Cassie Howard is a young single woman who has dedicated her life to helping children and families deal with abuse. With great compassion for each child she counsels, she gains strength to help them by leaning on her faith. When she meets four-year-old Annon, Cassie is determined to do all she can to help her, but it's Annon who may be helping her instead. A three-year-old named Justin has been kidnapped, and Annon could hold the key to finding him. With the clock ticking and a world of darkness unraveling around her, will Cassie be able to help Justin in time? Witness "A Fight for Innocence" like you've never seen before! "Many people have no idea of how evil has impacted the lives of innocent children and the results continuing on into their adult life. This book seeks to tell that story so that you will have a better understanding of what others have experienced and how it has affected them. You will find yourself feeling compassion for some characters and great disdain for others. As a result of reading this book, you should discover an increasing ability to believe and comfort those whose lives have been affected by these horrible crimes." Dave Woodruff, Pastor, York Seventh-day Adventist Church

ONE MAN'S FIGHT AGAINST A CORRUPT LEGAL SYSTEM. "IF IT CAN HAPPEN TO ME, IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU."

Through intimate portraits of four exonerated prisoners, journalist Alison Flowers explores what happens to innocent people when the state flings open the jailhouse door and tosses them back, empty-handed into the unknown. From the front lines of the wrongful conviction capital of the United States—Cook County, Ill.—these stories reveal serious gaps in the criminal justice system. Flowers depicts the collateral damage of wrongful convictions on families and communities, challenging the deeper problem of mass incarceration in the United States. As she tells each exoneree’s powerful story, Flowers vividly shows that release from prison, though sometimes joyous and hopeful, is not a Hollywood ending—or an ending at all. Rather, an exoneree’s first unshackled steps are the beginning of a new journey full of turmoil and triumph. Based on Chicago Public Media’s yearlong multimedia series—a finalist for a national Online Journalism Award—this narrative piece of investigative journalism tells profoundly human stories of reclaiming one’s life, overcoming adversity, and searching for purpose—at times with devastating consequences and courageous breakthroughs.

The Clems were a family living the American dream until their fifteen-year-old daughter Carren became addicted to Meth. Within two months of first taking the highly addictive drug, Carren had moved out of the family home, spent her entire savings on Meth and resorted to stealing, dealing and prostitution to pay for her habit. Told from both Carren's perspective and from the perspective of her father Ron, Loss of Innocence shares the shocking story of how a middle-class girl growing up in a stable home could get so lost. A former LA police officer, Ron describes how he went back to being a cop to try to rescue his daughter and how he suffered a heart attack in the street when he witnessed Carren selling herself to a drug dealer; Carren shares the events leading up to her first taste of drugs, and her descent into addiction with moving candour and dignity. Carren is now clean and sober, and in this frank, compelling book she and her family prove that there can be life after drug addiction.

TIME looks at those wrongfully convicted, and the fight to set them free.

Ten years ago, amateur photographer and school bus driver Cynthia Stewart dropped off eleven rolls of film at a drugstore near her home in Ohio. The rolls contained photographs of her eight-year-old daughter Nora, including two of the child in the shower - photos that would cause the county prosecutor to arrest Cynthia, take her away in handcuffs, threaten to remove her daughter from her home, and charge her with crimes that carried the possibility of sixteen years in prison. The disturbing case would ultimately attract national attention - including stories in USA Today and on NPR - and supporters including the famed photographer Sally Mann, Katha Pollitt, and the ACLU. Framing Innocence brilliantly probes the many questions raised; when does a photograph of a naked child ''cross the line'' from innocent snapshot to child porn? What makes a photograph dangerous - the situation in which it is shot or the uses to which it might be put? When does the parent, and when does the state, know best? Written by poet Lynn Powell, a neighbor of Cynthia Stewart's, this riveting and beautifully told story plumbs the perfect storm of events and people that threatened an ordinary family in a small American town. Framing Innocence features a determined prosecutor; a fundamentalist Christian anti-porn crusader who is appointed as Cynthia's daughter's guardian; the local attorneys for whom the case would become a crucible; and the many neighbors - friends and strangers, Republican and Democrat - who come together to fight for sanity and for justice for Cynthia and her family.

Laced with atmospheric poetry and literature and set in the heart of Denver's black community, this gripping crime novel pits three characters in a race against time to thwart a gross miscarriage of justice—and a crooked detective who wreaks havoc…with deadly consequences. What happens to a deferred dream—especially when an innocent man's life hangs in the balance? Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping death row. Wrongfully convicted of the gruesome Mother's Day Massacre, he prepares to face his death. His final hope for salvation lies with his daughter, Liza, an artist who dreamed of a life of music and song but left the prestigious Juilliard School to pursue a law degree with the intention of clearing her father's name. Just as she nears success, it's announced that Langston will be put to death in thirty days. In a desperate bid to find freedom for her father, Liza enlists the help of Eli Stone, a jazz club owner she met at the classic Five Points venue, The Roz. Devastated by the tragic loss of his wife, Eli is trying to find solace by reviving the club…while also wrestling with the longing to join her in death. Everyone has a dream that might come true—but as the dark shadows of the past converge, could Langston, Eli, and Liza be facing a danger that could shatter those dreams forever?