The Runaway Jury

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The Runaway Jury

Image:The Runaway Jury.JPG
Author	John Grisham
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Legal thriller novel
Publisher	Doubleday Books
Publication date	1996
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	414 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-385-47294-3 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	The Rainmaker
Followed by	The Partner

The Runaway Jury is a legal thriller novel written by American author John Grisham. The hardcover first edition was published by Doubleday Books in 1996 (ISBN 0-385-47294-3). Pearson ESL released the paperback edition in 2001 (ISBN 0-582-43405-X). The novel was published again in 2003 to coincide with the release of Runaway Jury, a movie adaptation of the novel. The third printing (ISBN 0-440-22147-1) bears a movie-themed cover, in place of the covers used on the first and second printings. In 2003, it was made into a film starring John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman.

Plot summary

Widow Celeste Wood is suing a tobacco company for sending her husband to an early grave. She hires a lawyer named Mr. Rohr, who has had mixed results in court cases before, never one this big. The judge in the case is found out to be Judge Harkin, who is about to have the largest case he has ever seen in his courtroom.

On the defense are the tobacco companies. In particular a tobacco company known as Pynex and its head, Mr. Jankin. It is part of a group known as the Big Four, a small group of very powerful and influential cigarette companies that has joined forces to defend their names. Together, they have formed "The Fund" - a seemingly bottomless well of money intended to be used in the cases such as this.

They hire Rankin Fitch - an expert who has helped to "win" cases like this before. He is virtually unknown to everyone else in the world, except for the rich companies. He does not get directly involved in courtroom, but prefers to remain hidden and let Mr. Cable, another lawyer take care of the talking.

Both sides of the case start to snoop around and find out information on potential jurors. One juror that scares both sides is Nicholas Easter. Not much is known about his past, other than he registered to vote in Biloxi, Mississippi (where this fictitious case is being held) a few weeks before the choosing of the jurors. He is also recorded as a student, no one can find what college he has ever attended. They figure this to be a lie.

The court becomes in session, and it is time for the jury selection. Judge Harkin begins by dismissing those with medical hardships. An issue arises when Herman Grimes is found to be legally blind. The judge tells him he is dismissed, but Herman does not want to leave. After threatening to sue for not being allowed on a jury, Herman is allowed to stay. Harkin then continues to dismiss those who he finds to have real nonmedical hardships. Nicholas Easter is still a potential juror. Now it is time for the lawyers to choose who they want on their jury. They are given a number of "strikes" to use on jurors who they do not wish to have involved in the case. Nicholas Easter is potential juror number 56. After some debate and several uses of strikes, Easter ends up in the jury. He is now known as juror number 2.

The jury returns to their room, and selects their foreman - Herman. The judge gives them strict orders not to discuss the case with anyone, and Herman makes sure everyone obeys, as he is a sucker for obeying every rule.

It is now time for the plantiff to start the case. They open by showing a video of Mr. Wood, just before he dies. The video stirs the jury for a while, but after several hours of listening, the jury becomes bored.

Meanwhile, a young lady slips into the courtroom and hands a bailiff an envelope. She asks him to hand it to a certain man - Rankin Fitch is the name she gives when the bailiff asks. She pleads with him to hand it to Mr. Fitch, saying that she is in a great hurry, and must get on with her day. The bailiff consents, and takes the envelope to Fitch. This, of course, surprises Rankin since no one should know him. He asks the bailiff who she was, but only gets a less than satisfactory answer.

Upon opening the envelope, Fitch finds a slip of paper with a description of what juror number 2 (Nicholas Easter) will wear tomorrow. This excites Fitch, who thinks that someone may be working on the outside with someone on the inside. He sends out the word to watch for the girl with the description that the bailiff gave him.

Meanwhile, the trial continues. Rankin Fitch no longer wants to remain in the courtroom, so he sends in a briefcase that has a small camera built into it. The case is set under the defense table, while the trial continues. The camera is aimed at the jury, so Fitch can watch their every move.

At lunchtime, the first of many dilemmas occur. The lunch for the jurors does not come on time. After several minutes of waiting, Nicholas Easter becomes impatient. He starts to complain, and eventually goes to meet Judge Harkin, who was busy eating lunch at a high class restaurant. Easter complains, and the judge feels bad for them. All of the jurors have a very good lunch with the judge that afternoon. Upon investigation of why the food was late, they find that the owner of the place where they were to get the food received a phonecall that they would not need the lunch until an hour later than first planned. He says that it will never happen again.

The trials continue, and several more expert witnesses are called to the stand over a period of several days. The jury starts to get bored, and they no longer pay attention.

Over this period Fitch receives more messages from the unknown lady. This time, they happen over the phone. She relays different information to Fitch, such as what Easter will wear, or what someone will be reading. Fitch grows more and more excited as he thinks about "buying" a verdict. After a few calls, Fitch learns of the girl's name - Marlee.

Fitch now starts to weave his web around the jurors, trying to get them to vote for his side. He starts by getting an African American on the jury to vote for his side by giving him a very large promotion on his job.

Fitch also fabricates a sting operation on a husband of one of the woman serving on the jury. Fitch sends in a guy from a "large real estate company" (based in Las Vegas) to make Hoppy Dupree (who owns a very small real estate agency) agree to try to get a very notorious man to sell land to the larger company. Hoppy agrees, and the seller gets the man to sell the land, although he has to use a bribe. Later, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents approach Hoppy and tell him he is going to jail for this illegal activity. The only way Hoppy can get out is to convince his wife to vote for the tobacco company. They say it has something to do with the Republicans.

Nicholas Easter finds one day that his shabby apartment room had been broken in. He has a computer, which is left untouched, and also has a high tech security camera system. Easter gets the intrusion on tape, but does not show the video to the judge until later. Seeing the tape and hearing the news that other jurors are possibly being followed, Harkin sequesters the jury.

The court case continues on. The plaintiff now bring in what will turn out to be a killer of the defense. This witness was a former worker for the tobacco company. He helped to develop a tobacco product that had lower nicotine levels, but it was discredited by the tobacco company. He later saw a memo that said if they tried to sell a product with lower nicotine levels, they would not make money. They had to work to continue to increase the nicotine levels in the tobacco products.

Pynex's stock, which had been doing fine, started to trade lower. This witness hurt the defense.

The plaintiff finishes their case by calling the widow, Mrs. Wood to the stand. The defense, who has cross-examined everyone else, chooses not to cross-examine Mrs. Wood.

Fitch continues to be in contact with Marlee. She now allows a face to face meeting with Fitch. She says that she has also been in contact with Rohr, and will create a verdict for whoever pays her the highest. By this time, Fitch has figured out that Marlee is working with Easter. Fitch also has been sending out men to try to find out about Marlee's past.

The defense is now up. They start by calling the head of the Pynex company. He does okay, but the cross-examination wrecks it all because he starts talking about how if his product is abused, it could cause lung cancer or other injuries. Rohr tears this theory apart, and the day ends on a not so good note for the defense. To fix the damage done, the defense calls two beautiful women to the stand to say that the advertising is not what is or should be at fault. The tobacco companies cannot help it if younger children see their advertisement.

Marlee has now learned about the people Fitch sent out to learn about her past. She is angered by this, and threatens to give the jury a plaintiff's verdict if he does not call them off. Fitch calls them off, but then sends in ex-Central Intelligence Agency and ex-FBI agents who promise not to get caught.

The case is just about over, and suddenly one of the jurors gets removed from the jury. He is found to have unauthorized materials in his room. It was Easter who planted the materials in his room. This greatly annoys Fitch, who knew that the man would have been on his side. Marlee meets again with Fitch, and strikes up a deal. If Fitch wires her ten million dollars, she will give him the verdict. Fitch gets excited, and agrees. He follows her instructions, and sends the lady her money.

It is now time to decide on the verdict. Easter decides with Marlee to bump one more person - Herman Grimes. Easter drops a couple of tablets into Herman's coffee. These tablets make Herman appear to have a heart attack, although he will be fine later.

Easter starts the deliberations as the new foreman. They start to read through the documents provided, to the distaste of a couple of the jurors.

Meanwhile, Fitch's men discover a deep secret - Marlee's parents had died from lung cancer related to cigarettes. Rankin is now enraged - Marlee took the money and now is going to have Easter deliver a verdict against him.

That is exactly what happens. Easter leads enough people in the jury room to decide on a plaintiff's verdict. They settle on a very large sum of four hundred million dollars in punitive fees, and a large fee for pain and suffering.

Marlee and Easter immediately leave the area after the trial. They end up making millions because she wisely short-selled(profiting if stock value goes down) Pynex stocks before the negative verdict hit the news.

Later, Marlee meets with Fitch again. She gives the ten million dollars back to him, and says she was just "borrowing" it, noting that if the tobacco companies appeal "too vigorously", she'll come forward with the transfer details.

Characters in The Runaway Jury

Note - This does not name all the characters in The Runaway Jury, just characters of interest.

• Nicholas Easter - a mysterious juror who takes the case into his control, working with Marlee
• Marlee - a girl who has an agenda to pursue against the tobacco industry, due to personal reasons.
• Celeste Wood - a widow whose husband died from lung cancer that formed because he was a heavy smoker
• Rankin Fitch - a high-powered "security director" for the defense. He remains out of the courtroom most of the time. He is unknown to most people.
• Durwood Cable - an experienced lawyer who is working for the defense in the courtroom
• Wendall Rohr - a smaller lawyer working for the plantiff. He has defeated Durwood in a case before
• Judge Harkin - the judge presiding of the case

Preceded by The Rainmaker

John Grisham Novels 1993

Succeeded by The Partner

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