Damien Echols was sentenced to death at 18 for the 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. After nearly 18 years on death row, Damien was released – because the entire time, no physical or DNA evidence ever linked him to the crime.

In 1993, the media called Damien and his friends “The West Memphis Three.” Prosecutors built the case on his interest in occult magick – a major topic during the Satanic Panic – and a confession from co-defendant Jessie Misskelley Jr. that was later recanted. In 2011, after DNA testing matched none of the defendants, all were released on Alford pleas: allowing them to maintain innocence while acknowledging the state had enough to convict. They are still seeking full exoneration.

Damien Echols joins Dr. Drew to talk about how the systems people trust can fail completely, what nearly two decades in prison taught him about discipline and survival, and his forthcoming book “Alchemy of the Broken Blade.” Author and urban-futures scholar Joel Kotkin discusses the rise of socialist politics in America and what it means for the middle class, drawing on his book “The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class.”

Joel Kotkin is a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University and a senior research fellow at the University of Texas Austin. He is the author of “The Coming of Neo Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class,” as well as ten other books, including “The New Class Conflict” (Telos Press), “The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us,” and the co-edited collection “Infinite Suburbia.” Follow at https://x.com/joelkotkin

Damien Echols is the author of the forthcoming book “Alchemy of the Broken Blade” available September 7, 2026. He was one of the three men known as the “West Memphis Three.” He spent nearly eighteen years on death row in Arkansas for crimes he insisted he did not commit. In 2011, he was released through an Alford plea. His memoir “Life After Death” was a New York Times bestseller. Follow at https://x.com/damienechols

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