The Innocent Man

Those of you who agree with the death penalty will rethink your position after you read John Grisham's first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (NYC: Doubleday; 2006), while those of you who disagree with the death penalty will find your position reinforced after you've read this stunning book.

And stunning it is due to the obvious and egregious miscarriage of justice that was so casually carried out in a small town. This book tells the tragic story of former major league baseball hopeful, Ron Williamson, who was the first major league draft choice from the state of Oklahoma in 1971. Six years later, Williamson returned a broken man and showing signs of serious mental illness. Unable to hold a job, he moved in with his mother and slept twenty hours per day on her couch. Eventually, after scaring the neighbors with his strange behavior and bad habits for several years, he and his equally innocent friend, Dennis Fritz, were arrested and charged with a rape and murder that they did not commit. The book then details how their cases were mishandled and how Williamson -- an innocent but astonishingly unlucky man -- was sent to death row and was almost executed. Williamson's years on "death row" were sad and frightening all at the same time. Finally, Williamson and Fritz were eventually exonerated and released -- the only happy event in Williamson's otherwise tragically unhappy life.

Throughout the entire book, Grisham relies on an appealing conversational tone in the nearly total lack of conversation. From the beginning, the author's story-telling is measured and careful as he describes the events leading up to the 1982 rape and murder of a young cocktail waitress, Debra Sue Carter, then it becomes astonished and sometimes is even barely controlled outrage at the prosecution's use of deceit and false testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts to convict Williamson and Fritz. Eventually, the author moves on to the exoneration of these two innocent men, thanks to the efforts of The Innocence Project.

As a former criminal defense attorney, Grisham had apparently never before spent much time worrying about wrongful convictions. But, unfortunately, they happen fairly often in this country, and with increasing frequency and exonerations seem to be happening weekly. And with each one of them, the question is asked -- how can an innocent man be convicted and kept in prison for 20 years? Grisham's book tells the sad story of two such innocent men and a gross miscarriage of justice, and as such, it is an excellent example of how things can go terribly wrong with our judicial system, and it raises the concern that innocent men should be reimbursed and rehabilitated after their exoneration and release.

As I read this book, I was constantly astonished that Williamson was so obviously mentally ill -- depressed, suffering from hallucinations and hearing voices -- and yet, his prison captors steadfastly refused to see this or to act on his behalf to alleviate his suffering. Even though this book is dark and oppressive, it is quite educational about the legal system, and maddeningly frustrating regarding the sorry state of America's mental health system. Regardless of your stance on the death penalty, this affecting book will be on your mind for quite some time after you've finished reading it.

John Grisham is the author of eighteen novels. As a child, Grisham dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but lacking the talent, he instead went to law school. Since publishing his first novel in 1988, he has published one book per year. When he's not writing, Grisham devotes time to charitable causes, including taking mission trips with his church group. The man who dreamed of being a professional baseball player now serves as the local Little League commissioner. The six ballfields he built on his property have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little League teams. He lives in Virginia and Mississippi.

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Thought you may be interested in this - A Book Recommendation- A Companion book to The Innocent Man, Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fritz. True Crime, Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Journey Toward Justice is a testimony to the Triumph of the human Spirit and is a Memoir. Dennis Fritz was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder after a swift trail. The only thing that saved him from the Death Penalty was a lone vote from a juror. Dennis Fritz was the other Innocent man mentioned in John Grisham's Book. which mainly is about Ronnie Williamson, Dennis Fritz's co-defendant. Both were exonerated after spending 12 years in prison. The real killer was one of the Prosecution's Key Witness. Read about why he went on a special diet of his while in prison, amazing and shocking. Dennis Fritz's Story of unwarranted prosecution and wrongful conviction needs to be heard. Look for his book in book stores or at Amazon.com , Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fritz, Publisher Seven Locks Press 2006.
Read about how he wrote hundreds of letters and appellate briefs in his own defense and immersed himself in an intense study of law. He was a school teacher and a ordinary man whose wife was brutally murdered in 1975 by a deranged 17 year old neighbor. On May 8th 1987, Five years after Debbie Sue Carter's rape and murder he was home with his young daughter and put under arrest, handcuffed and on his way to jail on charges of rape and murder. After 10 years in prison he discovered The Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organization. With the aid of Barry Scheck and DNA evidence Dennis Fritz was exonerated on April 15,1999 Since then, it has been a long hard road filled with twist and turns and now on his Journey Toward Justice. He never blamed the Lord and solely relied on his faith in God to make it through. He waited for God's time and never gave up.

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