The Innocent Man

In The Innocent Man, noted crime-fiction author John Grisham takes on the true story of a series of murders in Ada, Oklahoma that led to the conviction, imprisonment, and near execution of not one, but four innocent men. Grisham uses a no-nonsense, journalistic style to present the facts, though an occasional sarcastic aside from the author slips in when the true events become almost too ridiculous to believe. Tracing the aftermath of the murders of Debbie Carter and Denice Haraway, Grisham shows how easily justice can be miscarried, and how hard it is for an innocent person to escape the system once they are in its grasp.

The main focus of the book is on Ron Williamson, a mentally-disturbed former baseball player who is wrongfully accused of murdering Debbie Carter, a popular twenty-one-year-old cocktail waitress. Though no hard evidence links him to the crime, the police and the state of Oklahoma pursue him as a prime suspect, systematically building a case against him from fabricated testimony and sloppy science. Ron's mental and emotional instability, "strange" behavior, and inability to conform to social norms make him an easy target for a community looking for a scapegoat after a shocking murder.