Title: The Innocent Man
Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
Author: John Grisham
Date: March 20, 2025
I’ve made a point to pick an author like Baldacci or Patterson and read all their books in the library. Same with John Grisham. When I grabbed this one I hadn’t realized it was a non fiction, maybe the only one he’s written. Or at least is the only one here in the library.
The story itself is about a small town in Oklahoma, and the legal journey two local troublemakers had to go through as a result of a biased and corrupt local police force(12 people) and District Attorney. The book goes through their life story first prior to arrest, from pro baseball player “want to be” to alcoholism/mental illness and related issues. Then they were accused of rape and murder and then arrested. From there, its a typical story of jail, conviction, death row appeals, all well explained by Grisham. Even with my limited time in prison, I could totally relate to what Grisham detailed out.
The next phase deals with how broken so many of our institutions are, and the collusion of so many types of professionals. I’m talking about mental health experts, private and state institution employed, crime labs, district attorney’s, jail guards, and so on. At least in Oklahoma:) Reading from a prison cell, you can’t help but question each and every aspect of our “system of justice”. Just sad and pathetic. Just like a needle in a haystack to find a judge who will listen, these 2 defendants file a last minute Habeus Corpus filing to stay their execution(to a local district judge near their prison to relook at things at the literally last minute), and by the grace of God, the judge has a team of law clerks who sense injustice and dig deeper. In time, they convince the judge he should read everything, and ultimately he agrees( happened to originally come from the same town years earlier) with his clerks and orders a new trial. Thanks to he Innocence Project( Barry Schenk and OJ Simpsons attorney back then) taking him on, plus the invention of DNA technology, he ends up being released due to the DNA not matching. Incredible. Even then the DA kept trying to keep him imprisoned seeking anything new evidence wise, but to new avail thankfully.
End of the book deals with their life’s after release, of course the one with mental illness is just ruined after 10+ years in prison/death row and little treatment, and dies at 51years old, four years after release. Nothing like Lady Justice. At least he had his glory on all the TV shows from Good Morning America to Dateline and on and on.
Between my own experience of “the system” and reading their story, my takeaway is to try as best I can to stay healthy during my time in the prison system, and then make damn sure to do nothing to ever get involved with “the system” ever again. Ultimately I hope A Better Tomorrow will successfully advocate and achieve some change as well! BJ
