Conviction

I'm so happy to discover another legal writer who has so much work for me to read! I listened to the audio version and the story is gripping as you follow the enormous efforts to provide a defense for a convicted man to prevent his death. It was exhausting to comprehend the layers and layers of complexity to get through a very tangled puzzle of law, holding out hope, again and again.

Though I found the story to be very good. I had a hard time finishing this book. Saving this man from being executed and all that he went thru in his life was intereting, but there was too much legal mumbo jumbo in this book. I felt like the majority of this book was about the legal process, not the man's story. Tho I will leave this book on my shelf, I'm not sure I will read it again.

5041. Conviction A Novel, by Richard North Patterson (read 7 Jul 2013) This is the fifth book by this author I have read. It tells of the effort by a skilled lawyer to try to prevent the execution of a defendant convicted of the murder (along with his brother) of a nine-year-old girl who died during a sex crime. Both brothers were represented by the same lawyer who did an unbelievably bad job defending . The account takes up the effort by a new lawyer after 15 years to save the mentally deficient brother. It is a tense and emotionally draining story, illustrating the impetus involved in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act--which is a real law passed by Congress and designed to make it harder to overturn a death sentence, show more and which leads the prosecution to argue that innocence makes no difference! show less

I've enjoyed Patterson's other "issues" books about presidential & judicial politics in relation to abortion. This one about the death penalty is more like a traditional legal potboiler & is not as good.

I found this book to be terrific. I've enjoyed everything I've read from Richard North Patterson, and this one, to me, is among the best.

as usual, a really good Patterson story

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0345450205, Mass Market Paperback)
When the body of nine-year old Thuy Sen is found in the San Francisco Bay, the police quickly charge Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, abetted by an incompetent defense lawyer, is nearly as quick to find the brothers guilty, and to sentence them both to die for their crimes.

Fifteen years later, overworked pro bono laywer Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband Chris, and stepson Carlo, a recent Harvard law graduate, become convinced not only that Rennell didn't receive a fair trial but that he may well be innocent. Racing against the clock and facing enormous legal obstacles, Teresa, Chris, and Carlo desperately try to stay Rennell's show more execution, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court, and to an enormously moving and powerful conclusion. show less