Social injustice includes unfair or unjust acts like denial of civil rights, age and sex discrimination, police brutality, and maladministration. One can find so many people around who do have firsthand experience of unfair treatment. These guys do need one's help because either they are abused or are accused of a crime. Such people suffer due to injury or damage done by others. We are talking of harmful acts committed by others, and this process is known as injustice.
In criminal justice system confessions, particularly those made before a police officer are generally not admissible as piece of evidence unless the same are supported by an independent corroboratory evidence, for example, where the accused leads the police to discover weapon of crime or helps to gather some other admissible evidence. Having said that, I must say that confessions are a matter of great concern in criminal proceedings. And where the trial is conducted through jury, at times, these inadmissible confessions mislead the jury and great injustices take place.
Bias is another element of injustice and it leads to denial of many civil rights. It is an act, which is predisposed to favour one side, group or persons rather than another. This preference may be of colour, creed or caste. It reminds us that the colour bias lead to segregation in US education system till the US Supreme Court in the case of Brown v Board of Education1 declared segregation of educational system on color basis as unconstitutional.
This unevenness and lack of balance is often visible in society particularly in dealings with the minorities. For example, police investigators and prosecutors are known for their biases, and at times they are predisposed to favour persons of their own choice. These are some of the glaring examples of injustice.
These issues of bias, discrimination, misrepresentation and inhumanity have been raised by John Grisham in his recent novel, "The Confession".2 The novel has provided an anatomy of the criminal justice system prevalent in some parts of United States. The novel also criticises the social values and the role of reformatory institutions.
In a post-industrial society, it looks as if all the established social institutions including family, marriage and community are ineffective to impart justice. The hallmark of the novel is its description of the miserable conditions confronted by the minorities. And at the same time we find marked absence of leadership in the society.
A complex question raised by the author is that how can a suspect of a crime can convince lawyers, judges, and politicians about his innocence? The story portrayed in the novel revolves around four main characters namely, Donte Drumm a condemned prisoner, Reverend Keith a priest, Robbie the defence lawyer and Travis Boyette an aggravated sexual offender.
Donte Drumm was named as an accused in the murder of a white girl Niccole. He was awarded death penalty nine years ago. The conviction was based on a confession made by him before the police. It was an interesting case since the victim's dead body was never found, and there was no other evidence except the confession.
It was also a known fact that the lady judge who convicted the accused had a sexual relationship with the prosecutor. The author has thus questioned the independence of the courts! Donte Drumm belonged to the black minority, whereas the white majority is hell-bound to execute him at all costs.
The Reverend Keith Schroeder is a senior pastor at St. Mark's Topeka in Kansas. He is generally admired by his congregation, and possesses a different character from other pastors. His way of working raises a few issues, for example, he allows homeless people to use the church basement and this fact irks the city government.
Robbie by training is a lawyer. He is a great fighter and a leader among his community and is always engaged in the cause to eliminate social injustices. Travis Boyette is a condemned prisoner for aggravated sex assaults. Presently, he is living on parole in Kansas State. In the opening scene of the novel Travis Boyette calls on Keith and informs him that Donte Drumm (a condemned prisoner) is innocent, and he knows the place where the body of dead Niccole is buried. He remains short of confessing that he did murder that school girl.
This change of heart takes place due to his illness. He is suffering from brain tumour with very limited life at his disposal. Even at this juncture of life, he is still not prudent to reveal the truth. Keith tries hard to find out the truth but Travis Boyette suddenly leaves the church. Robbie, the defence lawyer is trying hard to get Donte Drumm's execution stayed. A number of petitions being filed by him in this regard.
The reading of the novel suggests that a conflict between good and bad exists, and that is the hallmark of the novel. In a lovely manner, the author presents the environment and its settings with fast moving characters. The characters have so beautifully been characterised that one starts loving them. They all are busy either in pursuit of good or bad.
Keith understands the reality and inner feelings of Boyette. He knows that murder was committed by him, and he is the one had knowledge about Niccole's body. But he is still not ready to confess the reality help the innocent Donte Drumm. Robbie and his team are trying to persuade Joye Gammble a classmate of Drumm to confess that he made an untrue statement to the police to implicate Donte Drumm. Accusation by Gammble was made due to jealousy. Now he is afraid to make the confession that he did lie to the police.
Keith is finally able to persuade Boyette to speak the truth. Keeping in view the bad physical condition of Boyette, Keith decides to travel to Texas on Wednesday night hoping to reach there on Thursday noon, that is the day of Donte Drumm's execution.
During the journey he again tries to contact Robbie, and this time he is successful. He narrates all the facts stated to him by his travelling companion. Robbie directs him to reach his office as early as possible. Indeed there is no time left for to save Donte Drumm from the execution. The city of Salon (Texas) is ripe for riots and violence due to tension in race relations. Already one black and one white church has been torched.
The governor had ordered the national guards to move in to control the violence and crime. Robbie's law firm is planning to move different motions in the state Supreme Court, Federal District Court and US Supreme Court asking for stay in the execution. These petitions are denied on one or the other pretext. These motions also meet the same fate in the Federal District Court. The reprieve petition filed before the Governor is still under consideration, but it is known that the governor is determined to deny the petition. He is being swayed by false emotions, wrong advisers and bias views. He is incapable of showing the courage and leadership.
Keith arrives in the Salon, where Robbie questions Boyette about the murder of Niccole. Based on his testimony and that too supported by an affidavit another petition is moved in the Court, the same is also rejected. A writ asking for a stay too is filed in the US Supreme Court, but the same is also denied with a 5-4 vote.
At the moment all odds are against Drumm and apparently nothing is working. The execution is to set take place at 6 pm, while at 4 o'clock Gammble agrees to file a confessional affidavit saying that he made a false accusation against Drumm. Another motion is moved. The same is initially returned with an objection. In the meantime chief judge of the court makes the orders that the court be closed at five PM, and no further petitions be accepted. Drumm's last petition was filed at 5.07 pm, but to their surprise the lawyers find the court closed. It was unusual.
As all efforts fail and nothing remains to stop the execution, Robbie reaches the prison to witness the execution. The execution takes place at the fixed time. Following the execution, Robbie and Keith persuade Boyettee to dig out Niccole's body. With great effort it is found. And the DNA tests confirm that the remains belong to Niccole.
Author so far is successful in showing that all evil characters in the story are the product of a weakened social institutions, say marriage or reformatory institutions. It is evident that Boyette was molested and abused not only as a child but also in the reformatory centres. That ugly environment has turned him into a criminal.
Niccole was a careless child since her parents had a broken marriage. Both prosecutor and investigator proved to be immoral personas. They are accustomed to finding satisfaction in getting innocent people convicted on false charges.
The facts brought out by the author reveal that state Governor lacks the leadership qualities as he is accustomed to working on other's advice. The chief judge was also inhuman and a coward who ordered for the closure of the court due to his personal biases. It looked as if the state institutions lacked courage to look at the reality. The political institutions were supporting the friction which led to violence and unrest. The politicians were devoid of courage to stop or defuse the tension. The novel exposes the lack of courage on the part of community leaders.
However, from the existing conflict two leaders emerge in real terms. They are Robbie (as a fighter) and Keith (as a man believing in forgiveness). After all these happenings, a motion is presented in the court for the exoneration of Dente Drumm, in the light of confessions made by the Travis Boyette and supported by the fact that remains of the body of Niccole were recovered on his direction. Drumm is exonerated from the charge of murder.
Robbie discloses startling facts in a press conference about the attitudes of the judges and state governor. He files lawsuits for damages against the local government and the state. An embarrassment for all of them. A lot of political pressure is built to revoke the death penalty in the state, but despite the injustice caused to Drumm, the motion is supported and opposed on party lines by the politicians. The status quo is maintained.
Having confronted this crisis of good and bad, Keith becomes a more ardent spokesman against social injustices. All said and done no major change takes place at the state or federal level. The attitude of the authorities remains the same.
The novel wastes no time pretending at ambiguity; the truth is obvious from the beginning. Donte Drumm was convicted a decade earlier for a murder he did not commit. Less than a week before his scheduled execution, the real killer, Travis Boyette, steps forward to admit his guilt; he has an inoperable brain tumour, and is feeling bad about sending an innocent man to his death. The trouble is, the system is dead-set on killing Donte. The last-minute revelations are not enough to stop his execution.
Grisham is a popular novelist, and there are a number of familiar elements in the present novel for anyone who has read his work before, like the flashy, showboating lawyer who's willing to give all he has for his clients, and the love or hate relationship with the Lone Star State.
The characters never get much beyond surface impressions, which at times threatens to derail Grisham's main point. It's possible to blame the system's failure in Donte's case on the group of corrupt fools who railroaded him to prison, then worked to ensure he stayed there to cover their incompetence.
The author has very specifically pointed out that a conflict between the state and individuals very much exists and the coercive arm of the state represented by police or armed forces have developed a hatred for the common man. These coercive forces use torture, lie, extortion and inhuman treatment on innocent people. Confession before the police now is being accepted by the courts. And even the courts have treated the unlawful use of coercion as lawful in many criminal cases. All this is leading towards violence, organised crime and disobedience to the state. Author has seriously questioned the legitimacy of the state? We agree or not but these are soul-searching questions raised by the author.
(The writer is an advocate and is currently working as an associate with Azim-ud-Din Law Associates)
1. Brown v Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954).
2. John Grisham, the Confession, Century London, [2011].