Conviction: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: intriguing legal procedural
Review: Death row attorney Terri Paget is working the fifteen years old capital crime conviction of Rennell Price, who the State of California will execute with a lethal injection in fifty-nine days. Terri realizes that the retarded surly black man is not a good client and her chances of saving him from the death penalty are slim to none.

Terri with the help of her spouse and son looks back over time and quickly realizes that neither Rennell had much of a defense. The corpse of nine-year-old Thuy Sen was found in San Francisco Bay and the medical examiner immediately concluded that the cause of her death was choking on semen. Broadcast news ran the story with the picture of the young girl as its feature. This led to a neighbor claiming that Payton and Rennell Price, drug dealers, took the child with them while she was apparently coming home from school. Other evidence placed the victim in the Price vehicle. The circumstantial evidence remains overwhelming yet Terri remains convinced that her client is innocent.

CONVICTION is an intriguing legal procedural in which the death penalty debate is incredible, extremely complex and in all honesty wordy (not a one sitting thriller by any stretch even for a reviewer with a multiple book a day habit). Surprisingly with that deep look and with solid courtroom drama, the cast never fully seems real as the law takes on a life of its own superseding any character. Those interested in understanding why the former Illinois Governor halted capital punishment should read Richard North Patterson's strong view on the death penalty, just set aside plenty of time and don't run for DA of Governor of Texas.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Capital Crimes
Review: Patterson can always be counted on to delivery a taught legal thriller that is revelant current topic, and his most recent novel "Conviction" meets all expectations! This time he address the messy issue of capital punishment. I won't rehash the plot, that has already been donme here, but the book is a mix of hard boiled investigation and court room drama. Nothing is simple and the author does not become bogged down in the retoric of the right or the left on this issues, but does paint a picture of the issues and how they effect real live people. Yes this is a work of fiction, but there is reality here. BECAREFUL READING EARLIER REVIEWS-SPOILERS! I just finished another interesting thriller/mystery "A Tourist in the Yucatan" fun arceological thriller.


Rating:
Summary: Compelling Death Penalty Legal Procedural
Review: Patterson takes on the polarizing subject of a potentially flawed capital punishment system.

Teresa Paget is a lawyer who works on death penalty cases. Her latest client is Rendell Price. Rendell has been on death row for fifteen years after being convicted, along with his brother, of sexual assault and murder of a nine-year old girl. After several meetings with Rendell, Teresa not only believes in Rendell's innocence, she believes that he is slow. She hopes that his mild retardation opens up an area for an appeal. After she and her team that includes her husband and stepson, she is convinced she knows who the guilty party to the murder is, and she pursues all courses of action all the way to the Supreme Court.

No one can accuse Richard North Patterson of sidestepping politically charged issues. Patterson gives us in-depth look into the process and machination of the legal system. The book is written with a view against the death penalty, but does gives persuasive arguments for both sides. The book at times got bogged down in legal-speak which is rather difficult for the layman to understand, but overall it was a fascinating look at the complexites of the death penalty.


Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: Payton and Rennel Price, brothers are charged with, convicted and sentenced to die for the horrendous sexual assault and murder of a 9 year old child. Fifteen years later, Teresa Paget and family are assigned the task of preventing the state from execution by lethal injection.

During the initial 54 days left to spare him his life, Paget uncovers mutliple issues which, taken as a whole, could very well prove his innocence. As a matter of fact, the state prosecutor responsible for prosecuting the matter on appeal concedes that if the information developed 15 years after the initial conviction had been known at the time of the original trial, the state would not have been able to get a conviction.

Therein lies the problem. The issues of politics play an ever important role in the fate of Rennell. Although the end was somewhat predictable, it in no way blunts to impact of what truly happens. The balance of the rights of victims vs. the rights of the accused coupled with politics, elections, favors etc., are at the crux of this fictional novel.

However, to view this book as merely a work of fiction, a good story,tense courtroom drama and nothing more would be to read the novel in a vacuum. No matter where one stands on the very emotional and complicated issue of state sanctioned executions, what Mr. Patterson addresses are the consequences of an imperfect system of criminal justice and the ultimate price to be paid in an imperfect system. In an imperfect system whether guilty or innocent, someone will always lose but the questions is,how much?

Rating:
Summary: A timely and well-written book with a tightly focused plot
Review: Richard North Patterson writes big books that deal with big issues; some have called him the voice of the American conscience. Patterson started his career as a trial lawyer. Then, when the Watergate scandal broke, he became the SEC's liaison to the special prosecutor. He is now on the boards of several Washington-based advocacy groups and his novels reflect what the agencies deal with: gun violence and torte reform (BALANCE OF POWER, 2003) and in PROTECT AND DEFEND (2000) he brought his laser-like focus to the United States's schizophrenic arguments about abortion. His newest novel, CONVICTION, shines a light on the virulent discussions and controversies that surround this country's death penalty: uncertainty, morality, inconsistency, politics, race, social class, and finality.

San Francisco attorney Christopher Paget --- who debuted in THE LASKO TANGENT, Patterson's first book --- his wife Terri, also a lawyer, and Carlo Paget, Chris's son and now a practicing attorney, take on the case of Rennell Price. He is a death row inmate who was found guilty (along with his brother Payton) of the sexual assault and murder of a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl. Fifteen years have passed since their sentencing and only fifty-nine days remain before Rennell is put to death.

Teresa Peralta Paget is a specialist in death row cases. She and Carlo begin to work with Rennell and come to the conclusion that he may not have been competent to stand trial --- he is clearly retarded and never could have helped in his own defense. Eventually, they discover that he was high throughout the proceedings and come to believe that Rennell is innocent and that another person helped Payton Price commit the unthinkable crime. That man is still at large, and a crusade for a final appeal to save Rennell is put into action.

The team has to work at breakneck speed against a mountain of precedents, the personal agendas of politicians, the weaknesses of other appellate attorneys, the machinations of the death penalty system, the judges who have a stake in not reversing death penalty verdicts, and the racial components of this case. The fact that Rennell may be innocent, or at the very least retarded, thus rendering him ineligible for the death penalty, is the least important element of the fight to save his life. In front of a very conservative judge and a smart, pro-death penalty prosecutor, the Pagets have their work cut out for them.

Terri is a mother. She has a teenage daughter who was molested and abused by her father. And one of the subplots of CONVICTION is that this case is driving a painful wedge between the two. Elena knows that her mother is fighting to save a convicted child rapist and murderer. She is furious about this and that the nature of such a case is a 24-hour-a-day commitment. Elena feels that Terri's role in these legal wranglings is not only taking time away from their relationship, but that it is also a betrayal. Despite her constant feelings of guilt, Terri will not give up her mission, because she doesn't believe that the State should put people to death, no matter what they have done.

CONVICTION is a sweeping commentary not only on the justice system but also on parenting, family responsibility, the death of innocence, and how a culture defines itself when it comes to sanctioning murder. It is the kind of book that provokes discussion. It prods the reader to look at what Patterson calls, "the bottom line ... much of the complexity [of capital punishment] reflects fundamental and passionate disagreement --- whether the principal goal of postconviction litigation is achieving finality or preventing the potential execution of the innocent. I hope that this novel does that conflict justice ... my belief [is that] popular fiction can address controversial legal, political, and social issues."

To be fair in assessing this book one must consider Richard North Patterson's personal integrity and his devout beliefs about the many injustices he perceives in the application and existence of particular laws. He has written a powerful polemic without resorting to didactics or pedantry. He does not preach; he sets a scene in motion, then allows his characters to play their parts with strength and believability.

CONVICTION is a timely and well-written book with a tightly focused plot that brings verisimilitude to the arguments on both sides of the death penalty issue. To read Patterson is to immerse oneself in intellectual arguments shaped to take readers a step beyond the mundane, to offer the opportunity to assess and reassess their own beliefs. Says Patterson: "I understand that writing about capital punishment will arouse a number of emotions in my readers, not all of them admiring." He admits that the narrative is rife with different views, but isn't that the point? Don't miss this novel. It's important, and it's a keeper.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum