Conviction: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

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Key Phrases: rennell price, state bar, freestanding innocence, Eddie Fleet, Thuy Sen, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The Washington Post

Richard North Patterson is a pop novelist who wants to change the world. In 12 previous novels, Patterson has taken on date rape (he's opposed), Watergate-style corruption (also opposed), child abuse (ditto), gun control (he's in favor), late-term abortion (see Protect and Defend for his stance on that) and an evil that Washington knows intimately -- the publicly financed sports stadium. One can hardly blame him for trying to slay society's dragons. One can, however, fault him for trying too hard.

In Conviction, Patterson, a former trial lawyer, makes a case against the death penalty; more specifically, against the labyrinthine and counterintuitive laws governing it. The central thrust of Conviction -- that an innocent man can be put to death because today's legal system provides no mechanism to spare him -- faces bipartisan political hostility. As governors campaigning for the presidency, neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush did anything to stop the executions of mentally retarded prisoners. In 1992, in an Arkansas prison, Ricky Ray Rector set aside a slice of pecan pie from his last meal, to eat after he returned from his lethal injection. In 2000, Oliver David Cruz died in the Texas death chamber even after lawyers cited his IQ of 63 and his three attempts at completing the seventh grade as evidence that he was useless in his own defense.

The cause celebre of Conviction is Rennell Price, a hulking, sad-eyed, slow-witted product of the San Francisco ghetto who, along with his Svengali brother, Payton, has been sentenced to die for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl. Swooping in 15 years after Rennell's conviction is a Justice League familiar to Patterson's readers: crusading attorney Teresa Peralta Paget, along with her law partner and husband, the famous Christopher Paget, and Chris's son, Carlo, now a lawyer, too.

Terri and the gang have two months to derail what increasingly seems like the inevitable execution of Rennell, who they claim is retarded. Rennell's account of the crime is limited to the crude refrain "I didn't do that little girl!" A key witness has died, and the physical evidence is too degraded to test for DNA, but Terri has determined that Rennell's lawyer at the original trial was a lazy cocaine addict, and in an 11th-hour confession, Payton proclaims Rennell's innocence and fingers another suspect in his place. Terri argues that that's enough for the courts to re-examine the conviction, but the game is stacked. Terri's appeals climb the judicial ladder, eventually involving another of Patterson's recurring characters, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Caroline Masters. Masters gets to duke it out with a not-so-veiled Antonin Scalia clone, a capital punishment zealot aptly named Justice Anthony Fini. Adding drama to the mix is Terri's teenage daughter, Elena, whose abuse Patterson fans will remember from Eyes of a Child. She's outraged that her mother would defend a convicted child molester.

It's high stakes and low drama played out in a middlebrow arena -- blue-state values served up red-meat style, hold the purple prose. Deliciously, Patterson spends the first third of Conviction piling on proof that Rennell is a sick predator worthy of being put to death. A less confident plotmeister might shrink from the task Patterson then hands himself -- to rehabilitate Rennell in the story's middle section, rendering him sympathetic enough to care about. The last third of Conviction offers a revelatory tour of the dark side of the American justice system.

But buzz-sawing through a thriller requires different reading muscles from parsing the limits of habeas corpus and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Acts. A reader's eyes can be forgiven for skipping over a few didactic paragraphs before Patterson gets back to the action. His argument is clear. The law, he says, is bloodthirsty. The best chance to save the wrongly condemned rests with our governors, and you can see for yourself how often those guys stroll down Mercy Street. The defendant is an afterthought.

Patterson is a terrific novelist whose only bar to greatness is, as with many other popular authors, a slavish devotion to plot. His characters aren't quite stereotypes, but they often seem to be conceived less as individuals than as narrative conveniences. Same with the dialogue. Regardless, Conviction, though not Patterson's best, has its rewards. That it tilts more toward educating than entertaining can be blamed on his decision to push an agenda. But give him credit for backing an underdog. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but at this point in the evolution of our great republic, it isn't mightier than 50cc of potassium chloride.

Reviewed by Bob Ivry
Copyright 2005, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345450205
• ISBN-13: 978-0345450203
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #270,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING, January 30, 2005

By	D. LEE "dml48221" (Palo Alto, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Conviction (Hardcover)

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?

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A timely and well-written book with a tightly focused plot, February 5, 2005

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conviction (Hardcover)

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

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Death Penalty Legal Procedural, February 7, 2005

By	A. Christie "bibliofiend508" (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conviction (Hardcover)

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.