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kapgar 's review for:
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
by John Grisham
In his author’s note at the end of the book, former lawyer and current novelist, John Grisham, states that you can’t make up fiction as good as this. Thus we have the justification for his first foray into non-fiction crime writing. And it’s as good as you can possibly get from the true crime genre.
Ron Williamson was an Ada, Oklahoma, native, a failed professional baseball player, a drunk, a drug abuser, and prone to hallucinations and violent outbursts. However, when he became wrongly implicated in the 1982 murder of Debbie Carter, he also became known as a murderer. The only problem was that the local authorities had no case whatsoever and made use of both circumstantial and imagined evidence to convict him nearly six years later. So desperate were the authorities to place blame for the murder that they made his on-again/off-again friend, Dennis Fritz, an accomplice simply because they were friends.
The book spans nearly two decades of legal wrangling including the official investigation, the trial, and subsequent appeals. The text is absolutely engrossing and heartwrenching as we watch Williamson sink into depression, lunacy, and self destruction as his rights are continually violated and the legal system meant to protect him implodes entirely. You also cannot help but wonder what would happen to you if put in a similar situation. My only complaint is that Fritz’s story is sometimes glanced over in favor of Williamson. Even the title implies that there is only one true focal point to this book.
I have only read one of Grisham’s fiction novels in the past (Bleachers) and it was not even one of his legal ones at that. But if this is a sign of what to expect, it can only mean good reading.
Ron Williamson was an Ada, Oklahoma, native, a failed professional baseball player, a drunk, a drug abuser, and prone to hallucinations and violent outbursts. However, when he became wrongly implicated in the 1982 murder of Debbie Carter, he also became known as a murderer. The only problem was that the local authorities had no case whatsoever and made use of both circumstantial and imagined evidence to convict him nearly six years later. So desperate were the authorities to place blame for the murder that they made his on-again/off-again friend, Dennis Fritz, an accomplice simply because they were friends.
The book spans nearly two decades of legal wrangling including the official investigation, the trial, and subsequent appeals. The text is absolutely engrossing and heartwrenching as we watch Williamson sink into depression, lunacy, and self destruction as his rights are continually violated and the legal system meant to protect him implodes entirely. You also cannot help but wonder what would happen to you if put in a similar situation. My only complaint is that Fritz’s story is sometimes glanced over in favor of Williamson. Even the title implies that there is only one true focal point to this book.
I have only read one of Grisham’s fiction novels in the past (Bleachers) and it was not even one of his legal ones at that. But if this is a sign of what to expect, it can only mean good reading.