Was a monstrous killer brought to justice or an innocent mother
condemned?
On an April night in 1989, Jo Ann Parks survived a house fire that
claimed the lives of her three small children. Though the fire at first
seemed a tragic accident, investigators soon reported finding evidence
proving that Parks had sabotaged wiring, set several fires herself, and
even barricade her four-year-old son inside a closet to prevent his
escape. Though she insisted she did nothing wrong, Jo Ann Parks received
a life sentence without parole based on the power of forensic fire
science that convincingly proved her guilt.
But more than a quarter century later, a revolution in the science of
fire has exposed many of the incontrovertible truths of 1989 as
guesswork in disguise. The California Innocence Project is challenging
Parks's conviction and the so-called science behind it, claiming that
false assumptions and outright bias convicted an innocent mother of a
crime that never actually happened.
If Parks is exonerated, she could well be the Patient Zero in an
epidemic of overturned guilty verdicts--but only if she wins. Can
prosecutors dredge up enough evidence and roadblocks to make sure Jo Ann
Parks dies in prison? No matter how her last-ditch effort for freedom
turns out, the scenes of betrayal, ruin, and hope will leave readers
longing for justice we can trust.
