Total Page : 368
Publisher : DE33
Publication Date : 2007
>> I can t believe I gave Grisham 5 stars
In a desperate move to find something to read I picked up this leftover book while on a charter dive boat I was pleasantly surprised since I had sworn off wasting any more of my time on Grisham books
This non fiction offering his one and only turned out to be quite the surprise Maybe it doesn t rate a 5 star review and maybe someone can find flaws but the bottom line is that the book was a enjoyable read Yes it may be to some extent depressing perhaps anger inducing but mostly it is memorable I recall and share the story with others
>> Excellent
This in my opinion is a must read however I m a huge fan of John Grisham I think once you ve read even one of his novels you ll feel you need to read them all
>> A tale that would be unbelievable if it weren t true
I think one of the things I missed most about this book was the John Grisham charm He still added his touches to the story but you could tell it wasn t his story
Still I am shocked and saddened at what happened in this story Not only the inhumane treatment that Ron suffered at the hands of the guards at McAlester but just in general that he and Dennis sat in jail and on Death Row for almost twelve years before they were proven innocent I was outraged everytime I saw Bill Peterson s name knowing that he surely had screwed something else up I can t believe he s still the District Attorney in Ada I was shocked everytime Judge Jones made yet another bad ruling From not pointing out that maybe Ron wasn t mentally competent all the way to the ridiculous ruling he made on the Brady issue What a disaster And then for two Appeals Courts to uphold the death sentence was incredible What pleadings where they reading Obviously not the same ones as Judge Seay s office since they saw the incredible injustice
I am glad that Greg Wilhoit got back on his feet as did Dennis Fritz It saddened me to hear that Ron never really found his way after baseball And I am still deeply disturbed by the fact that Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot are still serving life prisons as I sit here typing this The entire story I was actually more caught up in their ordeal and though John Grisham said early on that when Tommy went into the police station for his lie detector test it was the last time he d be a free man I still read the entire story thinking that must have been a typo Surely he and Karl would be freed as well That whole town appears to be a disaster I know it s not just Ada it s just that this time they had the spotlight on them Bill Peterson surely isn t helping matters His name alone makes me angry
I still can t believe how many people still believed that Ron and Dennis were guilty even when DNA evidence proved their innocence Some people are so set in their ways that they can t look at the obvious I hope in today s time with DNA being used so often that they now know how definite the proof is and that they know finally that these two are innocent Of course Peterson ranting and raving about how they were still suspects surely make it harder for the townspeople to believe that they were innocent I look at that photo of Ron and Dennis when they were set free and indeed you can see the hatred and the anger in the faces of the people in the courtroom It s very sad
Overall a good book one worth reading though I thought it was a little slow moving Too much time spent on Ron and Dennis lives growing up and not enough time spent on the trial And hears hoping one day by some miracle Ward and Fontenot are released
