Presumed Innocent

Presumed Innocent (1987) is Scott Turow’s first novel, originally published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. The hit novel stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 44 weeks and is often credited as an early example of the modern legal thriller, helping to shape the genre’s conventions. Turow went on to publish 12 additional novels and three nonfiction works. He also continued to practice law, specializing in criminal defense, contrasting with Presumed Innocent’s protagonist, prosecutor Rusty Sabich. In the novel, Turow probes themes of Performance’s Role in Courtroom Strategy, The Effect of Parenting on Adult Children, and The Connection Between Law and Politics.

This guide refers to the 2023 Kindle edition of the novel, published by Grand Central Publishing.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain descriptions of child abuse, rape, sexual assault, murder, racism, anti-gay bias, and misogyny. In addition, the source text uses offensive racist, anti-gay, and misogynistic terms, replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

Plot Summary

Rusty Sabich, deputy chief for the Kindle County Prosecuting Attorney, is shocked when one of the prosecutors from the office is raped and murdered. Rusty discovers that the victim is Carolyn Polhemus, a fellow prosecutor with whom, until recently, he was having an affair. Rusty’s boss, Raymond Horgan, is campaigning for his reelection against Nico Della Guardia, so he puts Rusty in charge of the investigation into Carolyn’s death.

Rusty and his friend and fellow investigator, police officer Dan Lipranzer, or Lip, begin the investigation with difficulty. Dr. Kumagai, the pathologist, indicates that Carolyn was hit with a blunt object and killed, then bound and raped. He believes that Carolyn had consensual sex that night (indicated by the presence of contraceptive jelly), then was killed, possibly by someone from law enforcement who knew how to stage the scene to deflect blame. They also note that police found very few fingerprints in the apartment, including three on one bar glass. They request Carolyn’s phone records, and Rusty admits that Lip will find his number on the list.

After his affair with Carolyn ended, Rusty went to a psychiatrist, Dr. Robinson. The affair began while Rusty and Carolyn worked on the McGaffen case, which involved the abuse of a child, Wendell. Rusty’s attraction to Carolyn grew when he saw how she connected with Wendell. Carolyn admitted her attraction to Rusty, and they soon began an affair. Rusty grew more infatuated. When Carolyn ended the relationship, Rusty was shocked. He tried to talk to her, but she wasn’t interested.

Now, at work, Rusty goes through Carolyn’s office. He finds the cases she was working on, noting that one file is missing. He asks Raymond about the missing file, a “B file,” indicating that the case involves the bribery of an official. Raymond says that he has the B file and gives it to Rusty. He admits that Carolyn asked for the case while they were sleeping together. In the B file, Rusty finds a letter: The anonymous sender says that they lent money to a friend to bribe an official to dismiss his case.

A police friend reminds Rusty that Carolyn was a probation officer, working at North Branch, during the B file case. Tommy Molto, who now works for Nico Della Guardia, worked at North Branch then. Rusty and Lip learn that the briber was named Leon Wells, his probation officer was Carolyn, and Tommy was the prosecuting attorney who dismissed the charges.

Nico Della Guardia wins the election and takes over the prosecuting attorney’s office. He reveals that he and Tommy were running a shadow investigation of Carolyn’s death. Raymond, Nico, and Tommy accuse Rusty of killing Carolyn.

Two months later, Rusty is charged with first-degree murder. Rusty’s position as the defendant gives him time to observe all the lawyers and consider strategy. His wife, Barbara, is supportive, and he thinks that they may be able to put their relationship back together after he confessed his affair with Carolyn.

The prosecution’s case is based on two of the fingerprints—Rusty’s—on the bar glass found in Carolyn’s apartment. The blood type of the sperm found in Carolyn’s body also matches Rusty’s. However, Nico and Tommy struggle to keep their prosecution together. Witnesses who should be damaging, like Raymond (who now believes in Rusty’s guilt), seem to work against them. Judge Lyttle is also biased toward the defense.

Rusty’s lawyer, Sandy Stern, brings up the B file during the trial several times, implying that Tommy is going after Rusty to cover up his participation in a bribery scheme with Carolyn. He also manages to shoot down the pathologist’s opinion by questioning why Carolyn would use contraceptive jelly when she had a tubal ligation, a detail that the pathologist had forgotten. In addition, the prosecution cannot find the bar glass with Rusty’s fingerprints on it. After the prosecution’s case rests, Judge Lyttle takes the unusual step of dismissing the case, noting the lack of evidence. During the trial, Rusty and Lip continued to investigate the B file and discovered that Tommy wasn’t in on the bribery scheme with Carolyn, but Judge Lyttle was. Sandy admits that he knew this, which was why he brought the B file up during the trial—to pressure Lyttle to dismiss the case.

After the trial, Rusty struggles to find his next step. He and his wife separate, and she and their son move away. One night, Lip comes over with a gift: the missing bar glass. It came into his possession because of Tommy’s sloppy work, and Lip felt no reason to return it. Rusty knows that Lip believes he killed Carolyn. He tells Lip that his wife, Barbara, killed her.

Barbara killed Carolyn, then staged the scene, including planting contraceptive jelly from her own diaphragm, with Rusty’s sperm intact. She purposefully left the glass with Rusty’s fingerprints at the scene to tell him, and no one else, that she was the killer. Rusty shows Lip his own bar glass collection, which matches Carolyn’s, and points out that the missing glass completes his set of 12. He says that Barbara didn’t know about hair and fiber analysis, or phone record collection, which further connected their household to the crime. Lip, however, wonders if those really were accidents, or if Carolyn had hoped to frame Rusty for the murder.

After Rusty’s case is dismissed, Nico is recalled from the prosecuting attorney position. Raymond is on the replacement committee, and they call Rusty with an offer. Just under a year after Carolyn’s murder, Rusty becomes the new prosecuting attorney of Kindle County.