"The Innocent Man" - John Grisham

[Stump]

I'm pretty sure this is Grisham's first work of non-fiction. What a great read! This injustice contained in this book is almost hard to believe. So scary that this is a true story. Highly recommended!

http://www.amazon.com/Innocent-Man-Murder-Injustice-Small/dp/0385517238

[Mythsaje]

1. It IS his first work of non-fiction.

Haven't read it yet, but have heard it's damn good.

[RoyGBiv]

2. It's a true-crime novel ...

Meaning it is based on non-fictional events but with fictionalizations thrown into the mix.

It's marketed as non-fiction, and for the most part it sticks to actual events with a few made-up conversations or "remembrances" of conversations, but it also leaves out a lot, fails to address relevant relationships, events, etc., has a few outright errors, etc. It's not non-fiction in the sense a history or work of quality journalism would be.

I have some degree of knowledge of the events portrayed in this book. It's been discussed in this forum actually and also in this recent thread from the Oklahoma forum:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=173x2287

[hamerfan]

3. It makes you want to steer clear of Oklahoma,

But unfortunately it's more an indictment of our legal system throughout the USA. The line is, "Any DA can find a guilty man guilty, but a good DA can find an innocent man guilty as well". How sad. To say nothing of how the penal system is just a money-making scheme for states to feed upon. A great book, even though the story itself is so tragic.
dumpbush

[RoyGBiv]

4. I'm not sure it says that ...

Bill Peterson is not a good DA. He's a good politician, but that's different. At one time he had a 95% conviction rate, which sounds like a good DA and was a statistic used by a good politicians to keep getting elected. When you look at what was behind those numbers, though, what you saw was that the vast majority of those convictions were for things like bogus checks, drunk driving, etc., i.e. crimes that are fairly cut and dried and for which the defendants don't put up much of a defense. IIRC, most of those convictions were in fact plea bargains.

And as I noted in another thread, the way the book depicts Peterson, while accurate on many accounts, overstates his ability to convict people of something just because he wants to.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. I have a new found respect for Grisham

after listening to his interview with Bill Moyers. I think I will be reading his books soon.


Besides , his southern accent is adorable LOL