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stephanie_jmc 's review for:
Framed
by Jim McCloskey, John Grisham
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
This book is super fucked up and shocking but I’m giving it an 8.5/10 as it is super important, informative, and was well written (Thanks Brenda for getting me this for Christmas!).
Basically various true stories of people who were convicted of crimes they didn’t commit which I was aware happens a decent amount but I wasn’t aware of just how completely corrupt and unethical some of these cases can be. In summary - people get convicted of crimes they didn’t commit because egotistical men in positions of power can’t admit that they were wrong about their first guess and theories. Some of these stories were so fucking ridiculous and clear ethical violations I genuinely don’t understand how those on the prosecution side aren’t held accountable for the years of life lost and trauma endured in prison. Almost every single case had ZERO evidence to assume the person found guilty was actually guilty. In one case the actual murderers came forward and describe the crime to a tee, despite having no way to know that information nor be able to talk to the accused killers, and the prosecution claimed they were “paid to take the fall”. One individual actually received his death penalty because some “expert” (completed a 4-hour certificate) claimed he could tell a fire was started on purpose. A man was put to death for the murders of his three daughters when it was later proven that faulty wiring caused the fire.
Also, I’m both shocked and not shocked at the amount of times they will allow “witness testimonies” from other prison inmates. Like literally some random person in jail who is there because they’re guilty of a crime will come forward and say “that guy confessed to me he’s guilty while he was in jail with me - I’ll be a witness and give a testimony if you cut me a deal with my own prison sentence”. Like is this for real ??? Unbelievable. Luckily most of these stories are from no earlier than 1997 (which is still not that long ago) so hopefully this type of crap doesn’t happen as severely anymore but like damn what an insane approach to “justice”. Just sickening. I can’t imagine how the people responsible for framing an innocent person sleep at night.
There’s a song lyric by BMTH that goes “before the truth will set you free, it’ll piss you off” and I can’t think of a better way to describe how this book made me feel. Read this book if you want to learn more about legal corruption and injustice but be warned it is graphic and very aggravating if you have even a shred of empathy in you.
Basically various true stories of people who were convicted of crimes they didn’t commit which I was aware happens a decent amount but I wasn’t aware of just how completely corrupt and unethical some of these cases can be. In summary - people get convicted of crimes they didn’t commit because egotistical men in positions of power can’t admit that they were wrong about their first guess and theories. Some of these stories were so fucking ridiculous and clear ethical violations I genuinely don’t understand how those on the prosecution side aren’t held accountable for the years of life lost and trauma endured in prison. Almost every single case had ZERO evidence to assume the person found guilty was actually guilty. In one case the actual murderers came forward and describe the crime to a tee, despite having no way to know that information nor be able to talk to the accused killers, and the prosecution claimed they were “paid to take the fall”. One individual actually received his death penalty because some “expert” (completed a 4-hour certificate) claimed he could tell a fire was started on purpose. A man was put to death for the murders of his three daughters when it was later proven that faulty wiring caused the fire.
Also, I’m both shocked and not shocked at the amount of times they will allow “witness testimonies” from other prison inmates. Like literally some random person in jail who is there because they’re guilty of a crime will come forward and say “that guy confessed to me he’s guilty while he was in jail with me - I’ll be a witness and give a testimony if you cut me a deal with my own prison sentence”. Like is this for real ??? Unbelievable. Luckily most of these stories are from no earlier than 1997 (which is still not that long ago) so hopefully this type of crap doesn’t happen as severely anymore but like damn what an insane approach to “justice”. Just sickening. I can’t imagine how the people responsible for framing an innocent person sleep at night.
There’s a song lyric by BMTH that goes “before the truth will set you free, it’ll piss you off” and I can’t think of a better way to describe how this book made me feel. Read this book if you want to learn more about legal corruption and injustice but be warned it is graphic and very aggravating if you have even a shred of empathy in you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Murder