When John Grisham read the obituary of Ronald Williamson in the papers early last year, he realized he had come across a story of riveting proportions. It was a story of failed dreams, madness, rape and murder, a botched trial, a death sentence and a 12 year fight to win justice for a wronged man....

Ronald Williamson was a local hero when a young man in his home town of Ada, Oklahoma. A fabulously talented baseball player, he excelled at college and was set to become a national sports star when injury wrecked his career. Mental illness and alcoholism followed his return to Ada, a burned-out shell of a man. While in prison serving a short sentence for a petty felony, a fellow prisoner alleged that he had heard Williamson confess to the unsolved rape and murder of a local bar girl. Denied drugs to control his psychiatric problems, given a blind attorney who had never defended a criminal case, Williamson stood no chance in court and was sentenced to death.One of the greatest mistrials in American judicial history became one of the greatest single fights for justice of any convicted man. 5 days before his execution, Williamson was given a stay and shortly after completely pardoned. John Grisham has been consumed by the Williamson story, researching every detail of the nerve jangling drama of Williamson's trial and deathwatch. A court room drama and a race against time, John Grisham's first work of non-fiction is as compelling as any of his novels, and will be compared to Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood."