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Full Description
On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city's firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O'Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn't add up. Justice on Fire is O'Connor's detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters' deaths and the terrible injustice that followed.
Justice on Fire describes a misguided eight-year investigation propelled by an overzealous Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent keen to retire; a mistake-riddled case conducted by a combative assistant US attorney willing to use compromised "snitch" witnesses and unwilling to admit contrary evidence; and a sentence of life without parole pronounced by a prosecution-favoring judge. In short, an abuse of government power and a travesty of justice. O'Connor's own investigation, which uncovered evidence of witness tampering, intimidation, and prosecutorial misconduct, helped give rise to a front-page series of articles in the Kansas City Star—only to prompt a whitewashing inquiry by the Department of Justice that exonerated the lead ATF agent and named other possible perpetrators who remain unidentified and unindicted. O'Connor extends his scrutiny to this cover-up and arrives at a startling conclusion suggesting that the case of the Marlborough Five is far from closed.
Journalists are not supposed to make the news. But faced with a gross injustice, and seeing no other remedy, O'Connor felt he must step in. Justice on Fire is such an intervention.
Contents
Prologue
Part I. Framing the Marlborough Five
1. The Last Alarm
2. What Whent Wrong?
3. Investigating the Crime
4. Investigating the Marlborough Neighborhood
5. The Marlborough Five
6. Indicted the Marlborough Five
7. The Trial Opens
8. the Case against the Marlborough Five
9. The Defense
10. Closing Argument and Verdict
11. Sentencing
Part II. The Search for Justice
12. Appeals
13. Affidavits of Recantation
14. Mike McGraw
15. The Department of Justice Investigation
16. Life in Prison
17. Interviewing the Original KCPD Detectives
18. Resentencing of Bryan Sheppard
19. New Evidence
Cast of Main Characters
Timeline
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
