“This book totally changed my position on pro-death penalty. I didn't think that could happen and it figures Grisham was the one to do it to me. This was his first non-fiction work and he kept the same fast paced and intricacy style of the books that precede this one.
This story is primarily about Ron Williamson, a man convicted of rape and murder. His accomplice is a close second focus in this story, Dennis Fritz. Grisham covers every detail about Ron's life from childhood, throughout the time of the crime, his trial, imprisonment, his severe decline of mental health, and into his eventual freedom. He does the same for Fritz except for the childhood details, as well as some other men from the same town who were served the same injustice as Williamson and Fritz.
From this book I garnered more compassion for criminals and those accused of being criminals. I always thought I was empathetic to those that are mentally ill and have committed crimes, however this book proved where I was lacking. In fact I took note of the times I was cynical and realized where I need to work on in regards to how I feel about psychological illness, alcoholism, and past criminal acts not being proof of future or present acts.
What changed my mind about the death penalty was it never occurred to me that the justice and legal system could be twisted and fraudelent. This might seem obvious and I have taken my fair share of legal courses to teach me this, but I have never seen it on a person level. I had only seen misconduct and mistreatment in legal briefs with little mention of the personal and physical affects on the victims.
I give this book 5 stars about would highly recommend it.
”
Abigail wrote this review Saturday, December 29, 2007.
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