48 pages • 1 hour read
John GrishamThe Innocent Man
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
After his execution date is set, Ron's case is assigned to "Janet Chesley, a lawyer with the Indigent Defense System in Norman" (165), for the habeas corpus stage of appeals. Her petition is so convincing that the magistrate who reads it, Jim Payne, is left with "some doubts about the fairness of Ron's trial" (166). He persuades Judge Frank Seay to grant a stay of execution. Payne and his team come to believe that a new trial is in order, and they are able to convince the judge to at least consider it.
Dennis Fritz, still "a fixture in the law library," hears of the developments in Ron's case. Having heard about new methods of DNA testing, and having closely followed public trials in which it was used, Dennis decides to contact Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project in New York and one of O.J. Simpson's attorneys. Jim Payne and his team press on with exhaustive research into every detail of Ron's trial, compiling a long list of constitutional problems to justify a new trial, which Judge Seay eventually grants.
Back in Ada, Bill Peterson resists the idea of a new trial, denying that anything had been wrong with the original one, but the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds Judge Seay's ruling. Kim Marks continues to advocate for Ron to receive mental-health treatment in the Special Care Unit, and, after four years of arguments, the request is finally granted, as the Special Care Unit can medicate by force if needed, and the death row population, both guards and inmates, have become weary of Ron's constant screaming. The desire to ensure he will be declared mentally competent to be executed is also a factor in the decision to allow treatment.
Dennis Fritz receives word from the Innocence Project that they are willing to take on his case, while Ron eagerly consents to having DNA testing done to compare his samples with those taken from the crime scene. Peterson is also happy to introduce DNA testing, convinced that it will prove Ron guilty.
Chapter 14 Summary
Judge Tom Landrith is assigned to the trial. A typical small-town judge who knew both the Williamsons and the Carters, he "had never been fully convinced that Ron was guilty," but "he was not convinced he was innocent, either" (175). Ron is sent to Eastern State Hospital for evaluation and treatment in preparation for the trial. Ron is declared to be incompetent on his admission to Eastern State, but after two months is considered competent, as long as he continues to undergo treatment and medication. He is returned to the Pontotoc County Jail, where he had spent many months in the past. Mark Barrett returns as Ron's lawyer. At the competency hearing, Ron's rambling and semi-coherent responses on the witness stand, combined with the testimony of Kim Marks, clearly show Ron to be incompetent to assist in his own defense, and even Bill Peterson finally agrees. Ron returns to Eastern State Hospital.
Dennis Fritz had been in regular communication with Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project, and Scheck was intrigued by Fritz's case, particularly the fact that the police had ignored Greg Gore as a potential suspect. DNA testing is conducted on semen samples from the crime scene and the results exclude both Ron and Dennis, but Peterson insists on a second round of DNA testing, this time on the hair samples. A month passes, with Dennis and Ron becoming increasingly tense as they await the results of the hair tests. Finally, the news comes in: the hairs taken from the crime scene are "in no way consistent with Fritz or Williamson's DNA makeup" (186). A hearing is scheduled and Ron and Dennis are reunited in Ada, in the county jail.
Chapter 15 Summary
Reporters and townspeople alike flock to the courthouse on the day of the hearing. The first witness, Mary Long, head of the OSBI's DNA unit, gives several minutes of backstory before sharing the important news: that Ron and Dennis are both excluded by DNA testing of the semen and the hair. The report also concludes that some of the samples do match those of Glen Gore. Bill Peterson announces this to a shocked courtroom. The judge dismisses the case.
Neither the judge nor the prosecution offer any apology or compensation for having put the two innocent men through such an ordeal. Nonetheless, Ron and Dennis are overjoyed to be free. The newly-released men, their families, and an entourage of well-wishers celebrate with barbecue at a local restaurant. Meanwhile, Gore hears that he is being looked for and escapes from his prisoner work assignment by hitchhiking. Six days later, he turns himself in again, but the Ada police show no interest in mounting a case against him.
The story of Ron's imprisonment and release hits the national news, and he is the subject of many television interviews. There is much celebration, but not everyone is happy. Members of Annette's church snub Ron, and she quits the church. The family receives threatening phone calls, and the police and prosecution team continue to defend the position that they did everything exactly as they should have.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
In this section, a team of indigent defense attorneys file a habeas corpus appeal on Ron's behalf. Luckily for Ron, multiple people notice the glaring red flags in his trial records, and, through heroic efforts, his advocates are able to convince the judge who reads their appeal that a new trial is warranted. In the dramatic climax of the book, both Ron and Dennis are returned to Ada, the scene of the crime, for a retrial.
The "villain" of the story, Bill Peterson, is just as ego-driven as ever, and he fights tooth and nail against the decision to give Ron and Dennis a new trial, even after multiple forms of DNA evidence clearly show that neither man could possibly have been the killer. Tension mounts to a fever pitch, then finally breaks when the judge, on the strength of the DNA evidence, dismisses the charges against Ron and Dennis.
It is notable that even though the DNA evidence is validated by multiple experts, the judicial process is still heavilyweighted against Ron and Dennis. In the court of public opinion, most people believe they are guilty and want to see them punished. Many are outraged at the idea that this much-desired revenge for Debbie Carter's murder might be denied to the victim's family and the members of the community. The people of Ada are portrayed at times almost as a bloodthirsty mob, led by their emotions, rather than reason; indeed, they are not far removed from the group that lynched four accused killers in the early 1900s. It's not hard to imagine that Ron and Dennis could have met a similar fate if they had lived in an earlier time.
Although they know they have proof of their innocence, Ron and Dennis still face enormous odds in their efforts to get a judge to see their side. It takes monumental effort on the part of dozens of people to get the charges thrown out. And even then, the police (and the town) refuse to officially clear their names, and they are still considered to be guilty long after the DNA evidence should have exonerated them.
That the judge is able to rise above the cloud of infamy that hangs over these two men and dismiss the case suggests that Grisham holds out faith in the legal system as an arbiter of justice. Though the previous judge had been a bad one, giving in to bias and failing to scrupulously adhere to established procedure, this judge is a good one, and he makes the rightcall. The legitimacy of the system itself is not questioned, only the relative suitability of various individuals for their positions of authority.
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