The Last Juror - Book Review

After my last book review, which was for “The Runaway Jury”, I had mentioned to Sushil that it might not be possible to read two books by the same author back to back. I ended up doing just that, I read “The Last Juror” just after completing “The Runaway Jury”. So here I am writing the review of “The Last Juror”.

The story starts off with Joyner William Traynor, starting his internship at The Ford County Times, a local newspaper of Clanton, Mississippi. The owner, Wilson Caudle, had driven the paper to bankruptcy through years of mismanagement.

Traynor, who was doing his course on journalism, quit college after numerous attempts to clear the exams. With the help of his wealthy grandmom, known as BeeBee, he gets a job as an intern in Times.

After Times files for bankruptcy, Traynor, now known as Willie due to a mistake made by Wison, offers to buy the newspaper. He borrows money from BeeBee and buys the paper.

When he bought the newspaper, Times had a circulation of 2500, and was mainly reporting news about the white people and also the main news was obituary. Willie started taking interest in building the newspaper to greater heights, since he knew that he was sitting on a gold mine. He only needed to do the right things.

Willie started focusing on the people, started reporting on the lives of the people who have been through various struggles. He also focused on sports and other thingst hat concerned the day to day activities of the people of Clanton.

His newspaper circulation started to increase, and things were moving on smoothly until the cold blooded murder of a widow, Rhoda Kassellaw, by a member of one of the darkest families of Clanton, The Padgitts.

The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was caught red handed and was produced before court. The Padgitts were known to intimidate and bribe people, and so to have a fair trial, the judge Reed Loopus, made sure that everything was under control.

Meanwhile, Willie befriends a black woman, a woman who has risen from the bottom of the society to get a respectable position in the world she lived today. Her name was Calia Ruffin, who was married to Eshu for more than forty years. She had raised eight children, seven of whom had doctorate degrees. The eight had to abscond from Clanton to save his life, since he had an affair with a white married woman.

Calia and Willie enjoy a very good friendship, with Willie spending an afternoon every week enjoying the food cooked by Calia. Calia in turn told her story, of her rise and resolve to teach her children and earn the respect she currently enjoyed. She also proof read Times and pointed out the mistakes in them.

As time passes, their friendship grew stronger and he became a member of her family. The Padgitt case was also drawing to the climax. The jury was being chosen and Ms. Calia was chosen as a juror, the first black juror in the history of Clanton.

The case starts at the earnest, and Willie earns the wrath of the Padgitt family for his coverage of the murder. He puts the pictures Danny, soaked in blood, which was captured soon after the murder and also puts in the account of various secret sources which clearly indicated that Danny was a cold blooded murderer.

The murder witnesses many attempts by the Padgitts to prove that Danny was not the murderer, but finally the jury finds him guilty and sentences him for life on two accounts – one for rape and the other for murder. Before the verdict was announced, Danny threatens to kill every juror in case he is indicted in the trial. The jury awarded him the life sentence instead of awarding him the capital punishment.

Life sentences in Mississippi was for 10 years, and Danny’s life sentences ran concurrently, and unknown to most of Clanton, Danny’s case came for Parole hearing at the end of the eighth year. Willie gets winds of the news and appears for the hearing, he prevents Danny from getting his freedom, and earns more hatred from the Padgitts.

The next year, Padgitts offered more bribe and finally are able to secure Danny’s release, much to the dismay of Willie and the jurors.

Out of the 12 jurors, one has died and two had relocated by the time Danny was released. And within weeks of his release on of the jurors is killed. Within a month, one more is killed and there in another attempt on a third juror.

Willie fears for the life of his friend, Ms. Calia and also for himself.

Spoiler Warning: The ending/plot of the book is discussed below.

It turns out that the two jurors which were murdered and the third one on which the attempt was made were the only jurors who did not want Danny to earn the capital punishment. This information was relayed to Willie by Ms. Calia, who in turn informs the sheriff.

This prompts them to believe that Danny did not have any hand in the two killings and the attempted one. Their fears turn out to be true, as both the murders were committed by a one time lover of Rhoda, who was schizophrenic, and wanted to take revenge on Danny, as the “voices” of Rhoda and her children had commanded him to do so.

He knew about the three jurors since he was a close friend of the judge Loopus. So he killed the two and made an attempt on the third so that the authorities could apprehend Danny on suspicion and bring him in public, where he could utilize the opportunity to get his final revenge.

As expected by the schizophrenic lover of Rhoda, the authorities arrest Danny on suspicion and when he is produced in court, he is shot.

Overall a very good read, but I found some parts too boring. One section which clearly comes to my mind is the description of the churches, which Willie visits to put in his newspaper.

Again Grisham’s writing style and the simplicity of the story gets through and you end up liking the book.