Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions
E book by John Grisham
Co written by John Grisham which is his first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man. John teams up with Jim McCloskey who is known as the godfather of the innocence movement
This is a non fiction and the stories are real stories of wrongful convictions so no spoilers! Almost all the stories are so shocking and scary! You would feel so remorseful and see the prisoners in jail in a new light! You would be terrified of cops and lawyers and court!
The statistics mentioned in the end would shock you!
In some year the number of executions for capital offences have been more than a thousand! The shocking part is not the number! But the fact that more than half of them could have been ‘probably’ innocent!
I would be giving a short summary of two of the stories; the first and the last to get you a gist of the book but do read it yourself since there are no spoilers!
The research gone in the making of the novel is mind boggling and the references and end notes at the end of the book would prove that!
Simple words like; ‘that would be his room for the next 15 years’ or ‘that was the last time he hugged his parents till the next 20 years’ are the most heaviest ones I have come across in my life! Oh the misery of wrongful conviction! The wait and in some cases, the death! No other intelligent species in the world can be so cruel to each other!
Have you heard of the “Norfolk Four”?
One of the greatest examples of justice denied and how DNA examination finally came to rescue!
In 1997, Michelle Moore-Bosko was found murdered and raped in her Norfolk apartment. Four sailors, Derek Tice, Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, and Eric Wilson, were initially arrested and confessed to the crime. So far so good!
Well it is not so!
You must read the novel to get the whole detail but the summary is this.
The men later claimed their confessions were coerced through aggressive and misleading interrogation tactics used by Norfolk Police detectives. These tactics included threatening the death penalty, falsely claiming witness testimony, and using deceptive interrogation techniques. This when even the lie detector test was in their favor!
The case highlighted the dangers of false confessions and the need for reforms in interrogation practices. The true perpetrator, Omar Ballard, was later identified through DNA evidence and convicted!
In 2017, after years of appeals, the Norfolk Four were granted absolute pardons by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, officially clearing their names.
By the way, did you know what the Judge said while delivering the verdict?
“no sane person could find them guilty”.
The Norfolk Four received a combined settlement of $4.9 million from the City of Norfolk and $3.5 million from the Commonwealth of Virginia for their wrongful convictions. A pittance considering that they lost their life and reputation. One of them was actually with his terminally ill wife during the said night! She later died alone while he was falsely imprisoned and not allowed to see her!
Can any amount of money compensate for twenty years of your life locked away in a small room for a crime you did not do!?
The final story is about a man who was convicted and executed for a crime which never happened! He screamed, begged and pleaded again and again for more than twenty years in death row stating that he was innocent! He was accused of killing his own daughters! By a fire which happened when he was sleeping! He actually rushed into the flames to save them but had to be held by few people! In fact if he had gone into the blaze that day he would have probably died! Even that would have been better that what happened to him later!
By the time he could recover from the shock of the death of his children, he was charged with murder and convicted! In the end he was alone and executed! All because a self proclaimed ‘expert’ on fire with no official degree or experience felt that it was ‘arson’! When it was finally investigated and concluded that the fire was an accident and not ‘arson’; it was too late. He had already been ‘killed’ for years! In fact his final wish of being buried next to his own daughter was not accepted! His parents had to secretly spread his ashes on his daughter’s graves!
If at any point in your life you feel sad or helpless or even victimized; do read this one and get a reality check!
Getting false testimonies is a given! The amazing similarity is of getting jailhouse snitches all over the world! Those who have already been convicted of crimes give supposed ‘vital’ information about the case to get a deal with the DA for some lighter sentence! Now the information they give is true or not only God would know!
The only thing consistent all over the world is that only MONEY works! If you cannot pay you might as well expect the worst unless you are crooked and cunning!
One interesting thing to note is that contrary to popular belief; most men condemned to die do not claim innocence! Many are proud of their crimes and even enjoy bragging about them especially in prison!
Our whole justice system is actually there so that even if a hundred guilty escape the law; no innocent must be punished! Unfortunately power, money and many people who are supposed to protect and upheld law make sure that the prisons all over the world have prisoners who are actually innocent!
Each and every story would make you question the whole justice and legal system and scratch your head in disbelief!
This innocence movement work though has started to make a difference though! Getting all these cases to light and getting some justice done! In fact there have been instances where a judge was punished by prison term for giving false and prejudiced sentences!
Some stories are so unbelievable that you will be shocked at the stupidity of the investigating officers! Then you even had some who would do autopsy at a premium for the officers and give the report what they want! That too by doctors who had no experience! One line and comment could make someone’s life hell!
One guy was convicted because he was in the area and he wore an ear ring!
Another group got convicted because they had the car of the same color!
One poor lady got convicted for actually coming out and giving evidence to help police! No wonder whey people do not like to volunteer any information and why any such deed is fraught with danger!
These ten stories will rattle your soul and make it bleed!
What an amazing work you have started and supported John!
Let us not forget that the courts and the rules of the law are here so that even if many guilty escape; not even one innocent must be convicted for the crime he or she did not commit! Let us hope that no one ever gets FRAMED!
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