They Can't Break Me

"They can shake me, but they can't break me." Those were the words Joanna Madonna spoke as a mantra during her incarceration in the Wake County Jail. She spent more than 800 days awaiting trial on a charge of first-degree murder, for the death of her husband. Before her arrest, Joanna was known by family and friends as a wife and mother, a teacher, and a singer. She lived with her third husband, three daughters, an aging father, and several rescued cats and dogs in an upscale neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina. To outward appearances, life was good. On June 15, 2013, this suburban, domestic picture was shattered. Sudden violence brought life to an end for Jose Perez and instantly altered the future for his family, for Joanna, her children, and her father. Ripples of shock and grief extended far beyond their immediate families, into their circles of friends and the community. Joanna Madonna's memoir of the final weeks before and during her trial are an intimate depiction of the cascade of emotions and tribulation, so far from what she ever expected to experience. She tells her story with candor and the hope to reach women who, as she did, are suffering in silence, a silence that can become deadly.