Ghost of the Innocent Man
A True Story of Trial and Redemption
by Benjamin Rachlin
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Pub Date Aug 15 2017 | Archive Date Sep 15 2017
Description
During the last three decades, more than two thousand American citizens have been wrongfully convicted. Ghost of the Innocent Man brings us one of the most dramatic of those cases and provides the clearest picture yet of the national scourge of wrongful conviction and of the opportunity for meaningful reform.
When the final gavel clapped in a rural southern courtroom in the summer of 1988, Willie J. Grimes, a gentle spirit with no record of violence, was shocked and devastated to be convicted of first-degree rape and sentenced to life imprisonment. Here is the story of this everyman and his extraordinary quarter-century-long journey to freedom, told in breathtaking and sympathetic detail, from the botched evidence and suspect testimony that led to his incarceration to the tireless efforts to prove his innocence and the identity of the true perpetrator. These were spearheaded by his relentless champion, Christine Mumma, a cofounder of North Carolina's Innocence Inquiry Commission. That commission -- unprecedented at its inception in 2006 -- remains a model organization unlike any other in the country, and one now responsible for a growing number of exonerations.
With meticulous, prismatic research and pulse-quickening prose, Benjamin Rachlin presents one man's tragedy and triumph. The jarring and unsettling truth is that the story of Willie J. Grimes, for all its outrage, dignity, and grace, is not a unique travesty. But through the harrowing and suspenseful account of one life, told from the inside, we experience the full horror of wrongful conviction on a national scale. Ghost of the Innocent Man is both rare and essential, a masterwork of empathy. The book offers a profound reckoning not only with the shortcomings of our criminal justice system but also with its possibilities for redemption.
"Remarkable . . . Captivating . . . Rachlin is a skilled storyteller."-New York Times Book Review
"A gripping legal-thriller mystery . . . Profoundly elevates good-cause advocacy to greater heights -- to where innocent lives are saved."-USA Today
"A crisply written page turner."-NPR
Advance Praise
"A crisply written page turner . . . Rachlin painstakingly renders Grimes's life behind bars . . . Deploying the same precision with which he documents Grimes's prison life, Rachlin recounts the arduous and complex work to move the wheels of justice . . . Read Ghost of the Innocent Man to follow its twisted path . . . but don't read for the gripping story alone . . . The National Registry of Exonerations calculates that over 18,000 years have been lost by innocent people serving time . . . Shouldn't we be better than this?" —NPR
"Ghost of the Innocent Man is nothing less than a masterpiece of investigative reporting and virtuosic writing. It is a book that brilliantly substantiates society's elemental promise to its citizenry—that we not have our freedoms wrongly taken from us. Benjamin Rachlin's book is Greek drama brought into our own times. It will change readers' lives, I think, and inspire them. It's that good." —Richard Ford
"An absorbing true-crime saga . . . Rachlin's debut combines a gripping legal drama with a penetrating exposé of the shoddy investigative and trial standards nationwide . . . His narrative offers a moving evocation of faith under duress." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Ghost of the Innocent Man is deeply researched and, more importantly, deeply felt. For both reasons and many more, it is a profound meditation on the human condition and a vital contribution to the literature. The endurance and fortitude of Willie Grimes surpass those of any athlete or explorer. The passages in which Christine Mumma assembles lawmen and legislatures of all different creeds to help resolve an urgent national crisis should make us all consider these current times as not just toxic and tragic but filled with the possibility of hope and redemption. In the end, Benjamin Rachlin takes us through the justice system in all its immutability and shows us the light we can wield should we so choose." —Jeff Hobbs, author of the New York Times bestseller The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace
"An absorbing story . . . In his moving first book, Rachlin, with confidence and care, relays both the terrifying personal costs and complex legalities, so dependent on fallible humans, of wrongful conviction and imprisonment." —Booklist
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780316311496 |
| PRICE | $27.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 400 |
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Featured Reviews
Reviewer 284405
Ghost of the Innocent Man by Benjamin Rachlin is one of the best books I have read this year. In 1988 Willie Grimes, a man with no violent record, is convicted of raping a 69 year old woman and sentenced to life in prison. This happened despite the fact several witnesses gave him an alibi for the time of the crime. During the time he was in prison, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission (NCIIC) was formed. This book tells the story of both. Mr. Rachlin did an excellent job of switching between the two and then combining them into the final resolution of Mr. Grimes' story.
Even though this book saddened and at times frightened me, it is well worth reading. I was touched my Mr. Grimes' continued push for justice. I was also hopeful due to the continued work by the NCIIC to seek the truth. Having a person wrongly imprisoned puts a black spot on the justice system of the United States. The story was handled with great care to all involved. I cannot recommend it enough.
Reviewer 29987
Injustices with a quiet giant, Willie J Grimes.
Unsettling on its revelations, informative on the history of injustices.
Will Grimes will stay with the reader for some time for his patience against the injustice.
This work will have you ruminate on the ones that have been sentenced to death innocents unjustly lost.
They may be some respite in knowing Grimes was one of the lucky ones that was freed eventually.
The life to and fro from prison to prison, the inadequate representations and care, and lack of chances of parole despite the weak evidences against him.
The lack of proper due care or maybe even due respect to process evidences, all things preceding and after his arrest.
Race could come into this failure, but the lawyers representing him had two others, two white males, who where also exonerated after some time of incarceration also mentioned in this book in not so much detail, this book is more about Grimes’s sphere.
Various chapters walk the world around Grimes, his incarceration, his poverty and the pursuit of truth and freedom.
There is also some telling on how the North Carolina's Innocence Inquiry Commission was formed and its first few successful exonerations which started the cogs working for some justice upon a part of this earth.
A well done representation and informative investigative writing on a tragic case of innocent charged as guilty.
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