Conviction by Richard North Patterson

Conviction
by Richard North Patterson
Paperback

• After focusing on gun control and tort reform (in Balance of Power) and late-term abortion
• and Supreme Court nomination (in Protect and Defend), Patterson takes on the death penalty,
• exploring its uncertainties and injustices from the perspective of San Francisco lawyer Christopher Paget
• —hero of the author's first book, The Lasko Tangent—and Paget's lawyer wife, Terri. The horrific
• crime on which the novel hinges is the killing of nine-year-old Thuy Sen, whose body is found in
• San Francisco Bay.
•  
• The medical examiner quickly ascertains that the little girl did not drown but choked to death on semen.
• After Thuy Sen's picture is broadcast on television, an elderly eyewitness identifies her dope-dealer
• neighbors Payton and Rennell Price as the killers.
•  
• This story is told in flashback after Terri Paget, who specializes in representing death row inmates,
• takes on the 15-year-old case, representing Rennell, who has 59 days before he is to die by lethal
• injection.
•  
• Rennell is a hulking retarded black man whose sullen passivity inspires little sympathy in anyone.
• Over the next several months, Teresa comes to believe in Rennell as she fights not only to stop
• his execution but to prove him innocent.
•  
• It's a compelling story, but Patterson's true interest is in the legal details. He mostly succeeds at
• explaining the often Orwellian legal complexities of the death penalty, but the price he pays as a
• novelist is high.
•  
• Many readers will skip over vast sections of the book, but those who stick with it will find the
• ending moving and come away with a greater understanding of a controversial issue.