The Innocent Man

In hearing after hearing, and in countless evaluations and examinations, numerous medical, psychiatric and legal experts attempt to determine Ron's mental competency. A suspect must be competent to assist in his own defense, and a convict cannot legally be executed if he is not mentally competent. At times, Ron is described as completely incompetent. At other times, his doctors state that he could become competent with treatment, or that he is competent at the moment, but requires specific circumstances in order to remain so. Competency, here, involves both the ability to be aware of one's surroundings and the ability to understand what is going on and one's role in events, as well as the ability to interact calmly and nonviolently with others and keep control of one's emotions when appropriate, as in a courtroom setting. On the other hand, if one is not competent to care for oneself and manage a job, one might be eligible for certain disability benefits, as Ron is.

Ron's competency, or lack thereof, becomes a critical issue when both his lawyer and the judge neglect to raise the issue of his competency during the trial, and this becomes one of the red flags that prompts Judge Seay to order a new trial. However, competency is also used as a tool of legal manipulation, as when prison officials refuse to allow Ron to receive mental health treatment in the Special Care Unit, lest he be declared incompetent, which would delay his execution indefinitely. Indeed, for another Death Row prisoner, Sonny Hays, incompetency becomes a kind of limbo, as he cannot be executed because he is "completely insane," but he cannot be released, either, and so he is left in a cell, "simply rotting away and dying on his own terms" (150).

Much of the urgency in Ron's quest for justice after his wrongful conviction comes from the fact that if he is not proven innocent, and soon, he is likely to be next in line for a lethal injection. Capital punishment, as it is practiced in Oklahoma, is a recurring theme throughout the book. Grisham gives a history of the state's relationship to execution, a story that begins before statehood, when Ada was a wild town where outlaws congregated and crime was rampant, until a lynch mob took matters into their own hands, stormed the jail, and hanged four convicted murderers in a stable across the street from the courthouse (45).

After capital punishment was deemed allowable by the Supreme Court in 1976, Oklahoma soon became the national leader in executions per capita. Grisham details every step of the standard process, from the moment the jury delivers the death sentence to the removal of the body from the chamber. He describes daily life on Death Row, first in the relatively-spacious but crumbling F Cellhouse, and then in the infamous H Unit, the ultra-secure, no-contact, underground concrete bunker where prisoners are completely cut off from sunlight. On Death Row, "Every inmate said that the first thing you lose is your health, then your sanity" (149). But Grisham also notes that most prisoners eventually make peace with their fate, and when their time comes, they are emotionally ready. Some, like Ron's Buddhist roommate, even reach a state where they are able to help other inmates adjust to the peculiar stresses of life on Death Row.