Innocent Man by Grisham
Ref: John Grisham (2014). Innocent Man. NY: Bantam Books.
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Summary
A True crime story detailing the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Ronald ‘Ron’ Keith Williamson of Ada, Oklahoma for the rape and murder of Debra Sue Carter. After serving 11 years on death row, he was exonerated by DNA evidence and other material introduced by the innocence project and released in 1999.
Civil suits for wrongful convictions are extremely difficult to win, and most exonerees are shut out from the courthouse. Being wrongfully convicted does not automatically give one the right to sue. A potential plaintiff must claim and prove that his civil rights were violated, that his constitutional protections were breached, and that this resulted in a wrongful conviction. Then, the difficult part: virtually everyone involved in the legal process that led to the bad conviction is cloaked with immunity. A judge is immune from a wrongful conviction lawsuit regardless of how poorly he handled the trial. A prosecutor is immune as long as he does his job—that is, as long as he prosecutes. If, however, he gets too involved in the investigation, then he might become liable. And a policeman is immune unless it can be shown that his actions were so wrong that any reasonable law enforcement officer would have known that he was violating the Constitution. Such lawsuits are ruinously expensive to maintain, with the plaintiff’s attorneys forced to front tens, even hundreds, of thousands of dollars in litigation costs. And they are almost too risky to file because recovery is such a long shot.
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Misc Quotes
Circumstantial evidence: used to indicate a concerted pattern of behavior or action.
Habeas Corpus (Latin for “you should have the body”): A writ for habeas corpus required that an inmate be brought before the court to determine the legality of his detention.
Lethal Injection: Most common process for administering capital punishment: A saline solution is pumped in to open the veins which is followed by Na-thiopental, which quickly knocks out the inmate. Another flushing of saline solution, then the next drug, vecuronium Br, stops the breathing. Another quick flush and the third drug, NaCl-, stops the heart.
An old adage in bad trial lawyering that when you don’t have the facts, do a lot of yelling
Juries will convict if they can be adequately shocked.
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Chronology
1992: The Innocence Project is founded by two New York lawyers, Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck. They set up shop in the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law as a nonprofit legal clinic where students handled the case work while staff attorneys supervised.-Innocent Man by Grisham.
1966: Miranda v. Arizona: the most famous of all self-incrimination cases, the Supreme Court imposed procedural safeguards to protect the rights of the accused. A suspect has a constitutional right not to be compelled to talk, and any statement made during an interrogation cannot be used in court unless the police and the prosecutor can prove that the suspect clearly understood that (1) he had the right to remain silent, (2) anything said could be used against him in court, and (3) he had a right to an attorney, whether or not he could afford one. If, during an interrogation, the accused requests an attorney, then the questioning stops immediately.-Innocent Man by Grisham.
1960: Blackburn v. Alabama: the Court said, “Coercion can be mental as well as physical.” In reviewing whether a confession was psychologically coerced by the police, the following factors are crucial: (1) the length of the interrogation, (2) whether it was prolonged in nature, (3) when it took place, day or night, with a strong suspicion around nighttime confessions, and (4) the psychological makeup—intelligence, sophistication, education, and so on—of the suspect.-Innocent Man by Grisham.
1956: Bishop v. USA: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the conviction of a mentally incompetent person was a denial of due process. Where doubt exists as to a person’s mental competency, the failure to conduct a proper inquiry is a deprivation of his constitutional rights.-Innocent Man by Grisham.
1897: Bram v. United States: found that a statement must be free and voluntary, not extracted by any sorts of threats or violence or promises, however slight. A confession obtained from an accused who has been threatened cannot be admissible.-Innocent Man by Grisham.
1884: Hopt v. Utah: the Supreme Court ruled that a confession is not admissible if it is obtained by operating on the hopes or fears of the accused, and in doing so deprives him of the freedom of will or self-control necessary to make a voluntary statement.-Innocent Man by Grisham.
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