Ghost of the Innocent Man

A True Story of Trial and Redemption

De: Benjamin Rachlin

Narrado por: Ron Butler

A gripping account of one man's long road to freedom that will forever change how we understand our criminal justice system.

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Remarkable . . . A captivating, intimate profile of one man's stubbornly persistent efforts to convince others of his innocence . . . Rachlin is a skilled storyteller . . . With understatement and painstaking reporting, he fully succeeds in his rich, intimate portrait of Grimes."—Alex Kotlowitz, New York Times Book Review

"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?"—Martha Anne Toll, NPR

"Intriguing . . . A gripping legal-thriller mystery . . . This is a story that profoundly elevates good-cause advocacy to greater heights-to where innocent lives are saved . . . This empathetic book tells the story of the beginnings of the movement to right a national crisis of wrongful convictions-and of one of its first victories . . . A fine piece of investigative journalism."—Don Oldenburg, USA Today

"Rachlin vividly describes the anguish that would well up in Grimes again and again during his twenty-four years behind bars . . . In Rachlin's skilled hands, Grimes's story triggers indignation but also confers solace, Grimes [himself] being one of the solacing features."—Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post

"Dramatic and eye-opening . . . A hopeful story . . . By showing us that the specter of wrongful convictions involves flesh-and-blood human beings, Ghost of the Innocent Man confronts us with the cruelest injustices of the criminal justice system, even as it also holds out hope for a more humane future."—San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the most powerful aspects of Ghost of the Innocent Man is its portrait of time behind bars--the transfers, delays, and letter-writing campaigns that form the scaffolding of lives in limbo . . . A story so important and infuriating it is hard to look away."—Claudia Rowe, Seattle Times

"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

Great, informative audiobook

I’ve come away changed by what I’ve heard. Thank you for this work. And thank you to KY Gov. Bevin for the recommendation.

Fantastic!

An incredible journey. You will be outraged, sad, overjoyed and informed. Very food listen.

THIS SHOULD BE A NETFLIX FILM..

This books speaks to the commitment of humanity to right wrongs. It takes a village to bring about reform

Tearjerker

I was not expecting the tears. I was sending my friends my recommendation as early as chapter 6.

the story

Awesome story. Was a good read. Hard to believe that in this day that we still have far to go

Could have been half as long.

This is an okay book. It's way too long and redundant. It's interesting how this case helped change the system but gets caught up in the same details over and over.