The Innocent Man

The Story

In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from RonÆs home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to deathùin a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a manÆs already broken lifeàand let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, John GrishamÆs first work of nonfiction reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocenceùa book no American can afford to miss.