John Grisham and Jim McCloskey's "Framed" is an anthology of miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions in the United States. Each author describes five of the most unforgettable tales of wrongful conviction that they have encountered. The profiles are very clearly extremely well researched; the authors left no stone unturned in their quest for the facts. However, I ultimately felt that each profile was too wordy and the focus in each story was unbalanced--many, many pages were dedicated to describing what lead up to the innocent victim's arrest/conviction, court proceedings, and appeals processes, but very little room was dedicated to describing the ultimate fates of these wrongfully convicted citizens. It was also emotionally disheartening to read page after page of the corruption and willful negligence amongst police officers, district attorneys, judges, and other civil servants that led to these wrongful convictions, without the inclusion of any sort of corrective action or political movement in present day to account for the egregious errors that resulted in each miscarriage of justice. I commend the authors for taking on such a heavy undertaking, and I think that the stories of these innocent victims are worth learning about, but there was also a palpable tone of sarcasm throughout each of Grisham's profiles, which felt misplaced and inappropriate. I could recommend this for lawyers, policy makers, and advocates interested in wrongful conviction work, however, apart from that I don't think I would recommend this book to the casual reader.

Framed is a nonfiction piece of work, co-authored by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey. It tells the heartbreaking stories of ten wrongful convictions in recent U.S. history (1970’s and beyond). It was eye opening and distressing and disappointing. How much can and does go wrong with convictions- tunnel vision by law enforcement that they “have the right guy,” the unethical techniques used by the police to elicit confessions, the absurdity of unscientific testimony and unqualified “experts”(named as such sometimes after only a 40hr class and paper certificate), and the overuse of unreliable jailhouse snitches. It is quite frankly scary how easily these false convictions happened. My hope is that our nation is learning from its mistakes and putting in place changes so this doesn’t happen. However, I fear this may not be the case. We are lucky to have organizations like the Innocent Project and Centurion who have made it their missions to help.
If you enjoy the law and reading about it in detail, then this would definitely be a great choice. But honestly, this is so powerful that I think everyone should read it. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for my ARC.

John Grisham and Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion Ministries, join forces to share ten unbelievable stories of wrongful convictions within the U.S. It amazed me the consistent issues of prosecutors who diligently work with snitches to incarcerate an innocent man while providing leniency or freedom to someone who is guilty. The blatant evidence ignored or withheld is mind boggling for prosecutors “hell-bent on clearing cases or gaining a conviction through a wide variety of illicit mean…” Kudos to the authors for a well-written book to raise awareness.

The authors state that their “goal with this book is to raise awareness of wrongful convictions and in some small way help to prevent more of them.” I hope this book is successful in attaining the goal! These stories are heart wrenching. No other way to put it. Everyone in the United States should be aware of this so we can all work toward equitable justice.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the injustices in the United States. Read it, you won’t regret it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
Wow! This book tells of wrongful convictions and how some of these innocent people are still locked up. How horrifying! Well written and very engaging.

Talk about man's inhumanity to man!

Framed is not an easy book to read. In fact, after reading the first story I was unsure if I would be able to read any more. These are stories of corruption and outright manipulation by the systems that are supposed to protect us. As I read the tragic occurrences of innocent people being convicted (and their lives destroyed) I found the stories to be equal parts horrifying and heartwrenching.

It's not a book I will soon forget.

My thanks to both #DoubledayBooks and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of Framed. This book has an expected publication date of October 15, 2024.

#JohnGrisham #JimMcCloskey #Nonfiction #WrongfulConvictions

True crime lovers will definitely want to pick up a copy of Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions. This collection of actual accounts of wrongful convictions is informational and highly emotional. I found myself fluctuating between enraged, saddened, and bewildered at the behaviors and thinking of those involved in convicting those featured in these stories.

The cases chosen were very interesting and highly detailed. Both writers deftly sucked me into the emotional roller coaster of each story, due in large part, I’m sure, to their personal involvement with many of the cases. Throughout my reading I kept thinking that these stories demonstrate how much we need police/prosecutorial/judicial reform.

Some of the cases I’d heard of, and most, if not all sent me down the rabbit hole looking for more info. And I suppose if I had one beef about the book, it’s that some stories deserved more attention than they received in this collection. I am grateful to both authors for including source books and articles for me to read!

After each chapter I felt a bit hollow. What about the victim? Generally with these wrongful convictions the actual perpetrator(s) is never caught. Injustice on top of injustice.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Everyone’s worst nightmare . . . to be accused and then convicted of a terrible crime you did not commit. Well written and well-researched. These accounts of judicial atrocities are far more horrific than any fiction on the shelves, especially knowing that each innocent person’s record of false imprisonment is merely a fractional representation of the many others who have not had proper advocacy.

This book highlights major malfeasance and screams the need for major reform at every level. It seems that protecting big egos and having closed cases, no matter how illicitly that is achieved, has become paramount to truth and real justice being served. Absolutely terrifying!

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Framed for my unbiased evaluation.  5 stars

If this was my usual genre of fictional thriller my first comment would be that there are many unlikely, fantastical, stretch-of-the- imagination scenes. However, the cases Grisham and McCloskey selected to feature aren’t made up. The ten bungled or purposeful convictions are all real examples of innocent people imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. The pervasive use of jailhouse snitches, ex parte discussions, losing, hiding or destroying evidence and perjury was mind blowing. At times I had to put away my E-reader, take long breaks from the overwhelming despair and hopelessness of the situations. How could an innocent person not lose hope when faced with a life sentence or death by lethal injection? The tireless persistent work by organizations like the Centurion and other Innocence Projects do amazing work, often for free. Many of the wrongfully convicted cases date back to the seventies, far too many from Texas. I would like to believe systems and people have improved since then, but I’m not oblivious to the issues remaining. I see the news stories like everyone else and wonder what it takes to turn it around. I hope bringing these cases to light make a difference. The current divisive climate of our nation does not leave me with high expectations. I commend the authors for the tremendous amount of work and effort it took to condense these complicated cases into the short story format.
An Advance Reader Copy of “Framed” by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey, was provided by Doubleday, expected publication 10/15/2024, without expectation of compensation. I have no affiliation with the authors or publisher and these are all my own honest personal thoughts and opinions.

Review of Uncorrected eBook File

Here are ten horrific, spellbinding tales of justice denied, of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for decades as a result of discrimination, corruption, professional misconduct, falsified confessions, or botched [or nonexistent] forensics. Each story relates all the facts in great detail, leaving the reader to wonder at how such a travesty could possibly occur.

By turns compelling, infuriating, and heartrending, each story reminds readers that justice is not always served, that the innocent suffer the fate of the guilty, that the process of determining guilt and punishment in our court system is not infallible. Thus, the work of organizations such as Centurion Ministries in seeking to right these grievous wrongs stands as a crucial force in seeking justice for the wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.

This is an easy book to read, but it is an important one that should be on every must-read list.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book from Doubleday Books / Doubleday and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
#Framed #NetGalley

I am a huge John Grishman fan. Nonfiction is my favorite genre, so his book The Innocent Man, as well as the documentary movie by the same name, intrigued me. Now Grisham has partnered with Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurion Ministries, to share the stories of ten innocent people wrongfully convicted.

These powerful, tragic, horrific stories call into question all aspects of our justice system: police, investigators, attorneys, judges, jailhouse snitches, witnesses, and "experts." Many of those who were wrongfully incarcerated continued to maintain their innocence despite agonizingly long years waiting for a response to their appeals.

DNA has helped overturn some wrong convictions, but the large majority of the change needs to occur before a trial even begins.

Highly recommend!

Difficult and sometimes hard to read, Framed clearly shows a need for justice reform in all areas. Books like Framed need to be brought to our attention. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher.

I fascinating at times horrifying look at our legal system.Truly sad that so many innocent people are not treated fairly.A book that gives me a lot to think about and discuss. #netgalley #doubleday

This book is very frightening and will stay with you for a long time. It is almost unbelievable to the lengths that the legal system will go to just close a case at the cost of allowing the real person walk and commit more crimes. I finished the book last night and am still so appalled at what these innocent people were put through. Their lives ruined but never gave up.

How can these judges and prosecutors and yes, even the defense teams live with themselves, knowing they did not do their jobs. It really opens your eyes as to how dirty the system is, just to put CLOSED on a case, no matter what.

While reading this book I have seen 3 cases just this past week in my newspaper where innocent people were finally released after years in prison for crimes they didn't commit, proven by DNA. Such a tragedy of our legal system and these bad apples should be prosecuted themselves, made to serve time just like the innocent people they put there.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey is a compelling and eye-opening exploration of the grave injustices within the criminal justice system. It’s actually infuriating and downright scary that people could be locked up for decades or even executed, despite there being clear evidence that they are innocent.

As a lover of true crime, I was shocked to discover how easily people could be wrongfully imprisoned. The book vividly illustrates the shocking reality of corruption, including prosecutors lying, hiding exculpatory evidence, and building cases on flimsy hunches rather than solid proof. It also reveals law enforcement misconduct, such as subornation of perjury, secret deals with criminals, coercing witnesses into false testimony, and relying on discredited forensic analysts. Misogyny and racial biases further taint the process, which demonstrate how these injustices can occur across racial lines and highlight the pervasive nature of prosecutorial misconduct in the pursuit of convictions.

The book delves into the practice of using jailhouse snitches and false confessions, which have plagued the American criminal system. The book tells us that in nearly 25 percent of DNA exonerations to date, false confessions were coerced, often exacerbated by police deception during interrogations. The book also describes how people, eager to prove their innocence, often mistakenly trust the police, agreeing to polygraph tests that can be manipulated by law enforcement (Seriously, don’t agree to one! Ask for a lawyer).

Among the twenty-one defendants caught in the web of ten wrongful convictions, four landed on death row, two came within days of execution, and tragically, one was executed. The racial makeup of these twenty-one is evenly split, with ten white and eleven Black individuals, highlighting that such injustices can occur across racial lines.

The book reveals that, in some cases, the actual perpetrators were right under the police's noses from the beginning and, in some instances, even became key witnesses for the prosecution. It also covers egregious misconduct, such as reliance on junk science and violation of proper forensic standards. As you read each case, you can tell how pervasive the corruption and blatant disregard for facts or DNA evidence is. The evidence cleared the individuals but those involved in the case chose to ignore it and made excuses to justify why it wasn’t relevant or why it was wrong.

Framed also details the vital work of Centurion Ministries, which have dedicated efforts to uncovering wrongful convictions and securing justice for those wrongfully imprisoned. These organizations, alongside the impactful storytelling in Framed, bring crucial attention to the flaws in the justice system and the real human cost of these injustices. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in justice, human rights, and the sobering realities of the legal system

Thank you to the publisher Double Day Books
for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley

Framed by John Grisham; Jim McCloskey

Summary:
In John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, “the master of the legal thriller” (Associated Press) teams up with Jim McCloskey, “the godfather of the innocence movement” (Texas Monthly), to share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions.

John Grisham is known worldwide for his bestselling novels, but it’s his real-life passion for justice that led to his work with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, the first organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Together they offer an inside look at the many injustices in our criminal justice system.

A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty, there is very little room to prove doubt. These ten true stories shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They take a close look at what leads to wrongful convictions in the first place and the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and corruption in the court system that can make them so hard to reverse.

Impeccably researched and told with page-turning suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of winning freedom when the battle already seems lost and the deck is stacked against you.

Review: 5-star
I don’t give out many 5-star review the book has to be a page turner where I don’t like putting it down. I’ve always been a fan of John Grisham, so it was his name that got me to read the summary of the book to see if it was something I was interested in reading and when I read that I knew Yes, this was then next book I’d read and review. I’ve heard a few stories of people wrongfully convicted and I never understood how it could happen, but John and Jim to such a wonderful job of telling these stories it opened my eyes to this problem we have. Each story was written with dignity to the person or persons involved. They stories were written in such away they engage the reader and draw them in where they don’t want to stop reading. You feel all the emotions and it breaks your heart that there have been way too many people wrongfully convicted and the amount of money and time it takes to free them is something nobody will ever fully understand.

Conclusion:
Would I recommend this book to others YES
Would I buy this book as a gift for someone YES
Would I read other books written by the Authors YES

Framed is a book of true stories by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey about people who were wrongly convicted and either are on Death Row or have already been executed. The cases are haunting in nature. Prosecutors and even judges seem intent on destroying lives when they could make things right. The question keeps coming up in my mind, why would those who are sworn to protect us rather see a murderer free and the wrong person incarcerated? It turns out there are many reasons, not least of which is pressure for a conviction. A few things like skin color and cronyism also appear to be reasons people are or are not convicted.

In more than one of the cases in the book, prosecutors took great pains to not see what any one of us would have known as the guilty party, going so far as to refute DNA evidence rather than admit they were wrong. Evidence is kept from juries and defenses. Jailhouse career criminals testify falsely and are offered deals. Then under oath deny they are getting a deal. Courts turn down a second, third or even fourth opportunity to look at the evidence when all they need to do is look at a brief to see there is a travesty of justice happening. Or when the wrongly incarcerated person is able to get a court to take another look, the same false information is used to again cause a guilty verdict.

The stories are riveting but frustrating to read knowing the people are most likely or definitely not guilty but have suffered so much. Innocent until proven guilty is an important concept and putting aside stereotypes in law is also so important. This book is as well so important to help people see that law enforcement sometimes lie or keep questioning people to force a confession. Once the confession comes, it is hard to continue looking even though the “guilty” person has likely been traumatized by events and essentially being tortured for hours. Many times they just want or NEED it to stop.

I got the opportunity to read this ARC thanks to Netgalley. It was very informative and gave you a lot of information. It kept me interested in what happened next. I was blown away by the amount of wrongfully convicted cases there were, and I'm sure there are even more. That says a lot about our judicial system.

John Grisham, best selling author and Jim McCloskey, founder of Centurian Ministries, recount 10 heartbreaking and frightening stories of people wrongfully convicted of crimes and the battles for their exonerations.

Well written and engrossing, this non fiction book is absolutely chilling with the stories of innocent people who have been condemned, have their lives ruined, and, in some cases, put to death because police, prosecutors, so called medical or mental health professionals get it in their minds that a persn or persons are guilty and have tunnel vision trying to prove it. They depend on lies, deceit, bribing criminals to lie, developing convoluted and impossible theories just to prove they are right. But, they are so very wrong.

One case involved a woman who was doing her laundry ran out briefly to a convenience store where someone had been murdered. When she tries to do her civic duty and calls to be helpful and share what she knows, she ends up being incarcerated and her life ruined. A warning to all. If you are ever called in as a witness or for any other reason involving a crime, ask for an attorney. Don’t worry that it may make you seem guilty. If the authorities have it in their minds that you are, you don’t have a chance. Tell them you have read Framed and don’t want to proceed until your rights are protected.

Thank you, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey for sharing these horrifying and eye opening accounts.

This collection of true stories is as infuriating as it is heartbreaking. It is hard to believe how blatantly our legal system has failed so many innocent people. The fact that it was literally impossible for most of these innocent people to commit the crimes they were imprisoned for committing meant nothing to the prosecutors, investigators and detectives. It will make me second guess even reporting a crime if I ever witness one because apparently that can get you life in prison depending on which detectives and prosecutors are assigned to the case.

Okay, what the heck? Seriously, that's what kept running through my mind the whole time I was reading this book. Learning this information is absolutely appalling. It is seriously scary how lae enforcement, prosecutors and judges can act to make their original story work. Stories of profound corruption. And, why? The fact that someone can continue to push for a guilty verdict on someone who is clearly innocent is unconscionable. It really makes you wonder how many innocent people that are in jail, or even death row. This book is going to stick with me for awhile.

Thank you to Net Galley and Doubleday Publishing for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.