The Innocent Man Reviews

• Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

  
  By A2MQQI4UYT9C11 on 2007-12-07
  The phrase "Grisham book" and word "important" aren't often found in the same sentence, but John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction book, "The Innocent Man", allows me to state that Grisham has now written the most important book of his mega-successful career, and one of the most important I've read by any author.
  
  The book recounts two murders in the small town of Ada, Oklahoma. Both victims are young women. In both cases, the local and state police investigating the case are stumped. But with a toxic blend of extremely circumstantial "evidence", shocking crime scene photos, junk science, inexpert experts, jailhouse snitches and critical "dream confessions" induced by near-torture tactics, the police pin the murders on four young men of the area, two per murder.
  
  The "innocent man" of the title is 30-something ne'er-do-well Ron Williamson, a schoolboy baseball star whose dreams of playing in Yankee Stadium dissolve in the low minors in a mix of arm injuries, booze and the onset of mental illness. By the time of the murder that consumes most of Grisham's tale, Williamson has washed up back home in Ada, and deservedly earned a reputation as a loudmouth loose cannon of sorts. Still his worst crime is passing a $300 phony check.
  
  Skipping forward quickly, Williamson becomes the focus of the police's investigation and ultimately finds himself on death row in an Oklahoma criminal justice system whose aim seems to be to continuously reduce the amount of respect shown to death row inmates until it reaches zero. Shrewd detectives that they are, the police "know" that there's a second killer because of a misspelled warning message written in catsup at the scene, "dont chase us or ealse." Enter suspect two, single father Dennis Fritz, whose main crime is to be a friend of Williamson.
  
  I'll stop here regarding the "plot", even though this is a news story and you could look it up. While novelistic in format, "The Innocent Man" reads more like a newspaper report, or like a lawyer dispassionately recounting the facts of a case. (Well after awhile not so dispassionately, as the injustices against the accused and then convicted men pile up.) The issues raised by the case and brought to light by Grisham cover the gamut of criminal justice - abuse of police power, single-minded focus on particular suspects and deliberate ignorance of others, near-torture-induced confessions, prosecutorial arrogance, lack of resources provided to defendants, mishandling of evidence, coercion of expert witnesses, use of junk science to dazzle a jury, the general and mistaken belief by the community that the police only arrest guilty parties, and most compellingly in Williamson's case, the inability of the criminal justice system to recognize and deal humanely with mentally ill prisoners.
  
  My wife read the almost 450-page paperback version in one day. She then bugged me to read it for several days until I interrupted my second attempt at Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer: A Novel and dove in. Even while sick, I finished it in a day-and-a-half. After his disappointing novella "Bleachers", I'd pretty much written off Grisham (never have considered him much better an airplane read in the first place), but I'm deeply grateful to him to recognizing the power of this story and bringing to the attention of so many people with this fine book. I also salute him for sticking to the non-fiction format, resisting the novelist's urge to fictionalize the story and embellish it with tie-ins to the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11 and the like. "The Innocent Man" may not stand up as literature to recently-deceased Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, but it's still a great book--the best true-crime story I've read with the most important messages about America's criminal justice system and its generally unrecognized threat to innocent men and women everywhere (and especially in Ada, OK where the DA that prosecuted the cases is still in office).
  
  
  

• Riveting, Informative, but a bit too slanted.

  
  By AOA0XDHSL5GRY on 2007-11-27
  I bought this book at the airport because it was the latest from Grisham. I did not even read the blurb. I was about 50 pages into this book before it started to dawn on me that this book was non-fiction, and then I noticed the pictures. I wound up spending the next 14 hours of travel reading, and only put the book down when my eyes were too heavy too stay open anymore. The story reads like fiction, but is mostly true. The fact that this book was slanted heavily against the police and prosecution was self-evident, but at the same time, I understood his tendency toward that. I really feel that Grisham could have been a bit more objective, but then again, the police and prosecution were possessed of a frightening competence in convicting innocents, and also a frightening maliciousness and/or incompetence in not pursuing obvious investigation paths.
  
  I finally finished the book and was so intrigued that I started doing researching the cases for myself, and found that it was indeed true that Grisham had slanted the tale more heavily than he should have, but also felt more slanted against the police and prosecution myself. There is absolutely no remorse to be had from them, and so one is left with little sympathy for them.
  
  This book puts as much light on the plight of the mentally ill in the "justice" system as it does on the plight of the unjustly accused and convicted. It should also make one take the next step, and wonder how many people are innocent of lesser crimes, which while not as devastating as a murder conviction, still damage and destroy people's lives every day. I myself have been witness to friend's and family unjustly convicted of lesser crimes, and have witnessed the years and even decades that it takes them to recover.
  
  The "justice" system of this country is, for the most part, one of bringing lambs to slaughter, and if you are unjustly accused and can't afford AND find a very good lawyer, the chances are very good that you will be convicted and forced to pay for the mistakes of others. I say afford AND find, because finding a truly good lawyer, one who will fight the good fight, and not simply set up a plea-bargain, can be very hard, and while a good lawyer is almost always expensive, an expensive one is not often a great one.
  
  If you are expecting Grisham's usual, smooth story-telling, you may be disappointed with this book. It is also not a "feel-good" story. I was saddened, depressed, and then angered at this tale, and when I felt I could get no angrier, I felt fury. If you are expecting a clearly defined good and evil, you may also be disappointed, because the main protagonists of this story are not the kind of people most of us would want as friends.
  
  I feel that Ron Williamson, though clearly not culpable in the crime he was convicted for, could have easily wound up raping and/or murdering someone, had he not been locked up, but then again, who's to say that he would not have reached rock-bottom before then, and recovered from the downward spiral he was in? That is to not imply that he deserved what he got, but only to give some indication of the unsympathetic feelings that this man brings out.
  
  In summary, I feel this is a good book, only held back from greatness by the author's obvious lack of objectivity. That said, I don't feel I could have remained objective myself, had I spent 18 months researching and writing it.
  
  
  

• Justice hangs by a fragile thread in Ada, OK (3.75 *s)

  
  By A1LKSZ9CYJ6829 on 2008-01-06
  This book chronicles the life of one Ron Williamson, born in Ada, OK, 1953, as he spiraled down from being the teen-age town hope as the next Mickey Mantle to being the town drunkard in his twenties, living only on the generosity of friends and family, and, worst of all, to death row in the OK prison system after egregious actions of the local prosecutor resulted in Ron's unjustified conviction for the murder and assault of a young female.
  
  The book is strongest in its depiction of what it is like for a person with limited resources to become ensnared in the legal system, where without good legal counsel the checks are few on police misconduct, even coercion, manufactured witnesses, misuse of so-called experts, and prosecutors willing to sacrifice the innocent to community demands for revenge. In addition, the book is commentary on the willingness of prison systems to permit the physical and, even more so, the mental deterioration of inmates, denying treatment for blatantly obvious conditions. In contrast to local malfeasance, the various legal persons at the appeals levels were consummate professionals and were ultimately responsible for recognizing prosecutorial excess in the very trying of Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. Whether their recognition of prosecutorial misconduct would have resulted in acquittal in another trial became irrelevant in the face of exonerating DNA evidence.
  
  The book does get a bit tedious in following the carousing of Ron and his buddies and the many attempts of him and others, most especially his older sister Annette, to obtain help for his fragile mental state. Even upon release from prison after being exonerated, there is a lot of transitioning among a variety of residences and nursing facilities. The author's entire coverage of the subject of mental illness and competency as it relates to the legal process is vaguely presented at best. Furthermore, as Ron's story unfolds, the reader is constantly given the impression that Ron is practically insane and must be pumped full of psychotic drugs, yet the treatments are constantly abandoned and he functions reasonably well until the next intervention. His approach seems unnecessarily alarmist.
  
  Though not emphasized by the author, this book is a huge reminder of the ramifications of poor child rearing and exaggerated expectations of a professional career in sports. Ron as the youngest in his family learned to be a manipulator, forcing the family to spend money on him that was not there. He was so certain that he would make it to the big leagues in baseball that he had no backup plan, nor did he receive much in the way of realistic consultation in that area. He was not well-served by his parents or by those who exploited his baseball skills with tremendous consequences to his maturation.
  
  While the author acknowledges that Ron became a loud drunk and often intimidating when his abbreviated baseball career ended at age twenty-four, he has little to say concerning Ron's very real potential for violence. During Ron's hearings and trials numerous women came forward with stories of being frightened by Ron, which were not refuted. And of course, he was acquitted of two rapes in Tulsa in his early twenties. Ron is not a particularly sympathetic character. Though obviously wrongly accused and convicted of this murder, it is not a stretch to wonder what potential for violence existed within.
  
  It really is alarming to think that an innocent man can get to death row. But in this case, the local law enforcement personnel and the prosecutor actually did not care. They knew they had no case, yet manipulated the system to put an innocent man on death row. Is justice in this country really that fragile? This was a factual case. Their non-involvement was clear. But the facts meant nothing. That is the author's main story.
  
  As a further note, the local prosecutor vehemently objects to the author's book and has on a web site a lengthy rebuttal. Yes, maybe the author obscured or ignored some facts or got others out of order. Yet the rebuttal does not explain away the fundamental actions that were taken to put an innocent man on death row. One would think that the citizens of Ada would fear facing this prosecutor, but he has been elected time after time. That's disturbing.
  
  
  

• Grisham Is Great in Non-Fiction Too!

  
  By A32LPJB9GX8PRP on 2007-12-15
  I am a fan of Grisham's fiction, and have always appreciated his ability to explore the corrupting influence of power, the law, and money, while still being entertaining. He does this as well in the non-fiction The Innocent Man which is about how the justice system in small-town Ada, Oklahoma, sent a unpopular local drunk Ron Williamson, to death row after a quick and perfunctory trial. In the trial the weak evidence presented by a police force and zealous prosecutor anxious to solve a brutal and notorious murder on behalf of a scared and anxious public led to a wrongful conviction, and quick sentence to Oklahoma's Death Row in 1988. Seemingly, there are no heroes in Ada. Prosecutors were willing to ignore exculpatory evidence, a public defender system tolerated incompetence, and a jail and prison system created and then tormented the mentally ill
  
  On the surface, the bad guys in The Innocent Man are the individuals working for the police, court system, small towns, and even the local newspapers. However, look more deeply, and you will see that Grisham is really pointing his finger at a public which more than justice and protection from murderers, wants vengeance, at any cost. Ada, just like thousands of jurisdictions in the United States, gets exactly what the justice system they want when jurors willingly ignore evidence, voters elect politicians ready to demonize town drunks, and townspeople buy newspapers for their capacity to inflame rather than inform.
  
  In short, the problem is not just the bad guys, town drunks, sloppy prosecutors, lazy defense lawyers, corrupt police officers, or scurrilous newspapers editors. The problem is us. Anyone having an interest in the American justice system should read this book. Is The Innocent Man always balanced in its presentation of Williamson's case? No, it is not. But so what? The case made by Grisham is against us in our role as citizens, and our responsibility as humans to both protect the least among us, and especially avoid persecuting them. In the public Grisham makes a great case. I for one in my middle class comfort plead guilty to too often hoping for the best of our criminal justice system, and assuming the worst of those who are arrested. The wrongful convictions of people like Ron Williamson tell us that we should be more thoughtful and careful as citizens, voters, and jurors. Grisham's point is that for the criminal justice system to be effective, we cannot demand the emotional comfort of prosecution, at the expense of justice.
  
  
  
  
  

• Good story, poor argument on policy

  
  By A2T3GPP7YC6EEA on 2007-11-06
  This book is a compelling story of a prosecutor and small-town police force out of control. The question of how our governments should respond to the story is not as easy as the outrage one feels mid-way through the book.
  
  Grisham's first non-fiction work uses techniques from the muckraking tradition, and makes no apologies about it. Often over-the-top, full of preachiness and indignation, he could have had a greater impact simply telling this powerful story.
  
  Thankfully, the author did not succumb to the current non-fiction fashion of inflating the book to a thousand pages. It's a quick read -- and it's worth the read, and it should be required reading for every prosecutor. (Full disclosure: I'm a prosecutor.)
  
  The harder issue is what to do about the manifest injustice detailed in this book. No system is capable of preventing injustice when the actors in the system are corrupt. But this story involved a clutch of bad actors in one community, all with authority. It does not follow that this is a systemic problem, nor that a systemic solution is called for.
  
  Making policy on the basis of anecdote is foolhardy. This book makes the case for a prosecutor's disbarment, not the abolition of the death penalty.
  
  
• Another "Can't Put It Down" from Grisham!
  By A1X8BQQGCEHQ1V on 2007-11-30
  I have always thoroughly enjoyed reading Grisham's legal fiction books, but I was a bit hesitant to read The Innocent Man because few writers can make the transition from fiction to nonfiction and maintain their quality of writing.
  
  Not Grisham! In The Innocent Man, Grisham offers readers an indepth view into the legal wranglings of a murder trial; and how, with the manipulations of prosecutors, police and other officials, an innocent man can be wrongly convicted....and sentenced to death.
  
  Other reviewers have comment on how this book was opinionated toward the prosecution. This is true, but within the first few pages readers can definitely understand why. I don't think Grisham is slanted against ALL prosecutors, just Bill Peterson and his team in Ada, Oklahoma; especially since the convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz (the main story of this book) were not his first false convictions based on manipulated evidence and testimony.
  
  If you're a fan of Grisham or just a true crime fan, this is a must read! For true crime readers, it will be a refreshing piece of work to read about someone who actually DIDN'T commit the crime, yet heartbreaking to read the hardships of those falsely accused.
  
  
  
• Atypical for grisham
  By A2V1Q8FOHOYI65 on 2007-12-07
  Although in the past I have found John Grisham's work to be highly entertaining, this effort is an anomaly. The subject matter is somewhat interesting, but the writing itself is so boring as to be almost a rote description of the sequence of events. I truly had to struggle to get through the book, and would not recommend it to anyone.
  
  
• Fit For A Magazine Article
  By A1CB9F7TVZ7IRT on 2008-01-03
  I was very dissappointed with this book. It was only out of my enjoying previous books by Grisham that I even read as far as I did. About 175 pages into it, reading every word as I do, I could not do it any longer; it was just too boring. I just read a few paragraphs through the last half and looked at the pictures, which was the best part of the book. Yes this story is very sad, but you could have put it in a magazine article. There was too much writing on Ron Williamson's depression, caused by him not making the "Big Leagues" and his use of drugs and alcohol to fight that depression.
  
  I was really mislead by the reviews and hype on this one. When I'm into a good book I pick it up every chance I get and keep reading; with this story I found myself turning on the TV and I even found the news more interesting.
  
  
• Somewhat Disappointing
  By A3SLGVB314Z94S on 2008-01-07
  The fact that this is a true story is both the book's greatest asset and it's biggest liability as well. To think that such irresponsible legal shenanigans could occur in America is truly a sobering thought. The manner in which the Williamson case and others described in the book were handled by the parties involved is disgusting. That aspect of the story makes the book an intriguing read.
  
  On the flip side, the true nature of the story also holds Grisham back. In sticking with the facts, his creativity was limited. Among Grisham's greatest strengths as a writer are character development and intricate setting of the locale. In both of these instances, the facts limit what Grisham can do. Simply put, at times I felt I was reading the daily news, not a book.
  
  Grisham should be applauded for writing a book that helped bring this injustice to a larger audience. The book may not entertain, certainly not to the degree of his best work, but what he did here was more important than anything else he could have written. Somewhere, at some point in the future, this book will prevent another innocent individual from being unfairly railroaded. If nothing else, Grisham should be proud of that fact, and we all should be grateful to him.
  
  
• a shocking book
  By ACIGBJ0GPUEMA on 2008-02-15
  WARNING: This review gives away the ending. If this is a problem for you, read elsewhere.
  
  This book of non-fiction describes the sad case of Ron Williamson, a small-town misfit who ends up on Oklahoma death row for a rape and murder. In the end, he is exonerated and released, and he dies a broken man at around fifty years of age. Other reviews below describe the story eloquently and in more detail, so I'll leave it at that.
  
  This book was riveting and kept me up past my bed-time. I recommend it highly. The decline of the main character, before and after his incarceration, was beyond tragic - this despite the fact that he was not a sympathetic person.
  
  This story raised several issues worth pondering:
  
  1. Williamson was exonerated beyond a shadow of a doubt by DNA evidence, which also conclusively showed that the real killer was a person the police never considered or even interviewed, even though he was the last person seen with the victim when she was alive. Nonetheless, the prosecutor never gave up pursuing Williamson and continued to threaten to re-open the prosecution after his exoneration. And a large fraction of the community never forgave Williamson, either, or felt safe after his release. These facts stun me. I can almost understand the response of the community: you grow to hate and fear a person who has committed a violent crime against a friend or loved one. Letting go of that when he is proven innocent must be very hard. But it's the only moral thing to do. The victim's mother was able to do this. The behavior of the prosecutor, though, is harder to accept and forgive, given his power. The police, prosecutor, judge, and defense attorney committed just about every error and injustice imaginable in order to get a conviction. In order to win a case like this - one with a hideous crime and very poor evidence - you have to be aggressive and committed. The focus and intensity must lead to a kind of professional blindness - one to which dishonest, incompetent, and insecure people are perhaps more susceptible than others! I was reminded of the concept of "diagnosis momentum" sometimes experienced by medical doctors, as described in the recent book How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman. When a thin woman with a long and well-documented history of nausea and diarrhea brings in a pile of paperwork describing her as only neurotic, how many doctors can break free of the diagnosis and consider other possibilities - like a wheat allergy? In both cases, going with the professional momentum solves the professional's problem: he can sign off on the paperwork and get home for dinner. The doctor gets paid; the prosecutor gets praised in the newspaper.
  
  2. This book constitutes a strong argument against the death penalty. The problem of executing innocent people is obvious. But this story reveals a second and more subtle problem: the death penalty de-humanizes the executioners, and, by extension, all of us. Ron Williamson's jailers deliberately withheld psychiatric treatment and medication, exacerbating his severe mental problems. They took endless delight in taunting him over the intercom in his cell, pretending to be the victim asking why he killed her. This would trigger tantrums in which he pathetically shouted his innocence for hours at a time. By the time he was released, he had lost 90 pounds, his teeth had fallen out, his hair had turned white, and he was a helpless, ruined wreck of a man, shuffling slowly and hoarsely whispering his innocence. My intuition is that the people who enjoyed doing this to him had lost the capacity for insight or regret by the time he was proven innocent and released. This is what can happen when you have the legal power to kill someone.
  
  3. We rely on the police to protect us from crime and to save us in emergencies. But if a detective starts to pressure you to confess to a crime, you have to view him as an adversary and repeat the magic words: "I will only answer questions in the presence of my lawyer."
  
  
  
• In Cold Blood
  By A3TZV5SXQ8F6ST on 2008-04-04
  There are plenty of guilty parties in John Grisham's exploration of two murders in Ada, Oklahoma; corrupt police, inept and egotistical prosecutors, vindictive investigators, incompetent judges and lazy attorneys.
  
  The research is impeccable and Grisham's biting commentary is poignant. This is a vital book on how the public trust in institutions pledged to uphold justice is ripped to shreds and the fate of the many victims left under the tracks of this runaway train.
  
  
  
  
• Boring
  By AV8QYV7Y3N3Q on 2007-12-16
  It starts well and keep me awake, but Mr Grisham is too much of story teller for my taste. The minute details of the caracters childhood, and the long explanations makes me fall to sleep. Some people will like it, for me does not keep me interested. I got as far as one fifth of it and I cannot not open it again.
  
  
• I couldn't even read past the first few chapters - ugh!
  By AO39MBOKDUAPS on 2008-01-04
  I bought Ann Rule's new book and this one by Grisham, thinking that I'd be set for holiday reading. I was terribly disappointed with this book and could barely make it past a few chapters before throwing it in the garbage. What a waste of money!
  
  I believe that true crime stories can only be written by a select few - and one of those authors is Ann Rule. Any book by her is worth reading.
  
  Janet in Florida
  
  
• Scary because it is true
  By AMOPSSTRFS8SB on 2008-01-07
  If you are looking for vacation reading, this is probably not the right book. It is a bit slower than Grisham's fictional thrillers -- but very scary because it is horrifying to learn that our justice system is really so perverted. Any one of those of us reading this story could have been sitting on the juries that sent an innocent to death row...
  
  
• Slow at first, but gains momentum
  By A16W6YAGXGWN5B on 2008-01-16
  I had a hard time making it through the first 100 pages of this book. I actually didn't know it was nonfiction (received as a gift and just starting reading -- I didn't read the blurbs). I really didn't like John Grisham's writing style -- it came across as a list of facts.
  
  But once I started feeling for the main character, Ron, I had a hard time putting the book down. I began fighting for him inside, and got pretty wrapped up in the story.
  
  *Spoiler*
  
  In the end, it was a pretty sad story. Even though he was free, the damage had been done. He finished his life as best he could. And of course, he never received true justice (even though he got $$$).
  
  
• Not his best
  By AAFVQWH7EC4P9 on 2008-01-17
  This was not John Grisham at his best. A very good thriller but still a bit under par from what we expect from the master of suspense. 3.5 stars
  
  
• Hated it - Gave it away
  By A1J2E7CBMOLNKX on 2008-01-18
  I really like John Grisham's other books.
  My son and I just read Skipping Christmas and are now reading The Client.
  When a new The Innocent Man came out I automaticly bought it in hard cover.
  What a waste of cash. It is dark, slow and reads like a dictionary.
  The information is disturbing but not presented in an engaging way.
  I usually keep and re-read John Grisham books. I gave this one away.
  
  
  
• great read
  By A2C261RFKOTK9Z on 2007-12-06
  I have never read John Grisham's books because I always read non-fiction. This is a great read. I am going to read other books by this author! Anyone should read this book it is very informative and scary to think innocent people are on deathrow.
  
  
• Scary
  By A3V3MITG7EZ955 on 2008-01-09
  This is Grisham's first non-fiction book. If I hadn't seen that on the cover, I wouldn't have believed it. This is story of a man, Ron Williamson, and his alleged accomplice, Dennis Fritz, both wrongly accused of rape and murder in a small Oklahoma town. The local police and judges, as well as the state and federal systems, all rushed to justice to convict someone and failed to look past their noses to find the real killer. The ineptness of everyone at every level is disgusting and unbelievable...the stuff of fiction. After years on death row, Williamson was a physical and mental mess, but he finally got help from the Indigent Defense System, a group of legal eagles who help indigent, wrongly accused inmates.
  
  It's any eye-opening story; you aren't necessarily innocent until proven guilty in this country.
  
  
• A book that makes you think...
  By A2Y5QC9QQ1X4VU on 2008-01-22
  This book makes you reconsider your previously held notions about the justice system and the death penalty. Before the age of DNA, how often were suspects arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced based on prejudice, bad evidence, or groupthink?
  
  Although the main character of the book is far from admirable, he is a human being, and should be afforded justice. However, we find that he is denied justice by the town, the detectives, and the judge that presided over the case.
  
  This true story kept me up late into the night, turning pages until I could find the outcome. It made me rethink my positions on the death penalty and the justice system. It made me wonder how many innocent men we have convicted, and how many we have executed.
  
  I strongly recommend this book.
  
  
• I agree, it's boring!
  By A1BZIXMI343G on 2007-12-30
  Put it down after 100 pages - life is too short to waste time on this! Long, detailed descriptions of the lives of the protagonists - no action or intrigue, or, really, anything thought-provoking.
  
  
• Fascinating
  By AQPTYBOX62H97 on 2008-01-01
  This book should be required reading in high school and a must-read for anyone who is remotely interested in justice, especially for those who cannot afford a high-priced lawyer. Even if you don't care, read it anyhow, because Grisham is a master craftsman when it comes to writing and as a former lawyer, definitely knows his way around the intricacies of our legal system. Two thumbs up for this one.
  
  
• Not really an aberration
  By A9LAPV8XNKZVZ on 2008-01-01
  As time passes and DNA and other testing gets better, the number of innocents will rise. One day we may know how many of the executed were innocent. Prisons, like the ones described in this book, are enough to drive people mad. Isn't that punishment enough?
  
  
• Not Typical Grisham
  By A108NCN4ENYOA on 2008-01-01
  First, I strongly encourage readers to not look at the pictures with their telling captions prior to reading the book or while reading the book. The pictures are in the middle of the book, and the captions gave away much of what was going to happen further in the book.
  
  Sad, depressing and maddening story that Grisham does a great job relating to the readers. It's definitely NOT your typical John Grisham book, but he does the story justice with his attention to details and obvious in-dept research.
  
  Worth reading...for sure.
  
  
• Dissappointed!!!
  By A303C1SQONADZY on 2008-01-21
  I love John and I constantly rave about how interesting his books are. Not this one. I have to say, this is his first book that I thought was just flat out boring. I read half of the book but just couldn't take it anymore and had to move on. I love baseball and the story still didn't grab me. I hope this was just a bump in the road for John. I am going to try his new book "The Appeal" and see if he got his swager back. I think he was trying something a little different writing about a true story. I think he should stick to fiction, that is where his skillz are. I can't recommend anyone buying this book. Borrow it from a friend if you just have to read it.
  
  
• The Shortcoming of the Justice System
  By A3R5VAL9SYS9M8 on 2008-02-23
  John Grisham tells a true story that shows how our justice system can truly fail.
  
  The case of Ron Williamson shows us how Ada police and detectives ignored overwhelming evidence and placed Ron William in jail for the murder of Denise Haraway, one which he did not commit.
  
  I am disappointed that Grisham will not make any more adventures into non-fiction, because this was a very interesting and eye-opening read.
  
  
• A total waste of time and money
  By A2V5QDQBOLS7XL on 2008-02-24
  Grisham's characters were without substance. There was nobody to like, to root for. I was bored out of my mind and waiting for something to happen. Nothing unexpected occurred in the pages I read, but after falling asleep over 130 pages, I stopped reading.
  
  Although I only bought the paperback at WalMart, I still feel that my money was stolen. I may as well have flushed it down the entertainment toilet.
  
  
• Injustice in a small town
  By AGZK126DNQ2FN on 2008-03-28
  This is an exceptional true book that John Grisham has given to his readers. The Innocent Man causes the readers to place themselves in the position of a prisoner when they are not guilty but have been charged as guilty and sentenced to death or life without parole. It is not a place anyone would want to be in but rather be FAR from it. The story occurs mostly in Oklahoma in and near the city of Ada. Peggy Stilwell's beautiful daughter, Debbie Carter, was one that liked to live by herself and do things that she wanted to do without her mother or anyone interfering. She wanted to be independent. Some of the places at which she worked or hung out were not the best places in town but as I said, Debbie was a free spirit.
  
  When Peggy Stilwell found her daughter nude, bloodied, raped, and dead on the floor in her own apartment, she was horrified. The investigation began by tracing her activities from the time she got off work early to when her body was found. In 1982 many of the present day tools for tracing clues were not available but the shoddy work done by the inexperienced police force in Ada did not help the situation at all. Many possible suspects were interviewed, many of which were let go without close investigation. After several months the trail finally got to Ron Williamson. Ron had been a baseball nut, playing for his schools wherever he went and being quite successful until alcohol started dimming his ability to play. He would not accept that his career was over no matter how old he got. His mind always retained that he was a great baseball player and still could play with the best.
  
  As time went on, his drinking and drug use became a huge detriment to his living and his ability to keep friends. His short-term marriage ended. He went from one rehab center to another. Eventually Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz were arrested and charged with the murder of Debbie Carter and the police suspected they were also involved in some other rapes and murders. Dennis Fritz was not nearly suspected as much as Ron so most of the attention and investigation and some very shoddy police work was done against Ron Williamson.
  
  Ron was out of prison at times but he was repeatedly rearrested, again because of the uncertain evidence gathered by the police. Eventually Ron Williamson settled into his prison life while getting more and more mentally unstable as every week passed. He was sent to various psychiatric hospitals and was interviewed by many shrinks all of who thought he was very unstable. Life in prison was a nightmare for any inmate but especially worse for someone in Ron's condition. He aged very fast even though he wasn't an old man.
  
  This true story will guide you though Ron Williamson's life from youth to his final days and all he endured in and out of prison. Another book that is hard to put down. Knowing it is a true story makes it even harder to absorb and makes one wonder about our justice system. Please read this great story by a terrific author.
  
  
  
• For those who don't believe in the justice system...
  By A2C5VLIJMDPWHI on 2008-04-29
  Someone suggested I read this book because of my strong opinions about the criminal justice system. She felt that I'd like it, but I browsed through the book, and although sometimes the language is repetitive, I bought my first audio book hoping it would be more exciting to read this way. Indeed, it was. While I'm reading the reviews that say this book is "boring," the criminal justice system locking people up from big words and blood tests that I'm not convinced are 100%; the government not giving any money or even an apology to those who were wrongly convicted; and the way prisoners are treated in the prison system makes this book relevant and interesting. I didn't even need to hear the author's note to know this book was based on a true story. I hear stories such as this one time and time again, and I'm glad that Grisham pointed out within this read how rare it is to find White men who are accused incorrectly of crimes such as this, but how typical it is for minorities or the poor to constantly be accused and convicted with little or no sympathy for those who really are innocent. I read reviews saying they were bored with Ronnie's depression and alcoholism, but imagine giving up 12 years of your life for a crime you did not commit, being bipolar, and prison guards making fun of you through the night in addition to the government not letting you have the correct medication.
  
  While I do wish there was a cleaner conclusion, the truth of the matter is that many crimes like this remain unresolved, and this is why the government is so set on pinning the first person that looks a little funky. I enjoyed this book a lot. Thanks John!
  
  
• A valuable exposé
  By A1V1K3VVFXUMDH on 2008-07-22
  By now, there is no excuse for starting to read this book believing that it is written to Grisham's usual formula. This is not a brilliantly written legal thriller. It is an excellent piece of investigative journalism, and it is very clear that John Grisham has invested a huge amount of effort into his investigations.
  
  He tells the true story of several wrongful convictions, concentrating mainly on the central character, Ron Williamson, who spends a considerable proportion of his life on death row and in other detention centres.
  
  Grisham exposes the flaws in the American justice system, which is under constant pressure from the conviction-hungry public who will not allow the truth to stand in the way of their passionate pursuit of somebody to blame for any heinous crime, who, whether innocent or guilty, will receive the heavy punishment that such a terrible criminal would deserve. This leads to deliberate, and institutional, incompetence amongst the investigators and the lawyers.
  
  For me, the book is far too long. I think that Grisham could have condensed the results of his rigorous investigations into about half the pages that he has filled. It is clear, from early on, what the outcomes would be. However, it is a valuable exposé, and I hope that US citizens will use it as the basis for successful campaigns against injustice in The Land of the Free.
  
  
  

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