Edit: 'Objet D'Art added 05/11/06. A few prints removed due to large-format quality concerns.



Nearly thirteen years ago three teens living in West Memphis, Arkansas were arrested, dragged into interrogation rooms, stripped of their identities, put on trial, and found guilty for a crime they did not commit. These boys who, at the time of their arrests, weren’t even legal adults, were targeted by Arkansas police for a simple and terrifying reason: they were different. Their ‘ring leader’ was a lover of books dealing in spiritualism and the occult, he was an appreciator of art and horror movies, a lover of Metallica and Depeche Mode. In short, this boy that goes by the name of Damien Echols was, still is, and forever will be both you and I. But because of his difference in tastes in the midst of a highly conservative, highly religious and extremist Southern state he was labeled as a ‘Satanist’ and accused of both murder, rape, and dismemberment of three small boys. With no solid evidence against any of the three accused, they are still in prison to this day. Damien Echols spends twenty-three out of twenty-four hours a day locked in a cell with no windows. He continues to await his fate on Arkansas’ death row.

Damien Echols fights for his life every miserable day he spends in that windowless concrete room, but there is little ‘fight’ when you have no contact with the outside world. Hence, Damien does his fighting through lawyers and as we all know, lawyers are far from free. He relies on those who support him to help spread the word of what’s happened despite it being more than a decade ago. He relies on people like us to educate and inform those who have never heard of the West Memphis Three, who have never heard his name, and who could never imagine such an injustice happening in the United States or in any country in what we would like to consider our ‘civilized’ world.

You can learn more about the West Memphis Three at wm3.org. [link]



As a community we have power in numbers. While one of us may not be able to make a huge change, together we can make a significant difference. Now is your opportunity to make that change. Together we can help raise money for a defense fund where 100% of your donation will go to expenses such as lawyers fees. As a result of your good will and eagerness to help, you will be entered into a lottery privately funded my myself, =cinquain, where you will have the chance to win a 20” x 30” print. The minimum donation is $1.00 USD; a small price to pay when donating to a good cause and you’re being given the chance to win a print worth $60.00.

There are two simple steps to enter:
Step 1: Make a donation via Paypal to the WM3 Defense Fund.
Step 2: Email your Paypal payment confirmation to to.the.fifth@gmail.com.

Here are the rules:
• Donations must be made via the Paypal service (either a paypal or credit card payment is acceptable).
• Donations must be made to the email address ldavis11@hotmail.com, which is the primary email address listed for the WM3 Damien Echols Trust Account. (This address can be validated by visiting wm3.org and following the ‘how to help’  ‘donate to the defense fund’ links.) DO NOT send donations to any other email address. This is the only validated address for the WM3 defense fund.
• Donations must be a minimum of $1.00 USD but have no maximum. Each dollar donated will earn you one entry into the lottery. Hence, if you donate one dollar you will be entered one time. If you donate ten dollars you will be entered ten times, increasing your chance of winning.
• IMPORTANT: The ‘note’ section of the Paypal form must have your name and email address listed. This is how you will be entered into the lottery and this is how you will be contacted if you win.
• Confused? Look here: [link]

Forwarding your confirmation:
After you’ve made your donation you will receive a confirmation email from Paypal verifying your payment. This confirmation will list what account the donation was sent to, the amount, and your name and email address in the ‘note’ section. You must forward your emailed confirmation to to.the.fifth@gmail.com to be entered into the lottery. DO NOT include account information or passwords in your forwarded email. Once your forwarded email is received, you will be entered into the lottery once for every dollar donated. You will be sent a confirmation email from to.the.fifth@gmail.com verifying that your forwarded email has been received and that you have been entered into the lottery.

Deadline:
June 3rd, 2006

Currently, there are plans to have only one winner. However, for every $250 donated in total an additional winner will be added to the lottery. If we total even a dollar over $250, two people will be selected. Over $500, three people. And on and on.

If you’re contacted as a winner you will be allowed to choose from the following prints.

WM3 Prints Featuring Poetry by Damien Echols:


Standard Prints Available:


Edit: A few of the prints previously available have been removed due to large-format quality concerns.

Winners and total donations collected will be listed on dA after June 3rd.

Any questions or concerns may be directed to =cinquain via dA note or email at to.the.fifth@gmail.com.



If for whatever reason you decide not to participate in the lottery there are other ways you can help the WM3. Please keep in mind that even though this case may not interest you, it may greatly interest those around you.

• Show your support. Link to this journal entry in your own deviantArt journal. You can find banners to put on your page here: [link] If you are not a dA subscriber, these banners will not post in your journal, but a quick journal entry about the case and a link to this page will be just as effective. Display links or banners in your journal until June 3rd of this year. [Please post links or banners in the header or footer of your journal so that it doesn’t disappear as soon as you do another update!]
• Buy merchandise here: [link] All profits go to the WM3.
• Send the WM3 items off of their Amazon wish lists. Wish lists are listed here: [link]
• Tell everyone you know about the case. Hand out flyers and business cards that you can print out at home. Already formatted documents can be found here: [link]
• Buy music, where profits will go to the WM3. [link]
• Educate yourself by watching WM3 documentaries and reading books about the trial. [link]
• Participate in the WM3 Great Postcard Project. Details can be found here: [link]
• Buy Damien’s autobiography, Almost Home: [link]