The Runaway Jury
Encyclopedia
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 Longman released the graded reader 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
.
Celeste Wood, whose husband died of lung cancer. The trial is to be held in Biloxi, Mississippi
, a state thought to have favorable tort
laws and sympathetic juries. The defendant is Pynex, a tobacco company.
Even before the jury
has been sworn in, a stealth juror
, Nicholas Easter, has begun to quietly connive behind the scenes, in concert with a mysterious woman known only as Marlee.
Rankin Fitch, a shady 'consultant' who has directed 8 successful trials for the Big Four, has placed a camera
in the courtroom, feeding to his office nearby so that the trial can be observed. He has begun to plot many schemes to reach to the jury. He planned to get to Millie Dupree through blackmailing her husband through a tape that has him trying to bribe an official. He reaches to Lonnie Shaver through convincing a company to buy his employer and convince him through orientation. He also tries to reach Rikki Coleman through a blackmail of revealing her abortion to her husband. As the case continues, Fitch is approached by Marlee with a proposal to 'buy' the verdict.
However, as Fitch investigates Marlee's past, he discovers that her parents have been killed by smoking and that Marlee was actually planning against the defense. However, he has already sent the $10 million, so he lost $10 million in addition to having lost the trial.
Easter becomes jury foreman after the previous one became ill (an illness resulting from Nicolas and Marlee spiking his coffee) and convinces them to find for the plaintiff and make a large monetary award - $2 million for compensatory damages, and $400 million for punitive measures. The defense lawyers and their employers are devastated.
Whilst Easter and Marlee are now rich through short-selling the tobacco companies' stocks and satisfied that they served justice, Fitch realizes that his reputation has been destroyed and that the tobacco companies, once undefeatable, are now vulnerable to lawsuits.
The book closes with Marlee returning the initial $10 million bribe to Fitch, having used it to make several times that much, and warning Fitch that she and Nicholas will always be watching. She explains that she had no intention to steal or lie, and that she cheated only because "That was all your client understood."
Durwood Cable: The main defense lawyer. Rival and sometimes friend of Wendall Rohr
Rankin Fitch: A 'consultant' for the Big Four. Directed 8 trials, engineered 2 mistrials. Known for using unethical schemes to win the trials
Nicolas Easter: The decisive juror of the trial. Real name is Jeff Kerr. Also had identifications of David Lancaster, Perry Hirsch used to try to enter previous cases, but failed. Had 2 years of law school before met Marlee
Marlee: The girlfriend and outside contact of Nicolas Easter. Real name is Gabrielle Brant. Parents died due to smoking. Having since met Jeff Kerr, made scheme to follow tobacco litigation
Judge Harkin: The judge in the case Wood vs Pynex
Loreen Duke: Fellow black female juror. Divorced with two children. Voted for plaintiff
Angel Weese: Fellow black female juror. Have boyfriend of Derrick Maples, who was bribed by Rohr to try to convince Angel to vote for plaintiff. Although unsuccessful, nevertheless voted for plaintiff
Lonnie Shaver: Fellow black male juror. Manager of supermarket, later convinced by new employer to vote for defense. Employer was friend of one of the tobacco companies. Voted for defense
Stella Hulic: Obnoxious white female social climber. Later got removed due to being followed by tobacco company. However, it was actually Marlee who phoned Stella and stated that the tobacco companies followed her.
Frank Herrera: Retired white male colonel. Later removed for having unauthorized materials. Those materials were actually planted by Nicolas secretly to have Herrera, a defense juror removed.
Herman Grimes: The previous white blind male foreman. Very neutral, follows judge's orders very devotedly. Got removed due to a sudden illness on the final morning of the trial. Again, this illness was created by Nicolas through drugging Herman.
Legal thriller
The legal thriller is a sub-genre of thriller and crime fiction in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters...
novel written by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author John Grisham
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...
. The hardcover first edition was published by Doubleday Books in 1996 (ISBN 0-385-47294-3). Pearson Longman released the graded reader 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
Runaway Jury
Runaway Jury is a 2003 American drama/thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz...
starring John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
, Rachel Weisz
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz born 7 March 1970)is an English-American film and theatre actress and former fashion model. She started her acting career at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she co-founded the theatrical group Cambridge Talking Tongues...
, Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
and Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
.
Plot summary
Wendall Rohr and a legal team of successful tort lawyers have filed suit on behalf of plaintiffPlaintiff
A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...
Celeste Wood, whose husband died of lung cancer. The trial is to be held in Biloxi, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, a state thought to have favorable tort
Tort
A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else. It is differentiated from a crime, which involves a breach of a duty owed to society in general...
laws and sympathetic juries. The defendant is Pynex, a tobacco company.
Even before the jury
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
has been sworn in, a stealth juror
Stealth juror
A stealth juror or rogue juror is a person who, motivated by a hidden agenda in reference to a legal case, attempts to be seated on the jury and to influence the outcome...
, Nicholas Easter, has begun to quietly connive behind the scenes, in concert with a mysterious woman known only as Marlee.
Rankin Fitch, a shady 'consultant' who has directed 8 successful trials for the Big Four, has placed a camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
in the courtroom, feeding to his office nearby so that the trial can be observed. He has begun to plot many schemes to reach to the jury. He planned to get to Millie Dupree through blackmailing her husband through a tape that has him trying to bribe an official. He reaches to Lonnie Shaver through convincing a company to buy his employer and convince him through orientation. He also tries to reach Rikki Coleman through a blackmail of revealing her abortion to her husband. As the case continues, Fitch is approached by Marlee with a proposal to 'buy' the verdict.
However, as Fitch investigates Marlee's past, he discovers that her parents have been killed by smoking and that Marlee was actually planning against the defense. However, he has already sent the $10 million, so he lost $10 million in addition to having lost the trial.
Easter becomes jury foreman after the previous one became ill (an illness resulting from Nicolas and Marlee spiking his coffee) and convinces them to find for the plaintiff and make a large monetary award - $2 million for compensatory damages, and $400 million for punitive measures. The defense lawyers and their employers are devastated.
Whilst Easter and Marlee are now rich through short-selling the tobacco companies' stocks and satisfied that they served justice, Fitch realizes that his reputation has been destroyed and that the tobacco companies, once undefeatable, are now vulnerable to lawsuits.
The book closes with Marlee returning the initial $10 million bribe to Fitch, having used it to make several times that much, and warning Fitch that she and Nicholas will always be watching. She explains that she had no intention to steal or lie, and that she cheated only because "That was all your client understood."
List of characters
Wendall Rohr: A successful tort lawyer who sues big corporations. He tried the case in his background of MississippiDurwood Cable: The main defense lawyer. Rival and sometimes friend of Wendall Rohr
Rankin Fitch: A 'consultant' for the Big Four. Directed 8 trials, engineered 2 mistrials. Known for using unethical schemes to win the trials
Nicolas Easter: The decisive juror of the trial. Real name is Jeff Kerr. Also had identifications of David Lancaster, Perry Hirsch used to try to enter previous cases, but failed. Had 2 years of law school before met Marlee
Marlee: The girlfriend and outside contact of Nicolas Easter. Real name is Gabrielle Brant. Parents died due to smoking. Having since met Jeff Kerr, made scheme to follow tobacco litigation
Judge Harkin: The judge in the case Wood vs Pynex
Loreen Duke: Fellow black female juror. Divorced with two children. Voted for plaintiff
Angel Weese: Fellow black female juror. Have boyfriend of Derrick Maples, who was bribed by Rohr to try to convince Angel to vote for plaintiff. Although unsuccessful, nevertheless voted for plaintiff
Lonnie Shaver: Fellow black male juror. Manager of supermarket, later convinced by new employer to vote for defense. Employer was friend of one of the tobacco companies. Voted for defense
Stella Hulic: Obnoxious white female social climber. Later got removed due to being followed by tobacco company. However, it was actually Marlee who phoned Stella and stated that the tobacco companies followed her.
Frank Herrera: Retired white male colonel. Later removed for having unauthorized materials. Those materials were actually planted by Nicolas secretly to have Herrera, a defense juror removed.
Herman Grimes: The previous white blind male foreman. Very neutral, follows judge's orders very devotedly. Got removed due to a sudden illness on the final morning of the trial. Again, this illness was created by Nicolas through drugging Herman.