God's Executioner

"The courthouse called first thing this morning," Tanya tells me. "They've got an oddball on their hands." "Don't we all," I philosophize. I'm a public defender, and oddballs in my line of work are something rare and wonderful like golf balls on a driving range. "No," she says, "this is different. You hear about the murder the other night at Oquirrh Park?" "As a matter of fact, I did." The morning after a softball game, one of the players was found dead between third base and home. Apparently, someone took batting practice on his forehead. "Well, the guy turned himself in yesterday afternoon. He says God commanded him to do it." Welcome to Kimball County, a predominantly LDS corner of northern Utah where the prosecution is about to put God on trial--at least that's how the defendant, Tracy Parker, sees it. Scott Fernelius, the public defender, is supposed to give Parker the best defense possible, but Parker doesn't want a defense. He confesses that he killed a man, but he insists he's innocent. And so begins the strangest trial of the new millennium.