The Innocent Man book review

John Grisham’s first attempt at non-fiction will surprise and disturb you. Those expecting a racy legal thriller from the bestselling author will be disappointed because of the deviation from his earlier writing style. The book is a chronicle of a most shockingly shoddy trial and is written like a documentary.

The Innocent Man is the real life story of Ronald Williamson, a major league baseball player. The book reveals how he was tried and charged for a crime he did not commit.

Despite the stupendous success of all Grisham's novels, his first two, A Time to Kill and The Firm are considered his best. Grisham, a former attorney, is the only author to write a number-one bestselling Novel of the Year for seven consecutive years, from 1994 to 2000.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that he would want to write about the plight of a man wrongly convicted. He has previously shown the desire to explore themes other than legal dramas. He has published A Painted House in 2001 followed by Skipping Christmas and Bleachers in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

This latest novel is the story of Ron Williamson after he has failed at several minor league baseball teams, including the Oakland A's and the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees. He returns to his hometown, Ada, and hits the bottle due to severe depression.

On December 8, 1982, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress, Debra Carter, who worked at the Coachlight Club, was found murdered in her garage apartment in Ada. She was brutally beaten, raped and murdered. The cause of her death was suffocation. Several failed attempts were made to solve the case, and finally, Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz were charged, tried and convicted for the crime. Williamson got a death sentence and Fritz got a life sentence in 1988. Fritz's wife was also murdered seven years earlier, in 1975, and he was raising his daughter when he was arrested for the rape and murder of Ms.Carter.

Grisham’s book slams the Ada police’s attempt to "solve" the case and chronicles minute details of how the police aggressively went after someone who did not commit the crime. He details the forced confessions and unreliable witnesses and evidence that were used in the trial. Several appeals were made, as is customary in a death row case and the disconnect in the case and witnesses were exposed by 'The Innocence Project'. A retrial was ordered by the U.S. District Court judge, and in 1999, Williamson and Fritz were finally acquitted and released on the basis of DNA evidence.

The conviction and trial, however, proved to be a traumatic experience for Williamson. He was later treated for manic depression, alcoholism and mild schizophrenia. It was also proved that he was mentally ill and therefore, unfit to be either tried or placed on death row.

The State of Oklahoma and Ada and Pontotoc County settled a wrongful conviction case despite not acknowledging any error on their part for the arrest and trial. At one point, they even threatened to re-arrest Williamson.

The book effectively captures this real life drama, but yet received criticism because the plot rambles on and on about Williamson’s mental state. The account of the wrongful conviction could have been shortened without compromising on the main story; however, Grisham chooses to dwell on Williamson’s plight and obviously unsound mental health. Several parts of the book are repetitive and one starts predicting just when Grisham will launch into an attack on the judicial system and the police.

The book is an ambitious attempt to expose the truth of the U.S. judicial system and also refers to other wrongful convictions. Grisham himself has stated that he had not spent too much time worrying about wrongful convictions in the past, but that Williamson’s tale forced him to address this issue. The slow paced novel does have several pluses and the documentary style is definitely one of them.

Definitely not a typical Grisham novel, the author uses it as a medium to assert the need for the rehabilitation of the U.S. judicial system, specifically with regard to mental instability.

Like all Grisham novels, this one will also be made into a movie. Warner Independent Pictures and Smoke House partners, George Clooney and Grant Heslov, have shown interest in the book. Clooney and Sloven will produce the movie.

So, those who find the book too tedious, can wait for the movie. And if Clooney stars in it, which I’m pretty sure he will, it’s worth the wait.

Author: John Grisham 
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN 0-385-51723-8
Format: Hardcover
Published in 2006