Framed

Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions

By: John Grisham, Jim McCloskey

Narrated by: Jim McCloskey, Michael Beck, John Grisham

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, “the master of the legal thriller” (Associated Press) teams up with Jim McCloskey, “the godfather of the innocence movement” (Texas Monthly), to share ten harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions.

“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, author of Killers of the Flower Moon

John Grisham is known worldwide for his bestselling novels, but it’s his real-life passion for justice that led to his work with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, the first organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Together they offer an inside look at the many injustices in our criminal justice system.

A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty, there is very little room to prove doubt. These ten true stories shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families, and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free. In each of the stories, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey recount the dramatic hard-fought battles for exoneration. They take a close look at what leads to wrongful convictions in the first place and the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony, and corruption in the court system that can make them so hard to reverse.

Impeccably researched and told with binge-worthy suspense as only John Grisham can deliver, Framed is the story of winning freedom when the battle already seems lost and the deck is stacked against you.

* This audiobook edition is accompanied by a downloadable PDF which includes A Note on Sources and Acknowledgments from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 John Grisham and Jim McCloskey (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The flaws and lethal errors that condemn innocent people in the American legal system have caused too many for too long to needlessly suffer. Jim McCloskey and John Grisham are towering figures in law and literature shining an urgent, compelling, and critically important light on the heartbreaking wrongful convictions that compromise our legal system and remain a national tragedy.”—Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy

“Framed should come with a warning label: Be prepared never to look at the justice system the same way again. In this collection of ten shocking wrongful-conviction cases, each stranger than fiction, you’ll come away outraged by how easily so many prosecutions can and do run off the rails: investigative tunnel vision, coached witnesses, compromised jailhouse snitches, junk science, cultural bias, crooked prosecutors, and even biased judges. How grateful we all should be to John Grisham and Jim McCloskey—for raising the alarm and crusading for true justice.”—Robert Kolker, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road

“In this essential collaboration, John Grisham and Jim McCloskey vividly demonstrate the need to run just as fast, if not faster, to exonerate the innocent as to punish the guilty. In ten shocking true stories, they not only convey the devastating impact of wrongful convictions on each affected person but also sound the alarm for all of us—there but for the grace of God, go I. These are remarkable stories of injustice that need to be told. And retold.”—Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney and New York Times bestselling author of Doing Justice

Excellent - Scarry

The "Framed" presented 10 well written synopsis of men that were wrongfully convicted. It is acarry to think of such corrupt police departments and prosocuters in this day and age. I give cudos to the innocence project and all the men and women who donate their time to help get wrongfully convicted people out of jail.

Truly Innocent

Thank you to Jim McCloskey and John Grisham to bringing to light the innocent project. The long persistent fight to prove innocence. Gathering evidence overlooked and discarded documents to set the convicted free is commendable. Despicable how corrupt some in law enforcement are. Thank you again for setting some free.

Great Stories Well Written and Superb Narration

Each story is so well portrayed all true and gripping to realize innocent people being railroaded because of someone’s career obsessions. The scales of justice were wrongly tipped too often and unfortunately this is likely going on today in many jurisdictions. Highly recommended this awesome read!

Great short listens in a book

I enjoyed listening to the short stories and then picking back up with another one a few days later. Very convicting stories that will leave you questioning every small town law enforcement conviction.

Great story telling!

While the cases were so very sad and disturbing, the storylines and narrations were superb!

Beyond an imperfect system

The Ameican criminal justice system is not perfect, and some people get it wrong, but this book painfully illustrates the deeply rooted corruption that many find impossible to believe. It disgusts me that those in positions of power and control would rather save face, than save a life. Framed gives life to an issue that may only be known by those affected and those fighting so desperately to save their lives. Thank you to the authors for raising awareness - it can happen to anyone!

Powerful & Infuriating

Well researched, well structured, and well written, this book evokes all sorts of emotions. Although upsetting in a variety of ways, it is an important collection of cases that illuminates serious and systemic corruption, bias, and downright stupidity in certain areas of the criminal justice system.

the facts in each case were laid out to perfection, and easy to follow

perfection telling stories of the most unbelievable cases! a very sad and eye-opening events that not a lot of people know or care to know about.

Believable but unbelievable

It’s unreal to me that in these United States of America we have a justice system where minorities, poor people, and uneducated people can and have been actually killed by the government. Some people who are staunch believers in the death penalty will always start naming horrific crimes as their reasons for believing in it. They’ll ask “Do you want someone who rapes children amongst the rest us?” or “Do you think serial killers and habitual rapists can be rehabilitated?” Of course they always ask “What about if it was one of YOUR children?” As much as I try not to engage in these debates since they rarely end well, I’ve always had the same responses…”No, of course not. Who would want people like that out and about? They should be locked up. Most should never see the light of day again”. But I have two issues with the death penalty. First, ask yourself why we instituted it in the first place and why we’re still using it today. Of course to keep dangerous folks away from the rest of us but prison do that. Why the death penalty? Most folks think it’s to deter crime. “Maybe folks will think twice about perpetrating said crime if they know they can be killed for it!” At least that’s how my buddies who strongly believe in it explain it to me. The problem with that explanation is that it’s not based on fact. If, you’re one of those folks who don’t believe in science and statistics, etc. then please ignore this next part. Studies have shown over and over again that the death penalty does not actually deter crime. Not at all. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up. So, if it doesn’t deter crime and prisons are perfectly capable of keeping the bad guys away, and we’ve proven that we have and will continue to make errors in judgment where guilt and innocence is concerned, help me to understand why the death penalty is still used in about half of our states. I said I had two issues with the death penalty. The first is that there’s no proof it actually serves the purpose for which our forefathers thought it would and I just mentioned the second one a sentence or two back. What about error?? As long as human beings (jurors, judges, prosecutors, cops, etc.) are involved in our justice system there will always be errors. Because the last time I checked human beings come with lots of baggage and biases and are prone to make errors from time to time. Killing someone is not reversible (last time I checked) so why not err on the side of caution and lock them up just in case….on the off chance….a minority, or poor person, or economically depressed person happens to be convicted and sentenced to death who is actually innocent. Perhaps the day will come (much as it did with DNA analysis) when we’ll be able to scientifically prove that someone on death row is actually innocent. In response to the issue of errors I’ve heard “We only have a small insignificant error rate if we even have one at all.” “We have the best criminal justice system in the world. You just have to take the good with the bad because sometimes mistakes will happen.” “Can’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” Those types of statements are concerning of course so I typically just say something snarky like “Here’s to hoping it’s never your baby!” So, if we can solve the problem that the death people was meant to solve (punish the offender and keep the rest of the public safe) by locking folks up and since we KNOW we have and will continue to incarcerate and kill innocents, why do we still have any staunch death penalty advocates at all? I wish I knew. I do know that Grisham and Beck did a superb job of making a tough subject easy to listen to. I’m hoping someone who either doesn’t know much about the subject or someone who thinks they do but really doesn’t will read the book. Even if it doesn’t immediately change their mind, I suspect it will cause them to think and that’s when change begins. By the way, Jim McCloskey has become one of my absolute favorite narrators. This is not a funny subject but I’m sorry he made me laugh at times. He’s great in the other Grisham books also. This trio should definitely collaborate again on something fictional or nonfiction. Great team.

Blatant corruption

Overall I liked the book however I was constantly disturbed by the behavior of law enforcement.