The Innocent Man
by John Grisham
★ Top 25 book of 2006 · #23 on Best Books of 2006
Grisham's first non-fiction book follows a former baseball prospect from Oklahoma who is convicted of a murder in his hometown. It questions small-town justice, flimsy evidence and the death penalty.
Best for: Readers curious about wrongful convictions and the fairness of the justice system
The Innocent Man is #23 on BookWard's Best Books of 2006, out of 46 2006 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Innocent Man is about
John Grisham's first work of non-fiction tells a true story of small-town justice going badly wrong. Ron Williamson was once a baseball prospect, the first player chosen from Oklahoma in the 1971 major league draft, and he signed with the Oakland A's. Six years later he came home to Ada with his dreams broken by a bad arm, drinking, drugs and women, and he began to show signs of mental illness. In 1982 a 21-year-old cocktail waitress, Debra Sue Carter, was raped and murdered in the town. Police went five years without solving the crime, then arrested Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz and charged them with capital murder. The prosecution had no physical evidence and leaned on junk science and testimony from jailhouse snitches and convicts. Fritz received a life sentence, and Williamson was sent to Death Row. The book argues, through one case, how easily a justice system can fail, and it will interest readers of true crime and anyone curious about wrongful convictions.
The Innocent Man on the Best Books of 2006
The Innocent Man came out in 2006. Of the 46 books first published in 2006 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #23 on our Best Books of 2006 list.
Why it made the list: 217 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (11 ratings). The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2006 list
- The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama, #21
- American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang, #22
- Wintersmith Terry Pratchett, #24
- The Husband Dean Koontz, #25
See all Best Books of 2006 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2005 Best Books of 2007.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 185 want to read it, 10 are reading it now and 22 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.3 out of 5 from 11 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 43 | 55% |
| Reader love | 67 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 39 | 20% |
Questions about The Innocent Man
When was The Innocent Man published?
The Innocent Man by John Grisham was first published in 2006.
Was The Innocent Man one of the best books of 2006?
The Innocent Man is #23 on BookWard's Best Books of 2006, out of 46 2006 books that cleared our data bar. 217 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (11 ratings).
Why is The Innocent Man on the Best Books of 2006 list?
217 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (11 ratings).
More of the best books of 2006
- The Sea of Monsters Rick Riordan, #1
- The Book Thief Markus Zusak, #2
- Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, #3
- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne, #4
- The Secret Rhonda Byrne, #5
- Mindset Carol S. Dweck, #6
See the full Best Books of 2006, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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