Innocence and Justice

I listened to John Grisham last night at Wake Forest University. He sat as part of a legal panel, to discuss his work of non-fiction, The Innocent Man. I haven't read this book yet, though I've read almost everything else he's written.

The talk began with a brief overview of how Mr Grisham came to discover the story he would retell. Seems, like most of us, John is a big obituary reader. He said he likes the small town, old timey obits; that share interesting names and stories about the dead.

Later, Mr Grisham recounted several motivations for his work fighting for justice around the country, including forced confessions which are the inspiration for his next publication "The Confession". Can't wait to read that one.

He closed the talk with a suggestion to law students. He said he couldn't count how many times he'd spoken with those who have had the good fortune to have their wrong convictions overturned, who told him they "had no hope at all until they got a letter from a law student who was looking at their case". He told students to get involved in the system.

His suggestion to those of us who are not involved in the law was to consider that 2 million people are incarcerated in the US, perhaps 1-2% of them the result of injustice. 20,000 to 40,000 people in jail for a crime they didn't commit. Something to think about the next time you try to get out of jury duty.