The Innocent Man

This is the fifth and last book I received for Christmas. The bride thought it was amusing to purchase a book with large type and I have to admit, I kind of liked not having to find reading glasses before starting to read. Written by John Grisham this is a true story.

The subject is Ron Williamson, a baseball prodigy, who went as far as to be draft by the Oakland Athletics and play minor league baseball. Arm injuries and motivational problems ended the Oklahoman's baseball career before he ever made the show. Baseball was followed by a divorce, difficulty holding down jobs, womanizing and massive substance abuse. Ron Williamson had developed bipolar and schizophrenic behaviour but was not diagnosed till much later.

In March of 1983 a young woman, Debbie Carter, of Williamson's hometown of Ada Oklahoma, was raped and murdered. Ron Williamson, by now the town nut was an immediate suspect, so much so that the police seemed to put blinders on to any other possibility. For five years the police struggled with a way to charge Williamson and his accomplice Dennis Fritz. When charged the defendants received inadequate representation and were found guilty. Williamson was slated for execution and Fritz for life imprisonment.

A decade of imprisonment for Williamson drove him into insanity. Health care was non-existant for the condemned in Oklahoma's McAlester prison. About this time Ron received a stay of execution and a new trial was ordered. The new trial, aided by new developed DNA testing, led to dismissal of all charges. After 12 years in prison both Williamson and Fritz were free.

After the dismissals, both of the men were phobic of police intentions. Perhaps egged on by the Ada district attorney who who not convinced. Fritz moved away was able to live happily with his mother and mend a relationship with his daughter. Williamson struggled with his mental illness, a man in his late forties and early fifties, looking 20 years older, moved in and out of nursing homes and when free repeatedly going off his medications. In short time complaints of stomach pain led to a discovery of inoperable cirrhosis of the liver. Ron Williamson died in December 2004.

This was a good book, not in the manner of other Grisham novels, but more like a television true case story. Give it a try.