WINNER of THE 2005 EDGAR AWARD for DRAMA from MYSTERY WRITERS of AMERICA, WINNER of THE 2005 EMANUEL FRIED AWARD for OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY, and a 2009 SELECTION for the NAAA PLAY READING FESTIVAL in London. It is 1960. Kennedy and Nixon are vying for the White House as lunch counter sit-ins spread throughout the South. Sam Cooke is on the radio, and The Untouchables is on television. Buffalo, New York, has so few black women lawyers they can be counted on a single hand. In this stirring legal drama, one of them, Temple Scott, is locked in the courtroom fight of her life. There is no doubt the young woman the press calls "the Negro Lizzie Borden" murdered her employer. To keep Mae Lou McKitchen out of the electric chair, however, Temple must uncover the truth behind the crime. Murder, you see, is always a matter of intent. "A crime without a witness, a society without perspective, a criminal justice system that is anything but just."--The Buffalo News

Playwright, novelist, short story writer, and essayist Gary Earl Ross is a retired University at Buffalo professor. His produced plays include Sleepwalker, Matter of Intent, Picture Perfect, The Best Woman, Murder Squared, The Scavenger's Daughter, The Mark of Cain, The Guns of Christmas, The Trial of Trayvon Martin, and the forthcoming Breath at the Edge of the Storm). His books include The Wheel of Desire, Shimmerville, Blackbird Rising, and the Gideon Rimes mysteries Nickel City Blues, Nickel City Crossfire, and Nickel City Storm Warning. Among his honors are the Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America, three Emanuel Fried Outstanding New Play Awards, public radio commentary awards from the New York Associated Press and the New York Broadcasters Association, and assorted fellowships, grants, and residencies for fiction and drama.