The stakes couldn't be any higher. Stephen Parkes, a former Airborne Ranger and law school graduate, has been charged with a brutal crime. A career prosecutor has made him an offer of thirty years in prison in return for a guilty plea. He has a hanging judge and his own public defender wants him to die in prison. The circumstances have never been more grim! So, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He drops more than eight feet into a noose. His heart stops beating. His lungs stop breathing. But, somehow, Stephen Parkes lives. Fresh off his own gallows, he finds that his problems are only beginning. Parkes is as guilty as sin. The case against him is perfect. Undeterred, Parkes fights back, hoping to be set free. The odds against him are impossible. Set against a background of horrid child abuse, pitiful drug addiction, and brutal crimes, On A Cold Day In Hell provides a scathing indictment of the American judicial system, demonstrates the emptiness of mandatory minimum sentencing, and gives a first-hand look at the consequences of the unthinking cruelty payed out to a minor child at the hands of a Catholic priest. Part jailhouse lawyer, part convict, and all human, Stephen Parkes stands his ground and makes his own case for freedom, which can only be found on a cold day in hell.