False Arrest

The combination of a strange Arizona law allowing a person to be convicted of a crime on the word of another who has previously confessed to that crime, an investigator for the county attorney in Phoenix who she claims hated her, and a man who she maintains lied to save himself brought Lukezic to trial. She was found guilty of contracting for the 1980 murders of her husband's business partner, Patrick Redmond, and his mother-in-law. The chapters in which Lukezic and Schwarz ( The Hillside Strangler ) describe her two years in jail vividly depict her torment as, deserted by her husband and brother, her children scattered, she tried to adjust to life. After two more trials, she was cleared. The real culprit has not been found. Rights sold to ABC-TV for a miniseries. (Apr.)