Photo credit: Courtesy of Jackie Carpenter
“We were traveling the world over first class. We had it all. In fact, on that day, June 27th of 2008, we were having our greenhouse built on the hillside behind my parents,” recalled Jackie Carpenter.
“That day was a beautiful day and everything in my life was absolutely perfect. How could I have known that by the end of that day, not only my life but the life of everybody in my family was about to be blown to smithereens.”
“A Cry for Justice (Triple Horse Studios), could have happened to any one of us. But it didn’t. It happened to Jackie Carpenter when her son was arrested for murder after an accidental shooting at his worksite. Full of tragedy and triumph, it shows how this remarkable woman’s faith and determination helped get her through the terrifying ordeal that was ahead.
When her son Jason (Drew Matthews) is falsely accused of murder, Jackie Carpenter (Francine Locke) fights against the odds to free her son; but when the prosecution (Sandra W. Van Natta) seeks a life sentence, Jackie’s life spins into turmoil sending her on a difficult journey of wavering faith, tentative hope, and ultimate victory.”
Based on a true story, “A Cry for Justice” will put your faith on trial as the journey of Jackie Carpenter bridges the gap between Cell Block A and a miracle.” Production Notes
Hollywood on the Potomac sat down with Carpenter who explains the story this way: “That phone call came on a Friday at 2 AM in the morning. Jason had told me earlier in the day he was okay, He had a construction company and he had eight houses in a secluded subdivision where he was robbed continuously of copper. He had been robbed 17 times. On that day, a young deputy met my son at that construction site where Jason filed all the right reports, police reports and insurance claims.
What the deputy told my son was this: “You know Jason, unless you catch a copper thief in the act, they’re not going to catch them. Here’s what I suggest you do, I suggest you hide over there in the woods, watch this next house with exposed copper …if they show up you call 911 and what I can do for you is have law enforcement patrol this area. So, if the call goes in to 911, I can have policemen there in five minutes.
The call did go to 911 but when the police got the call, they were on the other side of town getting gas. By the time they got there, everything had already happened.” We’re not going to spoil the plot for you but this is when Jackie got the call. “The call comes to me at 2:00 AM that a man has been shot and then taken to the hospital, followed by a call from my daughter in law who was screaming into the telephone saying: “A man has died. That man has died and Jason has been charged with felony murder.”
“Now, that was the call where our whole world changed. Jason had been charged with felony murder and three counts of aggravated assault and possession of assault arms. They had placed him in what I was referred to as “cell block A.” That was where they placed the worst of humanity, the worst murderers. There was my son in there.”
Again, without giving the plot away we asked Jackie why she wrote the book that subsequently became a movie. “The whole purpose of the book, the whole purpose of the movie, is to help the people out there who have had no hope, those who are going down for their fourth time and don’t know where to go, to give them an alternative to know there is hope, when there is none, and that’s what we’re trying to get across. There is hope. There’s always hope,” she concluded.
The Trailer:
