Framed by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey

 March 8, 2025- Saturday 

I’m a slow reader but I really enjoy reading.  I like to read a variety of different things but if there is a book written by John Grisham, I am going to read it. Such is the case with “Framed” by Grisham and co-author Jim McCloskey.

This particular book took me longer to read than most books because of the subject matter.  I had to take a few breaks while reading it.  Why? “Framed” is not fictional fare.  It is a compilation of the stories of ten different situations where people were wrongly convicted of crimes.  Horrible crimes.  Capital murder crimes.

These stories by Grisham and Mcclosky detail these crimes, and it details the utter incompetence of prosecutors and judges.  These stories depict how pre-determined assumptions served the purposes of these prosecutors and judges and those assumptions were horribly wrong. These stories also show the benefit of having money and how being able to pay for competent representation can make all the difference in the world.  

My slowness in reading this book had everything to do with my emotional need to step away from the reality of how incompetence had stolen so many years away from these people. It even stole the life of one person.  Several years ago, I changed my opinion about the death penalty.  My opinion is no one should be put to death for a crime unless the crime was witnessed by at least two credible witnesses. A jailhouse snitch is not a credible witness.  I changed my opinion about this because DNA testing has proven too many felons to be innocent of the crimes they have been convicted.  This book has solidified my opinion.  

I feel even more so because of incompetent prosecutors and judges and all their many possible motivations that can cloud their judgment.  I live in Texas and some of the incompetence displayed in this book lived in Texas.  To some degree, it probably still does.  I still believe in capital punishment but only if there is irrefutable evidence and a preponderance of that evidence. Humans are involved here and obviously humans make mistakes.  When the ultimate gift, a human life is at stake, that is not the time for mistakes.  

One last thought.  In the growing age of artificial intelligence and elaborate deep fakes, are we really seeing what we’re seeing?  We all need to be careful in searching for the truth and learn to search carefully.

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