The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

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The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

by John Grisham (Goodreads Author)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 30,016 ratings · 2,747 reviews

In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the big leagues, Ron stumbled, his dream broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron's home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence,...more

Hardcover, 360 pages

Published October 10th 2006 by Doubleday (first published 2006)

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Dec 28, 2007 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: The World!

I've enjoyed a few Grisham's in my day, and of course seen a few of the films... But this book is stunning, and it's his first non-fiction.

I myself practice criminal law, and of course if you asked me, I'd say there are bad cops out there, and bad prosecutors, and bad defense attorneys and bad judges, but I would not have imagined the devastating travesty that unfolds on these pages.

This is a story of small town justice going way south. It wasn't vigilante but it wasn't far off. They used the "s...more

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Jun 06, 2010 babyhippoface rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: grown-up-stuff

If you're going to read this, don't stop there. Go online and read Bill Petersen's account as well. It's only fair. And after all, "fair" is what this book is all about, right?http://www.billpetersondistrictattorn...

The Innocent Man alternates between a compelling account of a murder investigation and a tedious account of a man's stupidity/petty criminal activity/insanity.

I had great respect for John Grisham until I read both this book and responses to the book by Ada prosecutor Bill Petersen,...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Nenette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The pull of this story is the fact that it is not fiction. The book was tagged as something every American should read…..but this is not happening only across the USA. It is a very sad fact that applies globally. After I’ve read this, I am left with a couple of thoughts about law enforcement personnel who would go to extreme measures to solve a case even at the expense of prosecuting the non-guilty – can they really be that bad to the core, or are they just so much in a hurry to resolve a case,...more

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Dec 07, 2008 Trevor Poe rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who like true stories

Recommended to Trevor by: My mother

Set in the quiet Bible Belt town of Ada, Oklahoma, The Innocent Man is a very well written novel about a man named Ronald Williamson, who was wrongly accused of a murder. Grisham describes the town perfectly when he says, “Had it not been for two notorious murders in the early 1980s, Ada would have gone unnoticed by the world.” In this book, the author, John Grisham, takes you through all of the details of the murder and explains why Ron Williamson was wrongly accused.

Ron Williamson lived in Ad...more
Set in the quiet Bible Belt town of Ada, Oklahoma, The Innocent Man is a very well written novel about a man named Ronald Williamson, who was wrongly accused of a murder. Grisham describes the town perfectly when he says, “Had it not been for two notorious murders in the early 1980s, Ada would have gone unnoticed by the world.” In this book, the author, John Grisham, takes you through all of the details of the murder and explains why Ron Williamson was wrongly accused.

Ron Williamson lived in Ada, Oklahoma, where, as a young boy, he fell in love with the sport of baseball. In high school, he was on the all-state baseball team. He also had a friend on the baseball team named Bruce Leba who got Ron into drinking. After high school, Ron had many failed attempts at the pros after playing many seasons with the New York Yankee minor league team.

Living back in Ada, Oklahoma, Ron’s obsession of playing professional baseball led to depression, and he was soon diagnosed with a mental illness called bipolar disorder. His lifestyle became precarious and irresponsible. Grisham says, “Ron went bar hopping trying to take home a different girl every night.” This got him accused of numerous rapes by numerous girls. He then started bar hopping with a man named Dennis Fritz. One of their favorite bars to go to was the Coachlight.

Dennis Fritz lived in Ada with his daughter. He became friends with Ron and quickly began bar hopping with him. After a fight one night in which neither could remember what it was about, Dennis left Ada and went to live with his mom in Kansas City. In Kansas City he kept busy by painting houses. His friendship with Ron was just a memory until they were arrested for the murder of Debra Sue Carter.

One night at the coachlight when Ron and Dennis were not there, a girl named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered after being seen with Glen Gore. On very little evidence, Ron and Dennis were taken in as prime suspects. On trial with lying witnesses and corrupted evidence, Ron and Dennis were prosecuted with little help to defend them.

The main theme of this book is that there are many flaws in our justice system and those flaws can lead to injustice that destroys many lives. Grisham makes the reader really think about our justice system and how it can be corrupted.
The strength of this book is that is was told with many detailed facts of the murder case. It also shows how unfair and poor the police system is in Ada, Oklahoma. It makes one wonder just how many other incompetent police forces exist throughout our country.

The weakness of this book is that it was not very exciting or mysterious. You pretty much know from the beginning what is going to happen at the end of the book. I did not like this book because I like books with a lot of suspense and excitement in them, and this book had neither.

Page Count: 435

Genre: Non-Fiction(less)

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Mar 05, 2009 Karen & Gerard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grisham, survival, suspense, thought-provoking

This is a very disturbing nonfiction book about our judicial system, a heinous crime and a wasted life. It showed how several innocent men were convicted of murder and that in reality, one is really guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around. It is a very sad documentary about a talented high school athlete who really ruined his life with drinking, drugs and got framed for murder, and developed mental and physical illness. It's unbelievable how these innocent men spent 12 year...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great book ... well, I like all the book by Grisham. "If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you." All we need is a few more good men and women in America. :-)

6 likes · like · see review

May 19, 2013 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, non-fiction-crime

The book is not about 1 innocent man but 2, Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.

John Grisham picked a sad and twisted tail for his first ever non-fiction book. Although Fritz plays a big part in the story it primarily focuses on Williamson and the tragedy that was his tortured life and his unbelievable fall from grace. The injustice and inhuman treatment Williamson suffered through is like no other criminal case I’ve ever heard of or read about.

Most of the time our justice systems get’s the bad guy...more The book is not about 1 innocent man but 2, Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.

John Grisham picked a sad and twisted tail for his first ever non-fiction book. Although Fritz plays a big part in the story it primarily focuses on Williamson and the tragedy that was his tortured life and his unbelievable fall from grace. The injustice and inhuman treatment Williamson suffered through is like no other criminal case I’ve ever heard of or read about.

Most of the time our justice systems get’s the bad guy through good professional investigative Police work. 90% of the time Prosecutors and Judges know the law and will apply it without bias based on solid physical and/or circumstantial evidence or better yet eye witness testimony.

Such was not the case for Williamson and Fritz. In 1982, a 21 year old named Debra Carter from Ada, OK was raped and murdered. The Ada Police Dept. didn’t have any physical evidence and very weak circumstantial evidence and couldn’t link them to the crime. Despite that, 5 years later in 1987 both we’re charged with 1st Degree Murder based on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches.

With a local unsympathetic judge and jury who wanted their pound of flesh Williamson was quickly found guilty and sent to death row with Fritz getting life in prison. Since Williamson had a Police record, severe psychological problems and a troubled past he was the perfect man to nail since the Police and DA’s Office had no other viable suspects.

While I’ve always believed and still do in the Death Penalty this shocking and gut wrenching story really made me wonder just how many men and women go to death row because of crooked Cops, Prosecutors and Judges.

I believe that they get it right most of the time but mistakes happen because we’re dealing with humans and a human legal system. Still if due diligence and proper legal procedures are not followed those responsible should be just as severely punished as those they attempt to prosecute especially in death penalty cases.
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Aug 15, 2008 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-books

I preferred this (and Time to Kill) because he deviated from his usual "prescriptive" writing.

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May 27, 2011 booklady rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to booklady by: Joyce Hopper

Shelves: 2009, biography, books-on-books, history, non-fiction, crime

Originally I wanted to give this book five stars for its readability, research and relevance. My primary reservation was the overall disturbing nature of the book. It's about an horrendous travesty of justice in my own state against two innocent men which explored the all-too common occurance of incarceration and even execution of those who never had anything to do with the crime(s) in question.

Upon doing a little more research, I discovered that the author Mr. Grisham, may not have not done the...more Originally I wanted to give this book five stars for its readability, research and relevance. My primary reservation was the overall disturbing nature of the book. It's about an horrendous travesty of justice in my own state against two innocent men which explored the all-too common occurance of incarceration and even execution of those who never had anything to do with the crime(s) in question.

Upon doing a little more research, I discovered that the author Mr. Grisham, may not have not done the sterling job I thought he did in researching and presenting the facts in this case. Or perhaps, I should say, he did his research very well, but he let his own personal agenda carry him away at times in how he presented those facts--that agenda being that corrupt officials allow themselves to be pressured into putting the innocent behind bars.

In this book, Mr. Grisham seems bent on creating a classic villian out of the prosecutor, Bill Peterson. After finishing the book, I happened upon Mr. Peterson's view of the situation which offers a different perspective on Grisham's protrayal of events in his book. According to Peterson, The Innocent Man isn't non-fiction because Grisham failed to portray Peterson's side of the story, leaves out critical information and 'compromised (the truth) in favor of dramatic license'. Reading just some of what Peterson says at his website, I'm inclined to agree with him.

That Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz deserved and were denied justice, I have no doubt. That the events unfolded quite as they are portrayed by Grisham, I have more than a few.

=========================================

Heard John Grisham speak about The Innocent Man Murder and Injustice in a Small Town on the 13th of October 2009 at Oklahoma City University School of Law. The book itself concerns the wrongful conviction of two men in Ada, OK but in Mr. Grisham's address he said that wrong arrests and executions are a national phenomenon and problem.

It was a worthwhile event which not included a fascinating talk by the noted author but also selections from the play, The Exonerated A Play. (less)

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Jun 18, 2008 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a change from John Grisham's normal books, it is the account of a true event that was lived by the people in a small town in Oklahoma.
The characters in this book were wonderful, interesting, multi-layered and very engaging or very horrible. The fact that these are real people not fictional characters makes them even more interesting.
Two women within a very short time were murdered in this small town, the main goal of the police and D.A. was to find someone to blame not - to solve...more

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Jan 20, 2008 Basham! rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wasn't going to put this book here because, well, it's Grisham and I'm just reading it for class. Still, for those unfamiliar with the criminal justice system, who despise public defenders, or take their liberty for granted, this book is a good introduction.

Early in his book, Grisham relates a 1909 incident from the “colorful” history of the small Oklahoma town of Ada (the main setting in the book). It is striking story of vigilante action triggered by the murder of a local farmer. Four men a...more I wasn't going to put this book here because, well, it's Grisham and I'm just reading it for class. Still, for those unfamiliar with the criminal justice system, who despise public defenders, or take their liberty for granted, this book is a good introduction.

Early in his book, Grisham relates a 1909 incident from the “colorful” history of the small Oklahoma town of Ada (the main setting in the book). It is striking story of vigilante action triggered by the murder of a local farmer. Four men are dragged out of jail, punished without the protections of a fair trial, and the local government reprints a picture of the lynching on a postcard. With this, Grisham then points to a modern “lynching” attempt by focusing mainly on one man, Ron Williamson, who came to suffer the injustice of being wrongfully convicted.
This book is about the conviction and exoneration of Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz (convicted as an accomplice) in a small town in the United States. In 1988, Williamson was convicted of murdering a young woman despite the astonishing lack of evidence. Williamson was a local baseball prodigy that never progressed beyond the minor leagues. Over time, this failure pushed Williamson further into alcoholism and mental illness, leading to strange behavior that did not go unnoticed by the locals of Ada. When it was time to find the murderer of a young waitress in town, many of the townspeople pointed to Williamson as the prime suspect.
From the beginning, it is clear that the title of the book, The Innocent Man, is not meant ironically. The mystery of this book is how people like Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz can be convicted of a murder where there is a such scant evidence while a more obvious suspect is left uninvestigated. The research involved, as to be expected from a writer of Grisham’s best-selling status, is not statistical or very academically thorough but anecdotal.
Grisham is not objective. Bill Peterson, the Ada District Attorney, is arrogant and shameless and the local cops are corrupt and narrow-minded. To the extent that Grisham solves the mystery, so to speak, he does briefly get into the unreliability of other police practices, such as, lie-detector tests and hair samples. Unfortunately, Grisham barely scratches the surface in explaining how such injustices can come about, even anecdotally. (He spends an inordinate amount of time recounting Williamson’s baseball “career,” for example).
This book conjures the common refrain that the basis of the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is better to let a guilty person go free than to put an innocent man in prison. The system is replete with safeguards to remove the accused from such horrors as lynching where local townspeople succumb to little more than personal prejudices, strong emotions, and violent tendencies. Grisham has written about how the system has truly failed. It is unlikely that there is a person who does not recognize the flaws of our adversarial and impersonal legal system. The criminal justice system is an institution like any other that can never escape the vagaries of human logic and prejudice. Where the injustice is so flagrant, however, as Grisham demonstrates (by both showing and, in a common literary faux pas, repeatedly telling the reader), everyone should take notice. The case of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, exonerated by the fortuitous introduction of DNA technology and an excellent team of defense lawyers, begs the question: how could this happen in the modern America? Even worse, how many others remain in prison as a result of wrongful convictions? It is unlikely that an unremarkable town like Ada, which Grisham notes is much like any small town in America, is alone in its broken criminal justice system.

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Jan 01, 2008 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, books-i-own, true-crime, favorite-writers

Grisham's first foray into the world of true crime/non-fiction writing is a stunner. Literally, we could not stop reading it. The book is the story of a mentally ill young man in Oklahoma who is accused and convicted of a murder he did not commit. There is no doubt from the first that he and his friend are innocent, but due to inept defense lawyers, crooked prosecutors and investigators, and a skewed system of justice, two men are convicted of the murder and sent to prison. Ron Williamson awaits...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Luann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, adult, nonfiction, shelf-a-thon1

John Grisham's nonfiction book of "murder and injustice in a small town" is well written, well researched, and completely engrossing. It's hard to believe that so many could be wrongly convicted of such heinous crimes, yet the evidence is there that it has happened. Scary. The hope is that we will learn from past mistakes and not allow things like this to happen so easily to innocent people.

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Nov 21, 2008 Rebecca rated it 1 of 5 stars

I preface this review by saying that John Grisham is one of my favorite authors of all time. Despite that, this was possible the worst book I have ever forced myself to finish. I finished it only because it was a Grisham novel, but it was downright awful. It is my understanding that this was Grisham’s first non-fiction book. It is his research and retelling of a man who is wrongly convicted of murder and put on death row. The book reads like a poorly written legal memo with insane amounts of unn...more

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Nov 10, 2008 Elly Brekke rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sarah and Suzanne

Sarah, read this book ! ! This is Grisham's first work of non-fiction, and what a grabber it is. Ada, Oklahoma - small town - wrongful murder convictions. Grisham lays out the life of a young boy with a bright future, who develops a mental illness, complete with drug and alcohol abuse. He's the town crazy, so he gets nailed when the police are out to put someone in jail for a horrific rape and murder of a young resident. You won't believe what happens to the young man, and several others like hi...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tragic story that has happened repeatedly across the nation. Riveting. Thank you Innocence Project.

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Aug 24, 2011 Tim Meloche rated it 4 of 5 stars

The best Grisham novel in years. As a criminal defense myself, I am interested in reading of miscarriages of justice. My father in law on the other hand is a retired police officer and he simply found the book to be distasteful. In my practice I have found that most people do not believe that people can be wrongfully convicted or that crown attorneys (district attorneys in the us) or police officers may press matters through the system for reasons that are not related to justice. This work is ce...more

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Apr 18, 2010 The Writer added it

This novel was gripping albeit the long narration here and there – and that until I reached the middle part of the book where they put few pages of photographs of the “characters” in the novel. That’s when I knew that this wasn’t a fiction after all – and that the story is real and that it actually happened to someone.

…..and then the novel or the book – whatever you might call it – influenced me even more the further I went reading. How could someone be exposed to such injustice that nobody ever...more This novel was gripping albeit the long narration here and there – and that until I reached the middle part of the book where they put few pages of photographs of the “characters” in the novel. That’s when I knew that this wasn’t a fiction after all – and that the story is real and that it actually happened to someone.

…..and then the novel or the book – whatever you might call it – influenced me even more the further I went reading. How could someone be exposed to such injustice that nobody ever thought of questioning it. Sure, justice is blind, here it’s even blinder.

The story started with the murder (and brutal rape) of a young woman named Debbie Carter in a sleepy town called Ada in Oklahoma. Everyone – who saw her that night – witnessed few times that she was seen talking with a local boy called Glen Gore and was repeatedly seen angry at the boy.

However, when she was found murdered the next morning, nobody ever thought of pointing their fingers at him. You might ask the big question. Why? Every men in the vicinity of the bar where she worked – were requested to submit semen and hair sample but Gore wasn’t – until three years later.

The suspicion fell into the lap of Ada’s former baseball star-cum-no-good-of-a-man Ron Williamson. Suffering from post-star syndrome, his mental condition was unstable and his excessive drinking didn’t help his reputation of snatching local women from different bars. He had been charged of rape / attempt of rape twice before although he wasn’t convicted.

With Williamson under the spotlight, his former drinking buddy Dennis Fritz was also dragged into the picture. The former school teacher – who had been through tragedy when he found out his wife murdered in the porch – must once again experience the nightmare with long hours in the court to prove his innocence.

Needles to say the investigation and the trials were misled and soon enough Williamson were handcuffed and dragged into death row cells – where his mental instability affected him even worse.

This book – like I said – is gripping. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how these people would have felt locked inside for something that they never did. Williamson and Fritz were finally released 11 (?) years after being locked in prison thanks to the DNA investigation system that was non-existent before the 1990s.

It is indeed an eye opening book – to see through the flaws of American judicial system and what has probably happened throughout the years, before DNA testing technology came into the picture. How many innocent people have been executed? We never know!(less)

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Apr 01, 2009 Roshea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: legal-non-fiction

This is John Grisham's first and only non-fiction book. It is about the injustice experienced by Ron Williamson who was wrongly convicted of murder and consequently spent 11 years on Oklahoma's death row before advances in DNA technology proved him innocent. This book highlights the flaws in America's death penalty laws. Grisham meticulously documents the harrowing and deplorable treatment experienced by death row inmates by cruel and sadistic prison guards. This book invoked a lot of anger and...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I usually don't like these kind of books. I started reading it because I was bored. I finished it in one day.

The book is about a man Roy Williamson. He was a small town boy who had high asperations. He was drafted into the MLB, and had hope to make the majors one day. Life through him some curveballs and he flamed out of baseball. He then dedicated his life to drinking and drugs.

This is not what kept me reading. What ket me drawn was that he was wrongly convicted for a lady's murder. A lady he...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Antof9 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-read, americana, couldn-t-put-it-down, mysterious

Having just finished Martin Chuzzlewit, which took forever, I wanted to read something I knew would go quickly. This was just the ticket! As fast-paced as his fiction, with a little bit less intrigue, this was really interesting.

I suppose any "true crime" story will always be compared to In Cold Blood, and I'm doing it, too. However, where ICB knows what happened and follows the killers from day one to the bitter end, this one follows the unjustly accused, and the crime itself is a big unknown f...more

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Dec 06, 2008 Janie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a departure from Grisham’s usual fare. For one thing, it’s non-fiction. Also, the style is more direct. He sticks to the bare facts, which in themselves are shocking.
Ron Williamson was falsely accused and sentenced to death for a woman’s murder in Ada, OK in 1981. A man with serious mental illness made much worse by isolation and incarceration, he spent 11 years on death row, protesting his innocence the whole time. The police had nothing but circumstantial evidence, hair samples th...more

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Jun 18, 2013 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

When I finished Capote's "In Cold Blood", I decided that non-fiction was not a genre for me, and that I probably would not venture there again. However, judging a whole literary form on the strength of just one book seemed rather arbitrary, so in the spirit of fairness and curiosity, off I went to dip my toes in again, this time opting for "The Innocent Man".

This is not an easy read, by any stretch of the imagination. Though I am not familiar with Mr Grisham's style - having so far only seen the...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Kimberly Kasper rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of this genre or Grisham fans.

Recommended to Kimberly by: The bookshelf. :)

This book is heartbreaking in more ways than one. It gives you a very detailed account of the events that lead to one man going to prison for a murder he did not commit. Many times I'll read the very first pages of a story (instead of the back or inside cover) to see if the book grabs my attention. My Mom had recommended John Grisham to me years ago and I have always enjoyed his work. When I saw this book, I bought it without hesitation. I was hooked within the first few pages. I knew John Grish...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Memizuki rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great book. Very unlike John Grisham not only because it was his first non-fiction but because it kinda of jumped all over the place. The books starts off with the horrible murder of a girl in small town OK. He follows the story of mental unstable and mentally handicapped Ron Williamson that is charged with homicide.

It talks of small town politics, and small town bribery, and how it landed a man in jail. The story of baseball hopeful Ron is that of a normal American living the dream. Troubled b...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

The sleepy town of Ada, Oklahoma was rocked by a murder in the 1980s. A local sports hero, Ron Williamson, and his friend Dennis Fritz were arrested for the murder of a woman. The two had been in trouble with the law before and their bungled trials did nothing but cement their guilt in the eyes of the community.

As the title of the book suggests, Grisham’s nonfiction account of the crime, trial, imprisonment and eventual exoneration focus on the fact that Williamson was never guilty to begin wit...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Peggy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book moved me. (I actually listened to it.) After I was done, I was compelled to look up Ron Williamson, Dennis Fritz, his sisters Annette and Renee. I think what moved me most was how supportive the people around Ron were, and how dispassionate and cruel the system, (and those who are paid by the system) can be. Through the story, I wondered how much I would have believed and listened to Ron. The Innocence Project is a worthy movement and deserves support. The book not only showed how limi...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Patti rated it 3 of 5 stars

There's an old adage in divorce law: there's his side, there's her side and then there's the truth. That adage definitely applies to this book. I find Grisham a smug, unhappy little man who probably rolls in his money on nights when he feels especially condescending. His fiction books are all the same and his attempts at creating female characters would be laughable if they weren't so pitiful. But the idea of this book intrigued me and once I took off the dust jacket (which had his ugly, smug mu...more There's an old adage in divorce law: there's his side, there's her side and then there's the truth. That adage definitely applies to this book. I find Grisham a smug, unhappy little man who probably rolls in his money on nights when he feels especially condescending. His fiction books are all the same and his attempts at creating female characters would be laughable if they weren't so pitiful. But the idea of this book intrigued me and once I took off the dust jacket (which had his ugly, smug mug on it), I got into the book. But as I read, I knew that Grisham was exaggerating and possibly embellishing and maybe flat out lying in places. It was just a gut feeling I had. I decided to do some research on the issue and found that the prosecuting attorney has his own website with his response to this book. Again, I got the feeling that he was exaggerating and possibly embellishing and maybe flat out lying in places. Thus, I would surmise that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of the stories by these two men.

So what did happen? Well, two men who did not kill Debbie Carter were put away (one almost executed) for a long time. There were overeager police officers and prosecutors, and police who took "dream" confessions. There were other false convictions in Ada. The two men (Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz) were not wealthy and not super educated (although Fritz had been a teacher) and seemingly unaware of their legal rights. If not for the Innocence Project, both would likely have never been let out of prison alive.

The book is an interesting look at the justice system and the troubles one encounters when one tries to make things right. There are some heroes in the book--the lawyers from the Innocence Project and the initial review judge (and his clerks) who realized that there were some big mistakes in the trial. But I think the more interesting story is that of Ron Williamson. He is a picture example of a student athlete who had dreams of the big time. From what this book says, Ron got what Ron wanted his entire life...until he failed to make it in the Show. From what this book says, the man was a sexual harasser at best and a rapist at worst. I think this is almost to be expected when you raise a child and give him whatever he wants...what will happen when someone finally tells him "no"?

Ron got told "no" a lot after his baseball career failed to materialize. From what I read, he never quite believed that the dream wasn't going to happen. Even without the false conviction and long jail sentence, that is a tragedy in and of itself. (less)

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Sep 16, 2012 Swithin Fry is currently reading it

I correspond with a prisoner on Death Row in Ohio, and having visited him on a recent trip to America became convinced of his likely innocence. I joined the penpal group here in the UK because I believe the death penalty is an abhorrence in any modern society; guilty or not guilty was not an issue. believing in his likely innocence, has shaken me to the core. I've exchanged letters with this man for nearly a year now; our relationship has changed from being penpals to being, what I consider, rea...more

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Sep 16, 2012 AJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, crime

I picked up this book from the library because I like John Grisham and it was just sitting on the top of a shelf. I skimmed the description and thought it sounded interesting. When I started reading it, I thought to myself that it was written very differently from his other novels, and written very much like a non-fiction narrative. If I had paid a little more attention I would have realized that it was his first foray into nonfiction. That will teach me to pay more attention when reading about...more

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About John Grisham

"Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of...more "Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.

One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.

That might have put an end to Grisham's hobby. However, he had already begun his next book, and it would quickly turn that hobby into a new full-time career—and spark one of publishing's greatest success stories. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. When he sold the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.

The successes of The Pelican Brief, which hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and The Client, which debuted at number one, confirmed Grisham's reputation as the master of the legal thriller. Grisham's success even renewed interest in A Time to Kill, which was republished in hardcover by Doubleday and then in paperback by Dell. This time around, it was a bestseller.

Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, and The Broker) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 225 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marks his first foray into non-fiction.

Grisham lives with his wife Renee and their two children Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm in Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, VA.

Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books' protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jur(less)

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