Inmate Name: Rose Ann Parker
Charge: Murder in the First Degree
Sentence: 27 years to life
Prison: California Institution for Women
Released: December 2000

Rose Ann Parker grew up in Ontario, California, the daughter of a preacher. As a young woman she wanted to bring people closer to God through her talents in the entertainment field. She would line up at the doors of a very popular 70?s dance show to appear in the background as a dancer. Rose married and had a child at a young age but that never stopped her desire to be an actress and she landed bit parts in television shows and films. While her career started to take off, her personal life was troubled. She stopped attending church, her marriage ended in divorce, and she began experimenting with drugs.

In 1982 Rose met Art Boga, a wealthy man who threw frequent parties attended by the entertainment elite. She found herself wrapped up in the life he provided for her. Rose says Art was very generous at times and extremely vicious at other times, witnessing his brutality with other people. Her acting career fizzled as she became entangled in a volatile relationship with Art, and while struggling with her growing addiction to drugs. Rose left Art several times over the next four years but always returned to him. During one of these separations, she got pregnant with another man?s child, but Art took her back anyway. She once again tried to leave, but says that on Christmas day, 1985, he attacked and raped her. She became pregnant with Art?s baby, her third child.

After years of her on-off relationship with Art, Rose decided to make a solid change in her life. She got clean, returned to church and moved in with her brother. Things quickly turned bad when Art showed up at her brother?s house with drugs. The two went on a drug binge that lasted four days, and Rose insists that Art wouldn?t let her out of his sight. High on cocaine and low on sleep, Rose reacted quickly when an altercation broke out between Art and her brother, Peter. Fearing for her life, she grabbed a gun, and shot Art in the shoulder. He ran downstairs and Rose believed he was going to his car to retrieve an Uzi. While Peter held Art down on the kitchen floor, Rose grabbed another gun and shot at Art again, but missed him. Art bled to death minutes later from the gunshot wound to his shoulder. As police surrounded the house, Rose and her brother tried to hide the evidence but once arrested, Rose confessed to being the shooter. She believed she would be let go for acting in self-defense, but was mistaken. She was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison for the murder of Art Boga.

Rose was devastated with her sentence but soon embraced the idea that God had a plan for her life behind bars. In prison, she stayed active in positive programs to help others: was the Advisory Council chairperson, Chaplain's clerk, special projects clerk, on job training clerk for the staff, and she also counseled pregnant inmates.

In 1996, after serving eleven years, Rose received her first parole hearing. Rose says most of the information the board had was incorrect and they denied her parole for three years. Rose challenged the parole hearing and won. In the meantime, Rose had won the appeal on her sentence and it was reduced from 27 to life, to 17 to life. Looking forward to her second meeting with the parole board, Rose went to the hearing with high hopes. The meeting did not give Rose the outcome she desired and the board denied her parole for another year. It was not until her third parole hearing that Rose saw the results for all her hard work. With the help of the Post Conviction Justice Project at the University of Southern California, Rose was found suitable for parole. In September 2000, the notoriously strict Governor Gray Davis signed the release for Rose and she was free three months later.

After being released from prison, Rose returned to her roots and became a religious counselor and minister. She is now a leader in supportive programs for women, founder of her own organization, and has recently published a book about her life experiences called ?Beat Up, Beat Down, and Still Standing: The Rose Parker Story.?