,” she wrote. “I don’t want the Buddha. I just want you to look at me. My name is Lorri and I am your wife, and you fell in love with me a long time ago with such passion.”

The shoddy evidence and coerced confessions, led to increased speculation of their conviction for the past 18 years. "The West Memphis Three" has had a rally of support from various celebrities including Eddie Veder, Henry Rollins, and Metallica.

In August of 2011 "The West Memphis Three" were released from prison as part of the Alford Plea Deal, due to new evidence that released them from their conviction. There are reports that the years in Death Row had taken a toll on Echol's body, and being being released from prison has saved his life. Although, now a free a man with a wife to attend to, it is evident that Echol's is still mentally 18-years old. His current love is pizza, Fright Night, and a Gothic Renaissance costume shop in New York City.

Whether or not their love withstands the changes of their circumstances remains unclear. It would be great to root for them, as they now have the freedom that they've been fighting for so many years.