Conviction: A Novel

Download Description

In his acclaimed career as a perennial bestselling author, Richard North Patterson has established himself as one of our most important voices in fiction and a keeper of the American conscience. He consistently writes novels that are intensely dramatic and deeply thought provoking. Now, in Conviction, Patterson tackles one of the most emotional and complex of all legal debates: When, if ever, does the state have the right to exact the ultimate punishment–and is the death penalty a crime unto itself?

Fifty-nine days. That’s how long Rennell Price has to live–after spending fifteen years on death row for the horrifying sexual assault and murder of a girl whose body was found floating in San Francisco Bay. But attorney Terri Paget, who has fought her own way out of hopelessness and abuse, has dedicated her life to fighting for people like Rennell Price. This time, Terri has a client she believes may actually be innocent, which means that an unpunished killer may still be free.

“I didn’t do that little girl” is all Rennell Price has ever said in his own defense. In a trial, Rennell, along with his older brother, Payton, was found guilty of the heinous crime, and the conviction has been upheld through one appeal after another. But as Terri spends time with Rennell and re-creates the events that put him on death row–beginning with the first minutes of the police investigation–she starts to understand the forces that shaped Rennell and the reason he has never been able to defend himself adequately.

As Terri prepares for a last appeal, she gets a new weapon for her battle–fresh evidence suggesting that another man, not Rennell, helped Payton commit the atrocity. But the grim machinery of capital punishment is already in motion, involving precedent and politics reaching from California to the highest court in the nation. As more people are drawn into Terri’s last-ditch battle, and as agendas and personalities clash while time is running out for Rennell Price, this much is clear: The serious doubts about Rennell’s guilt may not be enough to save him.

Conviction raises issues of ethics, political expediency, and personal trauma that will shake readers to their core. For here, in a novel of vivid characters on both sides of the law and profound tension on every page, Patterson illuminates the mysterious precincts between justice and truth–where the fate of one man involves not only his own life and the lives he has affected but the moral life of a nation.

Customer Reviews:

Promising but ultimately preaching and biased.......2007-04-29

This book started out with a good deal of promise in the first third, but ended up falling far short of my expectations.

The story revolves around a family of lawyers who take up the case of Rennell Price, who was sentenced to death along with his brother Payton, for murdering a young girl. Price has only a few weeks left until his execution as the lawyers try to find a way to save his life, believing he is innocent of the crime. Their case rests on three claims - the first that the Price may be completely innocent based on an 11th hour confession of his brother and co-defendant, made only days before his own execution. The second is that even if guilty, the Price is mentally retarded, and therefore not subject to the death penalty under recent case law from the US Supreme Court. The third is that the Price received inadequate legal representation due to the fact his attorney at the time of his trial was a cocaine addict who was using the occasion of the trial to take the Price's guardian, his grandmother, for all she had in order to fuel his cocaine habit instead of providing a legal defense.

The book starts out very strong. The case that the lawyers must make is a tough one, and the author does a good job of presenting issues which should make death penalty supporters and opponents alike think about some very tough questions. What is the standard for mental retardation with respect to excluding an inmate from the death penalty on that basis? What is the standard for adequate or competent trial counsel? Most intriguing, what is the standard of proof for reversing a guilty verdict? Is it as little as introducing a reasonable doubt and thereby negating the reasonable doubt standard of proof required at trial? Or is it the other extreme, with the burden of proof now on the convicted to prove innocence beyond a reasonable doubt? Should the smallest prospect of exonerating evidence be enough to stay an execution, even one several years coming, because of the finality of the death penalty? And in all this, where does the people and victim's requirement for justice fit in?

Once these issues are raised, we expect to hear these arguments pored over, explored, and debated in heated legal battles. This is where the book falls flat. The author tries, but this never occurs because of the author's prejudices.

The author is clearly an anti-death penalty activist, and this ideology is evident throughout the book. About a third of the way through the book, we are subjected to a preachy lecture on all the reasons the death penalty is a bad thing as told through the viewpoint of the protagonists. From then on, the characters are lumped into categories - the anti-death penalty crowd who are portrayed and thoughtful, feeling moderates who are seeking justice, and the pro-death penalty crowd who are portrayed as blood-thirsty, callous ideologues who only care about winning and have no care or compassion for the condemned. The author's personal opinions prevent him from creating interesting, nuianced characters. Instead all the characters become uninteresting personifications of the stereyotypical opinions surrounding this issue.

Even the far left Ninth Circuit Court is portrayed as a pillar of judicial light among the incompetent and uncaring courts of the land.

The book further devolves into an virtual editorial on the politics of the day. Although the disclaimer in the front reads that this is a book of fiction and that any resemblance to real life is coincidental, the "coincidental" resemblances to real life are so obvious it's laughable. We have a California Governor who is facing a recall election with a "tough guy movie star" waiting in the wings (Grey Davis and Arnold Schwartzenegger?). The book (finished in 2004) contemplates a Kerry victory in the 2004 Presidential election and his subsequent appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court and to be Chief Justice. The name of the fictional president is Kerry Killcannon. It's also painfully obvious that the fictional Supreme Court is modeled on the Supreme Court of the time, with the evil right-wing death monger named Anthony Fini (Antonin Scalia) as well as a black justice who is appointed despite many other black jurists of more accomplishment, and who blindly follows Fini (Clarence Thomas).

This obvious prejudice of the author prevents him from arguing the pro-death penalty stance effectively at all. His right-wing characters are so one-dimensional and dull that there is no intellectually honest dialog or argument.

The author goes to great pains to paint the protagonists (and by extension himself) as genuine, caring people who are genuinely interested in justice rather than left-wing zealots. However, the true colors come shining through. Rennell Price's case for innocence revolves around a confession made by his brother, Payton mere hours before his execution. In it, Payton claims that a man named Eddie Fleet, not Rennell, murdered the girl with Payton. Our lawyers go after Fleet, and after finding him, ask the state to grant him immunity in order to compel him to testify about his part in the murder and Rennell Price's innocence. When price refuses, the lawyers begin investigating Fleet and find substantial evidence that he is a pedophile. Yet, they still petition the state to grant him immunity. Clearly, they are less concerned with justice for Fleet and his victims than they are getting their client off death row.

A book with great potential whose subject matter was let down by an author whose own prejudices got the best of him.

Hard to review without giving away the end, but I'll do my best.......2007-03-29

After I finished Patterson's last book on gun control (Balance of Power) and felt like I had been attending a lecture, I wasn't sure I would read any more of his books. I had always liked his legals thrillers, but I didn't like the preachy quality in Balance of Power. I was pleasantly surprised by the first 1/2 to 2/3 of Conviction. Although it's a derisive issue - death penalty - and there is no question on which side of the debate Patterson falls, I thought the plot was intriguing and engaging.

Then the case gets to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and it becomes a law school class. Having been through law school myself, I didn't enjoy the flashback to those days nor did I find it particularly interesting. The same was true as the case made it's way through the Supreme Court and the narrative completley forgot the main characters back in San Francisco. Although a non-fiction book about the inner workings of the Supreme Court might be interesting, a fiction book with this much legal detail (accurate or not) is tedious.

I won't say how it ends, but it does seem to end rather abruptly. The story lags for a long time in the court system and then just ends in a few pages.

I hope that Patterson eventually gets back to what he really does well - legal thrillers without all the legal education and soap box oration.

Very technical.......2006-08-28

The plot line was very similar to John Grisham's The Chamber, only this book was much more technical - lots more legal jargon. I had to skim parts because I was getting bored trying to wade through all of it. And speaking of legal jargon, the main female character was explaining legal concepts to her stepson that he should have learned on day one of law school! I realize that is the author's "tool" to explain those concepts to the reader, but it was hard for me to think it was credible that the character would not already know those things. I also think this book may be part of a series? I feel like I was missing lots of backstory and character development. But I don't know, So, it was good, but The Chamber was definately a more suspensful and character driven book.

A LONG, interesting read..........2006-07-24

Although I enjoyed the book as a whole, it was too long, too didactic, too polemical, and too demanding to serve as anything other than a read I had to totally focus on. The first mistake I made was bringing it to the Ocean with me for a week of R&R with my wife and children. The second mistake was to pick this book without the understanding that the author was taking a position on a controversial subject and that I happened to agree with him on the matter already.

This books isn't for you if you're looking for something quick, fast, energetic and which can be put down and picked up at various points.

This book might not be for you if you already have a very good understanding of the legal system relating to the death penalty.

Liberal with a capital "L".......2006-07-21

I understand that the death penalty is a divisive issue, but ultimately, pro or con, no one wants an innocent person put to death. In this book, Mr. Patterson seemed to me to equate the support of the death penalty to a support of wrongful death. I felt the story was woven in such a way as to SCREAM that there is no true justice in our legal system, and as such, we simply cannot allow the death penalty to stand. I was interested in reading a carefully woven tale, but instead got caught up in an op-ed piece. Personally, I prefer not to spend my money purchasing what I believe to be fiction, only to find out it is a cleverly wrapped soapbox.

Wilkie Collins's The Dead Alive: The Novel, the Case, and Wrongful Convictions

Average customer rating:

Wilkie Collins's The Dead Alive: The Novel, the Case, and Wrongful Convictions
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Police Procedurals | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Dead Secret (Oxford World's Classics)
Poor Miss Finch (Oxford World's Classics)
Basil (Oxford World's Classics)
My Lady's Money
$A Rogue\'s Life$ A Rogue\'s Life

ASIN: 0810122944

Book Description

On the evidence of The Dead Alive, Scott Turow writes in his foreword that Wilkie Collins might well be the first author of a legal thriller. Here is the lawyer out of sorts with his profession; the legal process gone awry; even a touch of romance to soften the rigors of the law. And here, too, recast as fiction, is the United States' first documented wrongful conviction case. Side by side with the novel, this book presents the real-life legal thriller Collins used as his model-the story of two brothers, Jesse and Stephen Boorn, sentenced to death in Vermont in 1819 for the murder of their brother-in-law, and belatedly exonerated when their "victim" showed up alive and well in New Jersey in 1820.

Rob Warden, one of the nation's most eloquent and effective advocates for the wrongly convicted, reconsiders the facts of the Boorn case for what they can tell us about the systemic flaws that produced this first known miscarriage of justice-flaws that continue to riddle our system of justice today. A tale of false confessions and jailhouse snitches, of evidence overlooked, and justice more blinkered than blind, the Boorns' story reminds us of the perennial nature of the errors at the heart of American jurisprudence-and of the need to question and correct a system that regularly condemns the innocent.

Download Description

For my part, I did the little I could to make myself useful. With the silent sanction of Mr. Meadowcroft and his daughter, I went to Narrabee, and secured the best legal assistance for the defense which the town could place at my disposal. This done, there was no choice but to wait for news of Ambrose, and for the examination before the magistrate which was to follow. I shall pass over the misery in the house during the interval of expectation; no useful purpose could be served by describing it now. Let me only say that Naomi's conduct strengthened me in the conviction that she possessed a noble nature.

Average customer rating:

Convictions: A Novel of the Sixties
Taffy Cannon
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0688043437

Religious Conviction: A Novel by the Author of Expert Testimony

Average customer rating:

Great Insights, Great Tempo, Great Book
Convincing Story

Religious Conviction: A Novel by the Author of Expert Testimony
Grif Stockley
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Legal | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0671798693

Customer Reviews:

Great Insights, Great Tempo, Great Book.......2002-02-12

I'm biased in favor of Grif Stockley, I admit. I practice law in the same town, and I have had a case or two against him. I like him. That aside, I'm an avid reader of this genre and even if I didn't know and like Grif, I'd really love his books.

What I respect and admire about his writing is that he brings reality to his characters. The reality he is able to convey is not some stark picture of poverty or prejudice or some equally profound aspect of society, but the frustration a lawyer feels with uncooperative clients, the unfathomability of attitudes and opinions alien to us, and the natural tensions of relationships.

I think we can all agree that Significant Others aren't always soul-mates who complement what is lacking in ourselves. Certainly our children say and do things that are totally incomprehensible to us. Gideon Page, the lawyer protagonist in Grif Stockley's novels, suffers a double slap in the face when his daughter and his girlfriend join a charismatic fundamentalist congregation, exercising religion in a way Gideon seems to feel is the antithesis of free conscious reason and thought. Then, to make matters worse, he is confronted by that same church when the preacher's daughter becomes his client.

Assertive, charismatic, Christian fundamentalism can be bewildering and even offensive to those who view themselves as more "mainstream" or perhaps don't actively practice much religion at all. Confronted with this church and its charismatic preacher, Gideon is repulsed. He is thrust into close contact with not only the preacher and his client, but with the preacher's family and the spooky wife and child of his co-counsel, Chet Bracken.

Despite what some non-lawyers may believe, many, many clients are uncooperative, secretive, and completely untruthful with their attorneys. Lots of times clients have something to hide, or want to accomplish something they know their lawyer wouldn't condone. How many times has every trial lawyer in America said to an uncooperative client, "You MUST tell me everything because unless I know absolutely everything I can't protect you from anything"? Gideon Page has not only an uncooperative client, but an uncooperative co-counsel on this case, though. Not only is the client avoiding him, but Chet Bracken, the lawyer who asked Gideon to help with the case, won't come clean about it. And now Chet is dying and Gideon is going to have to handle the case without knowing anything about it. Frantically investigating every miniscule lead, Gideon's worst fear comes to be that his client might actually be innocent.

When it becomes obvious that Chet Bracken isn't preparing for trial, Gideon attempts to do his best in a virtual vaccuum. Nobody will tell him the truth. Bit by agonizing bit he learns disparate facts that still don't make sense. The investigative trail seems to lead suspiciously to the preacher himself -- is the daughter going to take a fall for Daddy so Daddy won't lose his flock? But wait -- is Daddy going to take a fall for darling daughter? Who really committed the crime? Daughter isn't talking, Daddy talks too much, and co-counsel is cryptic at best.

As trial looms closer Gideon becomes frantic that the legal team has no defense for the accused, and still the accused adamantly refuses even to talk to him! The eleventh hour comes and goes and Gideon finally learns two stupefying facts that change not only his opinion about Chet Bracken, but about Chet's family, the accused, and ... well, I'm not going to give it all away. Read the book! It's worth it!

Convincing Story.......1999-03-20

This was certainly not your run of the mill legal thriller. From Stockley we are already used to have sharp and witty observations, but in this third book in the Gideon Page series he outperforms himself.

In fact, it is not a legal thriller at all. The protagonists enter the courtroom only towards the end of the book and then only for a brief period.

It is much more a story about the relationship between father and daughter. Gideon and Sarah go through a very difficult time together when Gideon has to defend a girl who is suspected of killing her husband. Gideon wants to attack in his case the girl's father, a highly respected preacher to whose church Sarah is drawn.

Book Description

This is a book of observation and comment about comic books-in particular the Marvel hero comics of the early 1960s-and the influence those stories and drawings had on the lives of the young people that grew up with them. The topic is not brought under hard analysis: the comics were originally written for entertainment, and the author's views on them in turn are offered through conversational letters, addressed to two of the founders of the art-form at Marvel.

Average customer rating:

Not That Exciting
The best book I've read in a long time
Lost a lot of sleep while reading this one!
FANTASTIC! Great Book--Can't wait for more from Ms. Geller.
ABSOLUTELY GREAT BOOK

Fatal Convictions : A Novel of Revenge
Shari P. Geller
Manufacturer: Harper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0061012238

Amazon.com

The thorny problem of what to do with convicted child molesters gets an angry and articulate workout in this gritty first thriller by a lawyer who knows her subject from firsthand experience. When somebody starts to murder released and unrepentant molesters in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles, it at first appears to be the work of outraged vigilantes. Then suspicion centers on a female district attorney, filled with bitterness and rage after watching the men she works to convict slip through the cracks of the justice system.

Book Description

Now... it's her turn. And she has her own special brand of justice.

With brains, bravado and a chilling penchant for justice vigilante-style the anonymous killer who stalks through Fatal Convictions is unlike any seen before in the pages of fiction. This astonishing first novel by Shari P. Geller sheds a searing light on one of the most heated and controversial problems plaguing American society today: the profound failure of the criminal justice system to adequately protect its most innocent citizens from its most dangerous perpetrators. Ringing with the suspense of John Grisham and the intensity of Stephen King, this thriller takes readers on a wild, provocative and truly unforgettable ride along the dark corridors of justice and into the heart of human nature itself.

A long string of gruesome murders remains unsolved, and the body count is rising fast. But it is soon clear to all involved that the victims have more in common than grisly deaths they shared grisly lives as well. The killer's hit list reads like a Who's Who of the San Fernando Valley's most despised criminals child molesters. Outraged by the failure of the criminal justice system to make unrepentant child molesters pay for their heinous crimes, someone has taken the law into their own, lethal hands and now it's payback time. With wicked humor and deadly aim, the unidentified killer sets out to right the wrongs inflicted on young and innocent victims.

Soon everyone is suspect from the stunningly beautiful but embittered DA, Rebecca Fielding, to the lipsticked pedophile in drag, Frank, to the less-than-noble treatment center directors as unrepentant child molesters, who have received nothing but a slap on the wrist from the law, are brutally murdered. The detectives on the case repeatedly come up short as the killer-at-large wields a wit as sharp as her aim along a bloodied path for justice. The local sex offender rehabilitation center rallies its forces in a futile attempt to protect its severely damaged reputation as Oakwood Center's court-appointed clients continue to check out of treatment and into the morgue. Meanwhile, Ms. Fielding's rivals in the DA's office try to pin the crimes on her. As the investigation gets under way, a conflicted romance heats up between Rebecca and Jack Larson, the lead detective on the case, who cannot believe Rebecca is guilty despite mounting evidence. Larson must ultimately put both his job and life on the line to discover the disturbing truth.

Brimming with pitch-black humor, spine-tingling suspense and outrageous plot twists, this murder mystery is also sure to court controversy. In Fatal Convictions, we are witnessing the birth of a new genre of fiction female vigilante justice. Americans have grown increasingly frustrated as the criminal justice system crumbles before their eyes, allowing the guilty to walk free through its gaping holes. Shari P. Geller's book speaks to this universal frustration. But in the final reckoning, Fatal Convictions is a stunningly well-crafted thriller that will leave you reeling long after the last page is turned.

Customer Reviews:

Not That Exciting.......2003-12-29

It's not that the book is terrible, it just loses energy when the focus turns from the crimes to the personal lives of Rebecca, Jack, and Tom. The soap opera aspects of their relationships detract from the suspense plot that only picks up when they all go into court near the end.

While the author is described as an attorney who later worked with sex offenders, her trial scenes lack a certain feeling of versimilitude. The ending relies too heavily on the killer losing control. It was really lucky for the police that they never had to take their last case to court because all of their evidence would have probably been thrown out for lack of probable cause in obtaining the warrant... published.

The best book I've read in a long time.......1999-09-22

I just finished reading "Fatal Convictions," and I can only say, what an incredible book! I couldn't put it down. Ms. Geller is a fabulous storyteller. I'm looking forward to her next book...

Lost a lot of sleep while reading this one!.......1999-01-15

Even after reluctantly closing the book for the night, I found myself still going over the details of what I had read, wracking my brain to figure out who the murderer was.

With lots of descriptive power, the book almost immediately drags you into the story. You are almost shocked by the sheer fury unleashed by the killer, but never become jaded.

This book keeps you guessing(and reassessing your guesses) up to the very satisfying ending.

Please finish that next book, Shari! Your fans are waiting impatiently.

FANTASTIC! Great Book--Can't wait for more from Ms. Geller........1998-08-22

This is a "can't put it down" novel. I did not know who did it until the end and was shocked. Keep up the great work, Ms. Geller!

ABSOLUTELY GREAT BOOK.......1998-05-28

THIS WAS ONE OF THOSE NOVELS THAT WAS VERY HARD TO PUT DOWN ONCE YOU BEGAN TO READ. THE CHARACTERS WERE EVERY DAY PEOPLE, SOME OF WHICH HAD SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS. I LOVED THIS BOOK AND LOOK FORWARD TO READING ANY FUTURE BOOKS BY MS. GELLER.

Average customer rating:

Fatal Convictions: A Novel
Shari P. Geller
Manufacturer: HarperPaperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VIJ38G

John Bunyan and the Language of Conviction (Studies in Renaissance Literature)

Average customer rating:

John Bunyan and the Language of Conviction (Studies in Renaissance Literature)
Beth Lynch
Manufacturer: D.S.Brewer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1843840170

Book Description

This book undertakes a major reassessment of the works of John Bunyan (1628-88), the nonconformist author of The Pilgrim's Progress, who was imprisoned for preaching his beliefs. Through a reading of each of his narratives, and many of his pastoral writings, both in textual detail and in relation to the various traditions - such as Reformed spirituality and the nonconformist trial - within which he lived, preached, and wrote, the author offers a systematic re-evaluation of Bunyan's development as an author. She presents new perspectives on his most popular works, Grace Abounding and The Pilgrim's Progress, whilst arguing that the significance of the lesser-known Life and Death of Mr Badman and The Holy War/I> has been severely underestimated; and she shows how overall the works offer a candid document of nonconformist experience in the Restoration period.

Writers of Conviction: The Personal Politics of Zona Gale, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Rose Wilder Lane, and Josephine Herbst

Average customer rating:

Writers of Conviction: The Personal Politics of Zona Gale, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Rose Wilder Lane, and Josephine Herbst
Julia C. Ehrhardt
Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0826215068

Book Description

In Writers of Conviction, Julia C. Ehrhardt examines the literary careers of four American writers who have not received the critical attention they deserve: Zona Gale, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Rose Wilder Lane, and Josephine Herbst. By reintroducing these authors, Ehrhardt reveals a fascinating and unexplored aspect of white, middle-class, and female authorship: the provocative links between each writer's personal politics and her literary aspirations. She uses this innovative critical perspective to show that each woman became a writer in order to express her political beliefs to the largest possible audience. Combining feminist literary theory, women's history, and biographical criticism, this work presents a compelling study of a woman's individual journey to political consciousness and the writings that resulted from it.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books