The Innocent Man by John Grisham

The excerpts from John Grisham's book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, provide a detailed narrative about the 1982 rape and murder of Debbie Carter in the small, religiously conservative town of Ada, Oklahoma. The text focuses heavily on the wrongful conviction and subsequent exoneration of Ronald Keith Williamson and Dennis Fritz, two men falsely accused based on flawed evidence, unreliable witness testimony, questionable police tactics including coerced "dream confessions," and reliance on junk science like hair analysis. Grisham chronicles Williamson's troubled life, including his struggles with mental illness exacerbated by his time on death row, the tireless efforts of his family and legal team, the eventual DNA testing that proved their innocence, and the lingering questions about the actual perpetrator, Glen Gore, who was an early suspect.