Damned to Eternity

Book excerpt: James Scott was twenty-four years old when he was first convicted in 1994-and then again in 1998-of intentionally causing a catastrophe. His alleged crime was causing a levee to break, which flooded over 14,000 acres of farmland during the Great Midwestern Floods of '93. Though no one died, he was the first and only person in Missouri history convicted under this obscure 1979 law and is now serving a life sentence. He won't be eligible for his first parole hearing until 2023, when he will be fifty-five years old. In Damned to Eternity, Adam Pitluk contends that James Scott was a victim of a federal agency, a town, and law enforcement hell-bent on blaming him for something he maintains he didn't do.