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 16-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
After his release, Ron is invited to appear on television talk shows in New York and Los Angeles. While in New York, a visit to Yankee Stadium is arranged, and Ron gets a taste of the glory days. He goes to Disney World, where a German television company pays for his entourage to stay in exchange for extensive interviews. After these trips begin Ron’s attempt to re-acclimate to life outside of prison. Ron has a Social Security settlement worth $60,000, plus a small monthly income, and with Annette's help, he buys a mobile home, but he does not do well living on his own. He is unable to save money and gives much of his settlement away. He starts drinking again, but alcohol does not mix well with his psychiatric medications, and he becomes paranoid.
Dennis avoids police and takes a job at a burger joint. With professional help, he is able to put his life back together. He and Barry Scheck make a plan to sue for damages. Ron returns to a mental hospital, then lives for a while in a nursing home, which bores and frustrates him. His sister Annette works to find him places to stay, but he seldom lasts anywhere longer than three months before leaving or getting kicked out.
Dennis and Ron file a civil rights suit, naming just about everyone involved in their trials as defendants. Ron lives for a while in a halfway house and quits drinking, but later returns to the bottle. Bill Peterson files a motion to be removed from the lawsuit, citing prosecutorial immunity, but the allegations that he engaged in systematic evidence fabrication are too persuasive, and the judge denies his motion. Annette, worn down by the endless drama in Ada, moves to Tulsa and takes Ron with her.
The lawsuit is resolved when the defendants settle the case for several million dollars in an effort to avoid having to admit responsibility for the miscarriage of justice. Ron and Dennis are never officially cleared as suspects, but Dennis is able to use the settlement money to build a new and stable life. Ron, however, burns through his money, spending it lavishly and giving much of it away. He moves from place to place, unable to live anywhere for long.
Nineteen years after Debbie Carter's murder, and four years after the emergence of DNA evidence implicating him in the crime, Glen Gore is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.
Chapter 17 Summary
At age fifty-one, Ron is diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis of the liver. His doctors estimate that he has about six months to live, but his health declines more quickly than predicted. He moves into one last nursing home and calmly awaits death. His family and friends, including Greg Wilhoit and Barry Scheck, make their last visits, and he passes away peacefully, in the company of his sisters and their families. Some of Ron's favorite gospel hymns are sung at his funeral.
The book concludes with a note from the author. Grisham explains that he became interested in this story after reading a lengthy obituary of Ron Williamson in The New York Times. On looking into the story, he found it to be stranger than fiction, and was compelled to spend "the next eighteen months" (214) researching and writing this book. Grisham notes that though he had been a lawyer himself, and had written many fictional accounts of courtroom justice, he had never before seriously considered the consequences of wrongful convictions, and this case had opened his eyes.
Grisham concludes by noting that at the time the writing of this book, Bill Peterson was still serving as district attorney in Ada; Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot were still in prison; and Glen Gore, granted a retrial, had his sentenced reduced to life in prison.
Chapters 16-17 Analysis
Grisham's treatment of the long and tangled history of this case, though a nonfiction account, borrows many elements from the structure of a novel. By interweaving backstory and real-time events, the author allows the reader to come to know the "characters," even though there is little dialogue, and almost no inner monologue, to give us insight into their feelings, motivations, or thought processes. We can judge them only by their actions, but Grisham does help us to form our opinions by portraying some characters as innocent and wronged, and others as abusive, manipulative, or simply misguided. There is no shortage of character flaws in this book's cast, yet the impact of Grisham's description of Ron's (or Dennis's, or Tommy's) mistakes is only to make these people seem human. In context, it's easy to see why they made the choices they did, even if those choices would soon have terrible consequences.
There is also a happy ending of sorts—at least somewhat happy, for some of the people involved. Ron and Dennis are finally released from prison (though never officially exonerated). Dennis, formerly a teacher, finds work as a burger-flipper. Ron's physical and mental health are utterly destroyed by his prison ordeal, and he does not live long after his release.
By foregrounding the experience of two people who were actually able to escape from the system after having been wrongfully accused and convicted, Grisham gives the impression that with enough persistence and determination, it's possible for anyone—even someone as dysfunctional as Ron—to find justice in the end. A note in the epilogue, though, reminds readers that Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot remain in prison for life, serving time for a crime they did not commit. So, while the narrative structure of the book implies that justice will inevitably be served (even if it's at the eleventh hour), there is at least a hint that Ron and Dennis arethe lucky ones. Still, Grisham allows the blame for this tragedy to rest on individuals' sloppiness and arrogance, rather than on a broken system, and encourages us to believe that if only there were fewer "bad" judges and prosecutors and detectives, and more "good" ones, then the system would work as it is designed to do, and no innocent people would be sent to prison.
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