Marisol Garcia

Law Clerk Program

Second year book reports

Book Report III

In John Grisham’s book, The Innocent Man, he tells a story of a baseball star, Ron

Williamson, who is framed by the police for the murder of Debbie Carter. Grisham came across

this incredible story that presented the American judicial system as highly questionable and

inhumane. The police methods, the administration of Justice, and the conditions in the

penitentiary institutions were horrifying. Woe to the one who entered this machinery, whether

guilty or innocent.

Grisham spends much of the first section of the book describing the manner and customs

of the accused. Ronald Williamson was, in principle, one of those boys born under the sign of a

good star, to whom nothing is denied: neither the sporting success nor the favor of the girls of the

Institute nor the admiration of the teachers and coaches. A gifted, in a word, who will decide to

try the adventure of becoming a professional baseball player.

Williamson and a friend of his go to jail for a murder in a small Oklahoma town in the

1980s. The former baseball player is sentenced to death after being found guilty of torturing,

raping and killing a young woman. He spent 12 years in prison until his lawyers are able to prove

his innocence thanks to a DNA test that also dismantled all the investigation of the crime and the

accusation made by the lawyers. He was 5 days away from being executed.

The errors of Justice, which will continue to exist even despite the finest methods of

investigation, are not the only reason that drives Grisham's book. Grisham attacks the
slovenliness and inhumanity of the system as a whole by treating the Williamson case in a

literary and thorough manner.

The United States has executed many people. Two prisoners were declared innocent in

2018 after spending several decades in prison. As Grisham says in his book, “Unjust convictions

occur every month in all the states of the country and the reasons are very varied, although

always the same: poor police performance, unreliable scientific results, faulty witness

identifications, bad defense attorneys, lazy or arrogant prosecutors.”

In other words, most of the errors are produced by misrepresentation, racial prejudice,

bad practices by prosecutors and by different errors committed during the investigation of cases.

There are so many detainees, so many people in the penal system, that not all of them can be

brought to trial. Out-of-court settlements mean that cases are not thoroughly investigated and

encourage false confessions for those defendants who find themselves without the money or the

ability to defend their innocence and opt for the 'lesser evil' of a conviction. reduced in exchange

for not risking a full trial. Clearly, if you are poor or a minority, you are much more likely to be

wrongly convicted.

Even among those who do go to trial, the list of mistakes is long. Unreliable direct

witnesses, confidants who obtain reductions in their own sentences in exchange for testifying

against the defendant, negligence, excesses by the police and, yes, also cases of defendants who

have been the victims of deceit and cheating, and evidence fake 'planted' by the police.

The Innocence Project in the United States, seeks to impose new challenges to improve

certain practices, habits and work routines of the main actors of the justice system. The

Innocence Project works on the cases of people deprived of liberty who are unjustly in prison.
 From time to time, members of the Innocence Project get caught up in big stories that

make headlines and television. But beyond the cases that succeed, beyond the exultant press

conferences, the tears of those who finally get justice, there are hundreds of cases that are lost.

Hundreds of people waiting in their cells without losing hope that one day their case could be the

one that all the media are talking about.

The Innocent Man is outrageous and an astonishing story. It is really worrying that

anyone can be unjustly convicted with total impunity and with great ease. On the other hand, I

feel that Grisham did not know how to give him the correct emotion or agility and he loses

himself in technicalities that make reading a bit heavy, however, the desire to know more about

the matter and know the faces of those involved is contagious.

John Grisham has always been a very interesting author and he knows very well what he

is talking about. He is a Lawyer and his books, in many cases (or almost all) talk about the

subject that he knows very well. He so brilliantly questions the incompetence of the judicial

system and the injustices. Even though It is not the best work of Grisham, I consider that its

development is adequate, it stands firm to the real events experienced by the protagonist of the

story, I think it is commendable to consider the work of Grisham when investigating life and

misfortunes present in Williamson, and highlighting the failings of the criminal and police

system in a developed country such as the United States. I am not disappointed ... when real life

events are documented, two paths can be taken (implementing situations outside reality to make

the work more attractive or sticking to reality) Grisham took the right path. I highly recommend

this book.