Framed is a non-fiction book by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey, revealing ten shocking cases of wrongful conviction. It features incredible true stories of injustice and exoneration, perfect for readers interested in legal drama and true crime.
Ten wrongful conviction cases
Twenty-one innocent people
Framed tells ten stories with a truth more shocking than fiction
John Grisham, the master of the legal thriller, teams up with Jim McCloskey, who has dedicated his life to exonerating innocent people, to uncover stories that shine an astonishing light on miscarriages of justice. All the cases in this book are simply extraordinary. And all are true.
Joe Bryan suffered the unbearable tragedy of his wife's murder, only to be tried and found guilty of the crime himself - despite being 120 miles away at the time it was committed.
Clarence Brandley spent nine years on Death Row, coming to within six days of execution, before new evidence cleared him of all charges.
And in the case of the Norfolk Four, police and prosecutors continued to arrest innocent people until not one but four men were behind bars.
Impeccably researched and told with page-turning conviction, in Framed, these cases are finally laid bare. Most importantly, they show how truth can prevail and how freedom can be won when all seems lost.
'Each of these stories is told with astonishing power. They are packed with human drama, with acts of shocking villainy and breathtaking courage. But these are more than just gripping true stories - they are a clarion call for reforming the tragic flaws in our criminal justice system' David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Other Information: Since The Firm in 1991, John Grisham has published a number one bestseller every year. His books have been translated into 45 languages and have sold over 350 million copies worldwide. Nine have been adapted to film, including The Firm, The Pelican Brief and A Time To Kill.
His first work of non-fiction, The Innocent Man, was adapted into a six-part Netflix docuseries; his second, Framed, written with Jim McCloskey, highlights his work with the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, two national organisations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted.
He is the two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was distinguished with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.
John lives on a farm in central Virginia.
In 1980 Jim McCloskey decided to leave the corporate world and enter the ministry. While a student chaplain at the Trenton State Prison he met George De Los Santos, a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder. Convinced of his innocence, McCloskey took on De Los Santos's case. His efforts led to Dos Los Santos's exoneration and release from prison in 1983. In the same year McCloskey founded Centurion Ministries, the first non-profit organisation in the world dedicated to freeing individuals who are wrongfully incarcerated. Since then Centurion has been responsible for 70 releases of men and women serving life or death sentences for crimes they did not commit.
McCloskey's memoir, When Truth is All You Have, was published in 2020 with a foreword from John Grisham.
He retired from Centurion in 2015.
