The Innocent Man

THE INNOCENT MAN BY JOHN GRISHAM

The Innocent Man is John Grisham’s first work of non-fiction and it is a great achievement. With his usual painstaking accuracy and attention to detail Grisham describes the traumatic, harrowing and at times unbelievable life of Ron Williamson from Oklahoma.

The rise and fall of this major league baseball player is a sad indictment of American society, a scary manifestation of deep rooted prejudice and a frightening insight into the US legal system of the late 20th century.

Following a rape and murder, the police and judicial system in the town of Ada, Oklahoma conspire to construct the prosecution’s case against Williamson to overcome local pressure and dissatisfaction with the absence of any progress or developments in the case after five years of investigation. With flimsy evidence, junk science, unsubstantiated claims and corrupt witnesses Williamson is wrongly accused of the crime and sentenced to death.

For the next 11 years Williamson is in and out of prisons, drug rehabilitation and mental health institutions, all the time pleading his innocence. His erratic and violent behaviour attracts a similar response from the police and prison warders and by 1999 he is a sick, angry, shadow of the baseball star of the 1980s that he once was.

A local journalist hears of Williamson’s plight and takes up his case. After many months of investigative journalism, confessions by witnesses and associates, and revelations of corruption and conspiracy within the legal system, Williamson gains a retrial. In April 1999 he is released – a free but broken man. He never recovers from his ordeal and dies in December 2004.

If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe that the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you.

If you have never read any of John Grisham’s previous 19 novels and are wondering which one to choose then The Innocent Man is the one. As they say, fact is often stranger than fiction.