Excellent, Great Grisham
An innocent man is about to be executed.
Only a guilty man can save him.
For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesnt understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesnt care. He just cant believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.
Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.
Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do whats right and confess.
But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that theyre about to execute an innocent man?
Only a guilty man can save him.
For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesnt understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesnt care. He just cant believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.
Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.
Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do whats right and confess.
But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that theyre about to execute an innocent man?
While I found this book to run-on in a few places, all-in-all it was a pretty good read. Grisham moves away from the courtroom and focuses more on the crime, victim(s) and Travis Boyette, the actual, uncaught perpetrator. There are a few surprises along the way to keep the reader interested.
A well written storyline and speaks to a possible outcome of the death penalty but SUPER hokey characters for the people on the side who support it. No redeeming value whatsoever. It would be offensive if it weren't so seriously comical. What was quite ironic (Grisham showing his true self) was a number of the people who where so against the death penalty had the most evil thoughts about killing the actual bad guy themselves. Ha!
And I'm not sure about this, but it seems you would need more evidence than pretty much none to have the death penalty on the table.
And I'm not sure about this, but it seems you would need more evidence than pretty much none to have the death penalty on the table.
Great Performance!
