The Innocent Man | John Grisham | Excellent book, but I still stand behind the death penalty

The Innocent Man | John Grisham | amazing... one of my favorites

books:

The Innocent Man

	The Innocent Man John Grisham Dell, 2007 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

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 Ron?s 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 death?in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man?s already broken life?and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John Grisham?s 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 innocence?a book no American can afford to miss.

for more information click here

Excellent book, but I still stand behind the death penalty

This another great book by John Grisham. A work of non fiction.
This tale tells us how things can go awfully wrong within the judicial system.

In the end however, I still think the death penalty is a good tool for dispensing justice. The only thing we need to do is revise the way we do it.

amazing... one of my favorites

I Love all of John Grishams novels, and this one isn't any different.
i LOVED this book, its one of my favorites! and we even used it in one of my legal classes, great detail and after i read it i followed up with the Dreams of Ada he speaks about with in the book... a great read as well!

for more information click here

An Amazing Read!

Usually, I prefer to read fiction, but I found myself hooked on this book from the opening pages. It concerns the wrongful conviction of Ron Williamson, a former baseball player, fallen on hard times, for the murder of waitress Debbie Carter.

The book gives a great insight into the small Oklahoma town of Ada, where the crime took place, and how the local police, and District Attorney, were hell bent on getting a conviction for the murder.

There is also, great detail given to the trial, and Ron's life on Death Row, but it always stays interesting, throughout. If this book was fiction, I would have found it a great read, but as it is factual, it makes even more compelling reading.

for more information click here

Inocent Man Excels

A very good read and well written as are all of Grishman's book. However, this is a true, sad story, but a must read.

Sad, but true, but...

I just finished reading this today. I have to admit it took a while for me to get into it. My first impressions when I was reading the "police report-like entries" in the first few chapters were: "this doesn't sound like Grisham". So I read the blurbs and foreward and realized, "AH! It is non-fiction!" And from there my perception of the book changed. There were moments when I was sad, others when I was angry, others when I was fed-up with Ron and his inability to stay in rehab, and still other moments when I wondered if Grisham was going to be sued because of the bias towards the defendants (it turns out he is being sued!)

Regardless, I read the last words with a tear rolling down my cheek. This is not light reading, and I am thoroughly surprized by reviewers who still haven't figured out that this book is non-fiction. It is a truly sad story and gripping.

Although biased, I have researched this book as much as I could, the story line is still true. Two imperfect men were pinpointed as murderers, imprisoned for 12 years (one of them on death row), and then exhonerated. They never received an appology for their torment, never a word of regret for their misfortune. And to top it all off, the real killer was revealed but never fully brought to justice.

My only real criticism of this book is that I would have liked to learn more about the true killer. What changed in his relationship with the police with whom he was dealing drugs? What happened to him in the end?

for more information click here