The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town

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The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town is the first nonfiction [1] book written by John Grisham which was released by Doubleday Publishing on October 10, 2006.

The book details the story of former minor league baseball aspirant Ron Williamson. The book begins with Ron returned to his hometown and birthplace, Ada, OK, after a failed attempt at playing for the Yankees in minor league baseball. A bout of depression led in by this failure resulted in a drinking problem. In 1982, he (along with Dennis Fritz, who was his 'drinking buddy') was falsely convicted of the rape and murder of Debra Sue Carter, another resident of Ada, and was sentenced to the death row in Oklahoma (Fritz, meanwhile, was given a life sentence) on drummed up charges lined up by the town's police department. After suffering a conviction and about 11 years on the death row, he was exonerated by DNA evidence, and released through the work of, among others, The Innocence Project.

Ron Williamson suffered deep and irreversible psychological scars during his incarceration and eventual wait at the death row. He was intermitently treated for manic depression, personality disorders, alchoholism and mild schizophrenia. It was later proven that he was indeed mentally ill (and hence unfit to be either tried or placed on the death row), but the state never treated him. The State of Oklahoma never admitted its error, and even threatened to rearrest him.

Another criminal from Ada, Glen Gore, was eventually convicted of the original crime.

Williamson sued and won a large settlement in 2003 from the City of Ada, Oklahoma. By 2004, he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, and died soon thereafter. Dennis Fritz, meanwhile, returned to Kansas City, where he lives with his daughter, Elizabeth to this day.

Grisham is currently on a book tour trying to drum up attention for the issue of wrongful conviction.

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org) has created a free discussion guide for community groups and congregations who are looking for excellent ways to create conversation about The Innocent Man and the criminal justice issues it highlights.

Edition

  • Doubleday, October 10, 2006, ISBN 0385517238 (hardbound)

http://www.innocenceproject.org/case/display_profile.php?id=59
http://www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org/media/TheInnocentMan.pdf

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