Damien Echols talks with panelist James Dowd prior to his Start Up conference appearance at the Cook Convention Center. (Photo by Nikki Boertman)
First time in city since being released from prison
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Posted February 11, 2013 at 9:20 p.m., updated February 12, 2013 at 10:56 a.m.
Back in Memphis for the first time since his 2011 release from death row, Damien Echols spoke at a startup business conference Monday about the “living hell” of solitary confinement, watching news and pro wrestling in his cell and figuring out iPhones after 17 years in prison.
Echols said he’d only seen a computer once before he went to prison in 1994 and listened to music on cassette tapes. When he got out of prison, he was given a new computer and iPhone, which took him about two weeks to figure out.
“Angry Birds was interesting, for a little while,” he said about the game, drawing chuckles from the crowd.
He said he hates talking on the phone, but likes texting and Twitter. “It’s like writing poetry.”
Echols spoke about his first encounter with a credit card machine in the checkout lane of a grocery store. “To me, that was high technology,” he said. “The first time I used it, it absolutely petrified me. I wanted to turn around and run out of the store.”
To continue reading and view Echols video, visit: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/feb/11/damien-echols-visits-memphis-for-first-time-from/
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