While you wait for Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions

This month, we have some long hold lists on several nonfiction titles. As someone who has recently come to love nonfiction reading, I find that very exciting.

I used to believe nonfiction stories based on real-life events and facts were all boring and hard to understand. However, that just isn’t true! There are so many nonfiction stories that read like the imaginative novels we find in the fiction wing and love so dearly.

John Grisham, a prolific legal thriller writer who is typically found in the fiction shelves, recently released his second true crime book with co-author Jim McCloskey. Framed: Astonishing True Stores of Wrongful Convictions shares 10 different accounts of individuals who were wrongfully convicted within the United States criminal justice system. 

Grisham and McCloskey’s examination of these true exoneration stories display the difficult battles wrongfully convicted people face during their journeys to justice and how flaws in the justice system can change innocent people's lives forever. Each story reads like a page-turning suspense novel, but in this book the unfolding events actually happened and are not just an possibility from the authors' mind. 

While you wait for your hold on Framed, here are a few other true stories dealing with individuals who have been wrongfully convicted. Make sure to check out Grisham's first nonfiction title The Innocent Man, as well as the booklist below where I share both nonfiction and fiction titles related to wrongful convictions. 

Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solitary Confinement. My Story of Transformation and Hope by Albert Woodfox 

I read this hopeful and heartbreaking story several years ago, but I still think about it. Woodfox was wrongfully convicted of the murder of a prison guard while he was serving a sentence for armed robbery in Louisiana State Penitentiary. Following the conviction for murder, Woodfox was forced into solitary confinement for the next 43 years. He endured horrific conditions inside a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell. 

Though Woodfox had a troublesome upbringing that led him down a dark path of committing crimes, it did not justify him being locked up for a crime he didn’t commit. Despite all the horrors Woodfox faced in prison that could have easily let him succumb to complete darkness, he found a way to keep hold of his sense of humanity and rebuild his hope for the future.  

“In beautifully poetic language that starkly contrasts the world he’s describing, Woodfox awes and inspires. He illustrates the power of the human spirit, while illuminated the dire need for prison reform in the United States. Solitary is a beautiful blend of passion, terror, and hope that everyone needs to experience.”―Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Bone Deep: Untangling the Betsy Faria Murder Case by Charles Bosworth and Joel Schwartz 

If you regularly consumes true crime content, you may have a sense of familiarity with this story. It was a major true crime case that captured the attention of millions as it unfolded. 

In Dec 2011 Betsy Faria was found murdered in her home. Her husband, Russel Faria, became the prime suspect and was convicted of her murder. Russel was innocent, but Betsy’s friend, Pam Hupp, wasn’t. Russel knew he had to fight the big fight to get true justice for his wife. 

Bone Deep recounts Russel’s initial conviction trial missteps, plus the appeal trial. Faria’s defense attorney, Joel Schwartz, weighed in on the book as co-author.  

The failures of the justice system exposed in Bone Deep left me feeling unsettling. Sometimes you can’t trust those closest to you, but Russel’s story shows it’s not always the husband who commits the crime, despite what we may be led to believe. 

“Bone Deep takes readers through the perfect storm of miscalculations and missteps that led to an innocent man’s conviction—and recounts Schwartz’s successful battle to have that conviction overturned. Written with Russ Faria’s cooperation, and filled with chilling new revelations and previously undisclosed evidence, this is the story of what can happen when police, prosecutor, judge, and jury all fail in their duty to protect the innocent—and let a killer get away with murder.  This book is an explosive, insider’s account of a case that continues to fascinate the public...”–Mystery Tribune
 

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton 

Alabama 1985 – Anthony Ray Hinton’s identity is mistaken, and he is charged with two counts of capital murder despite being an innocent man. 

Hinton was sure the mistake would be quickly resolved. However, when reality hit and he was sentenced to the electric chair, his hope of a future where he could still freely roam the world was gone.  

For the first several years of his time on death row, Hinton suffered in silent anger, upset at the loss of the free life he was meant to live. Eventually Hinton began to accept the place he was forced into and decided to make the best of the situation. 

For the last 27 years of Hinton’s three decades on death row, he became a beacon of hope and humor that sustained both him and his fellow inmates during their darkest times. The Sun Does Shine is a story of finding something to live for even in the darkest of places and times. Justice was finally reached and an innocent man was freed. 

“No one I have represented has inspired me more than Anthony Ray Hinton and I believe his compelling and unique story will similarly inspire our nation and readers all over the world.” - Bryan Stevenson, New York Times Bestselling Author, Just Mercy

Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted edited by Laura Caldwell and Leslie S. Klinger

Like Framed, Anatomy of Innocence is a complication of several true stories of individuals who were wrongfully convicted and eventually exonerated of crimes.  

Several well-known authors including Lee Child, Jan Burke, and Sara Parestsky among many more met with exonerees to help share their stories from imprisonment to release.  

Kirk Bloodsworth, the first man to be exonerated from death row with the help of DNA evidence, tells his story. Several other men and women who faced similar challenges in their struggle for justice are also interviewed.  

At the core of each story exists a sense of hope, which the exonerees never let go of while imprisoned. This book is sure to get your attention and make you question how so many trials ended up with wrongful convictions. 

"Filled with the triumphs and tragedies of the wrongfully convicted, Anatomy of Innocence is an important book. Every story barrels at us and should both challenge and scare us. They are haunting, harrowing and hopeful."― Michael Connelly, best-selling author of the Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller series