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The Innocent Man |  | Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Dell
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Seller: atlanta-book-company
Rating:  586 reviews
Sales Rank: 2857
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: First
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0440243831
Dewey Decimal Number: 345.76602523
EAN: 9780440243830
ASIN: 0440243831
Publication Date: November 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
John Grisham tackles nonfiction for the first time with The Innocent Man, a true tale about murder and injustice in a small town (that reads like one of his own bestselling novels). The Innocent Man chronicles the story of Ron Williamson, how he was arrested and charged with a crime he did not commit, how his case was (mis)handled and how an innocent man was sent to death row. Grisham's first work of nonfiction is shocking, disturbing, and enthralling--a must read for fiction and nonfiction fans. We had the opportunity to talk with John Grisham about the case and the book, read his responses below. --Daphne Durham
20 Second Interview: A Few Words with John Grisham
 Q: After almost two decades of writing fiction, what compelled you to write non-fiction, particularly investigative journalism?
A: I was never tempted to write non-fiction, primarily because it's too much work. However, obviously, I love a good legal thriller, and the story of Ron Williamson has all the elements of a great suspenseful story.
Q: Why this case?
A: Ron Williamson and I are about the same age and we both grew up in small towns in the south. We both dreamed of being major league baseball players. Ron had the talent, I did not. When he left a small town in 1971 to pursue his dreams of major league glory, many thought he would be the next Mickey Mantle, the next great one from the state of Oklahoma. The story of Ron ending up on Death Row and almost being executed for a murder he did not commit was simply too good to pass up.
Q: How did you go about your research?
A: I started with his family. Ron is survived by two sisters who took care of him for most of his life. They gave me complete access to the family records, photographs, Ron's mental health records, and so on. There was also a truckload of trial transcripts, depositions, appeals, etc., that took about 18 months to organize and review. Many of the characters in the story are still alive and I traveled to Oklahoma countless times to interview them.
Q: Did your training as a lawyer help you?
A: Very much so. It enabled me to understand the legal issues involved in Ron's trial and his appeals. It also allowed me, as it always does, to be able to speak the language with lawyers and judges.
Q: Throughout your book you mention, The Dreams of Ada: A True Story of Murder, Obsession, and a Small Town. How did you come across that book, and how did it impact your writing The Innocent Man?
A: Several of the people in Oklahoma I met mentioned The Dreams of Ada to me, and I read it early on in the process. It is an astounding book, a great example of true crime writing, and I relied upon it heavily during my research. Robert Mayer, the author, was completely cooperative, and kept meticulous notes from his research 20 years earlier. Many of the same characters are involved in his story and mine.
Q: You take on some pretty controversial and heated topics in your book--the death penalty, prisoners rights, DNA analysis, police conduct, and more--were any of your own beliefs challenged by this story and its outcome?
A: None were challenged, but my eyes were open to the world of wrongful convictions. Even as a former criminal defense attorney, I had never spent much time worrying about wrongful convictions. But, unfortunately, they happen all the time in this country, and with increasing frequency.
Q: So many of the key players in this case are either still in office or practicing attorneys. Many family members and friends still live in the same small town. How do you think The Innocent Man will impact this community and other small rural towns as they struggle with the realities of the justice system?
A: 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? My book is the story of only one man, but it is a good example of how things can go terribly wrong with our judicial system. I have no idea how the book will be received in the small town of Ada, Oklahoma, or any other town.
Q: What do you hope your readers will take away from The Innocent Man?
A: A better understanding of how innocent people can be convicted, and a greater concern for the need to reimburse and rehabilitate innocent men after they have been released.
Product Description
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 dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ronâs home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to deathâin a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a manâs already broken lifeâ¦and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grishamâs first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocenceâa book no American can afford to miss.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 586
 The Innocent Man by John Grisham November 17, 2009
Charles Hamilton Sr. (LaPlata, Maryland)
The Innocent Man is the author, John Grisham's, only non-fiction book. He says he chose to write it because it was a compelling story about a man on death row, sentenced to die for a murder he did not commit. The man, Ron Williamson signed a contract with the Oakland A's and thought his life was going to be set as a major league baseball player.
After some setbacks at the Farm system level Ron came back to his hometown of Ada, Oklahoma a failure. Feeling embarrassed at not making it in the big leagues he began to hang out in bars and drink heavily. It was here in this setting he met a young waitress named Debbie Carter. When Debbie's body turned up brutally raped and murdered at her apartment Ron was charged with the crime. After five years of looking for debbie's killer and nothing but dead ends, the authorities arrested Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz for the murder. One small detail the police and prosecutors failed to realise....Ron Williamson was innocent. Both of the men were tried and found guilty as the prosecutors used junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snithches to convict them. Fritz was given a life sentence, while Ron was sent to death row.
Grisham goes on to tell of Ron's struggles with mental health and the horrible conditions of his tenure in prison while on death row. Many times while reading this book you find yourself appalled by the tacticts used by the autorities to manipulate any attempts at justice for Ron's freedom. You wonder how this could be happening to him, while at the same time holding a secret desire to see him vindicated of the murder and the real culprit caught and found accountable for young Debbie's death.
There is a feeling of pending futility sitting in a cell awaiting your death for something you didn't do. You want to scream loudly for someone, anyone, to come to your rescue and stop the painful anxiety driving you to maddness as each day brings you closer to the date of your final demise. I found myself pulling for Ron to get out of prison and begin to put the broken pieces of his life together again.
Mr. Grisham does a worthy job of presenting Ron's life and struggles. He is to the point, reporting the findings of the case, as they happened, interjecting enough emotional moments of deprevation experienced by the family as they prayed for Ron's release. I wanted to see the men who did Ron dirt through their false testimonies and trial maipulations in pursuing his continued incarceration dealt with by the law, either themselves thrown in jail or disbarred from any future involement in the criminal justice system for the remains of their lives. There is no equal compensation for taking a person's life away from them, as they cannot buy back one hour of youth once time has trampled over and left it in history's rear-view mirror.
Charles Hamilton Sr. Former Executive Director of Northwest Teen Challenge and author of From Darkness To Light and A Step Of Faith. [...]
From Darkness To Light
 Not a 5-legged dog! November 12, 2009
Gerard E. Bryson (Oxford, CT USA)
It's amazing how many people still today can be duped and will believe Grisham because he's Grisham, a novelist, not an investigative reporter. If you call a 'dog's tail a leg, it doesn't make it a 5-legged dog; and, if you call it non-fiction, it doesn't make it non-fiction'. It may be non-fiction couched in many lies to help support a certain agenda, eg., anti-death penalty or to sell books...or an historical novel. One thing is certain: this is a one-sided novel. Do yourself a favor and take a look at the DA, Bill Peterson's, website for another, more credible view!
 Is it just me or Grisham, too? October 19, 2009
Victoria (NC)
I wonder, why this terrible story had to keep going that long and somewhat ease the pain it caused? Did I have to work harder to remain in the same horror I felt when started the reading? Or, maybe Grisham could trust me a little more and make the message less didactic? Or, maybe I'm just too the impressed by completely fictional but so true The Green Mile : The Complete Serial Novel?
I love all Grisham's books, especially his classical prose having no action but a lot of meaning and real craftsmanship, like A Painted House. For me, The Innocent Man is not something more, it's something less, literature-wise. But I'll re-read it.
An Innocent Man by John Grisham October 11, 2009
R. Gammon
Amazing research and depiction given by John Grisham. Really makes you wonder how many innocent men and women have been convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Great read!!!
Don't waste your time reading this book October 9, 2009
Jane Smith (Dallas, Texas)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have read every one of Grisham's books. I wish I had never read The Innocent Man. I wish I had those hours of my life back. Although I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of the book that an innocent man should not be sentenced to death row and I support the Innocence Project's objectives, I had an extremely difficult time with the individual that Grisham chose as the basis for making the point. The problem for me is that I never felt that concerned about this man. He obviously deserved to be behind bars for the rapes that he committed, so I never felt that connected or concerned about the man. I felt like it was a complete waste of my time to read about his despicable life. Sure he didn't deserve to be on death row, but he certainly belonged behind bars for his other crimes.
I think this book would have been much more powerful if it had been written about someone that the majority of us could empathize with or that resembled someone like ourselves that could be wrongfully accused. I think it would have been more impactful had Grisham selected someone similar to the man that was recently put to death in Texas for arson that killed his children when in fact the fire was not caused by arson and the deaths of the children were accidental. Now, that is the type of situation that truly drives home the point that an innocent man could be wrongfully prosecuted and put to death due to faulty evidence. I have always been in favor of the death penalty, and Grisham's book did not persuade me to change my opinion. However, I am rethinking my opinion after hearing about the Texas case, because with that case I can see that "there but for the grace of God go I."
Showing reviews 1-5 of 586
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