Title:

Framed

Author:

John Grisham & Jim McCloskey

Category:

Non-fiction

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

August 15, 2025

lthough I am rating Framed as a 5 star book, I strongly recommend that you do not read it. The subtitle of the book is Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions. There are 10 chapters, each one focuses on someone(s) wrongfully convicted of a horrendous crime. Five of the chapters were written by John Grisham and the other five were penned by Jim McCloskey (he is head of the Centurion Ministries, which seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted prisoners.) All ten of the chapters are extremely troubling. I honestly had to force myself to read the final two chapters, I was already so depressed, enraged and disturbed by that point that I didn't want to read any further. And the two stories told at the end of the book are just devastating to read. Chapter 10 ends with an innocent man executed in Texas.

TV dramas have led us to believe that the police departments in this country are looking for the guilty party to solve each crime, but this is not the case. Police departments are actually looking to simply close cases, and if they have to put an innocent person on death row, then so be it. These are not stories about police detectives making an error, these are not examples of mistaken identity, nor honest confusion. Reading these cases, you will see the police lie, suppress exonerating evidence, intimidate witnesses, plant stories in "jailhouse informants", and refuse to consider the possibility that they have the wrong suspect. It is hard for any human to admit that they have made a mistake, and apparently some people in these justice departments will go to any length rather than admit that they made a mistake, Judges, district attorneys, police detectives - all will allow people that they know are innocent to be condemned to life in prison or worse. It is shocking to read.

There is no way to sugarcoat how awful the evil behavior is of these souless men.

Innocent people had their lives destroyed, some were only exonerated after decades in prison.

The real criminals go free. The police simply will not go after the actual perpetrator once they have decided they have nabbed the villain - even, in one case, if the actual perpetrator, confesses to the murder, tells the police where the gun was hidden, and describes details of the crime scene. The police still will not let the innocent man be freed.

None of the judges, prosecutors or police detectives who use these illegal methods to ruin innocent lives ever suffers any consequences for their crimes. Never. Ever.

Even though, in the end, these ten victims are shown to be innocent, I am quite skeptical that the evil police departments that prosecuted them only used these unjust tactics on only the cases described herein. I think it is far more likely that there are many other prisoners languishing in jail, convicted by the same methods these evil police departments used to send the innocent to prison.

When the police interrogate you, they are allowed to lie. They can say that DNA implicates you. They can say that witnesses have identified you. They can say anything, and will keep saying it for hours until you are so exhausted and confused that you will sign a confession. Never talk to the police. Knowing you are innocent, you may think talking to the police is something that good citizens do, volunteering information to help themn solve crimes. The police will twist whatever they can and might end up blaming you.

I have read Just Mercy and The Sing Sing Files, and those were devastating enough, but Framed describes such evil, disturbing behavior that I have lost all faith in our justice departments. It is hard for me to fathom that this kind of police work happens in the United States of America. Do not read this really good, really upsetting, book.