The Runaway Jury

Mr. Wood dies of lung cancer at the early age of 51. His widow, Celeste Wood, with the help of a set of lawyers, led by Wendell Rohr, set out to take the tobacco companies to the court, holding them responsible for making the product which killed her husband. Their argument was that tobacco companies purposefully kept the tobacco levels high, so that more and more people gets hook to the habit, which would earn them billions in profits.

The defense is a conglomerate of four tobacco companies, who have already fought 56 cases against them. Most of them ruling in their favour, and others ending as mistrials. The defense employs a notorious consultant, Rankin Fitch, whose job is to ensure his client’s victory, without consideration to cost or legality of the method he adopts.

All the cases that have been won by the defense has been due to the involvement of Fitch, who painstakingly studies the potential jurors, and selects the best which would provide them a decisive victory. Once the jurors are selected, Fitch again gets to work. Trying to dig out information, contacting the relatives of the jurors, bribing them, pressurizing them into voting for the defense.

This particular case is going to be different because of the presence of one Nicolas Easter. Fitch could not unearth any information about his background, but his mannerism and behaviour prompted him to select Easter as a juror.

Once the 12 jurors have been selected, Fitch starts getting calls from a female who identifies herself as Marlee, who claims that she can control the jury and deliver the kind of verdict which suits her.

To demonstrate her powers, she predicts what Easter and other jurors would be wearing to the hearings of the case. She dumps the members of the jury according to her will.

Who is she? All attempts by Fitch to trace her ends up at dead ends. Is she after money? How can she control the entire jury? Whose favour will she swing the jury? Who will win the case?

Spoiler Warning: Climax and other twists discussed below.

Marlee’s real name is Gabriele. The only daughter of a couple who both died of lung cancer due to prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke. She meets Easter, who was a law student and gets to learn about tobacco cases. She learns how people like Fitch are manipulating the results in favour of the tobacco companies, who continue to poison the people.

They devise a plan to get even with the tobacco companies and elaborate a plan to get Fitch to think that they are working with him, but at the climax, the couple plans the verdict in favour of the plaintiff.

The movie which was released in 2003, was very similar to the novel. The major difference being that the movie switched tobacco companies with gun manufacturers. In the movie, the plaintiff was the widow of the owner of a large company, who was killed by one of his employees, who managed to obtain a gun illegally.

The movie also differs in the number of jurors who get bumped off from the jury. In the novel, 3 jurors are bumped off by Easter, while in the movie, just one of the juror is bumped off.

Also, in the novel, towards the end, only Marlee comes to meet Fitch, while in the movie both Marlee and Easter meet Fitch. Also in the novel, Marlee promises to return the 10 million she accepted as bribe from Fitch for delivering the verdict he wanted.

Overall a good read. I would rank it a step lower that The Firm, which is the best of Grisham’s four books that I have read.