Jesus wept (John 11;35). Doug , a follower of Jesus, wept (HFP blog essay 11/17/25).

I don’t weep much. My therapist friend labels that condition with a highfalutin title. It’s something I’m not proud of. I place a good share of the blame on the fact that I was a small-town news reporter for nearly 30 years. I’ve seen too much, heard too much, experienced too much. You get the idea. 

Having made that confession I admit that, on rare occasion, tears do stream down my cheeks. And, each time it surprises me!. That seldom happens over the usual sad experiences like death or tragedy. Instead, it can occur over something very unexpected and very simple, such as a musician's interpretation of a piece of music or the lyrics in a favorite old hymn: “My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more…” That one will do it almost every time as I sit on the organ bench accompanying the congregation. 

Well, let me tell you about my experience in the past week when I met Simon Latch. You wouldn’t know him because he’s not a real person…he’s the main figure in The Widow, a new novel just released by author John Grisham. I went through a variety of emotions. I didn’t like Simon at first, didn’t like his habits, didn’t like the way he was handling his family and didn’t agree with some of his law office decisions. That all changed as I continued to read. Actually, those feelings were immaterial…none of that really mattered. This middle-aged, small-town lawyer found his name in the tunnel vision of local cops and prosecutors. There had been a murder…a client of his. It seemed like almost everyone in town thought he had committed the crime, including a jury. 

For those who may not know this, my life was changed by a wrongful conviction. It was the conviction of an innocent man that eventually led me into my third career, one for which I had no training and frankly little desire to pursue. (Over time I learned that this was my calling and 2 earlier careers were merely preparation for this important work.) In the three decades that followed, I have seen an innocent lawyer in real life, as well as a cop, a doctor, a teacher, a banker and a long list of others get caught up in similar situations and get wrongly convicted and sent to prison. A very good friend served 29 years for a crime he did not commit. I watched the State of Texas kill another personal friend, wrongly convicted, right before my eyes. I failed in my efforts to obtain a release for still another wrongly-convicted friend. Sadly, he died in prison. 

You think the people in our police departments and court houses always get it right? Think again. You think the jury system is the perfect answer to charges and arrests? Think again. 

As author John Grisham (who also happens to be a lawyer) points out, records show that some 3,000 innocent people in our land of the free, found guilty in jury trials, have now been freed! The jury got it wrong. 

Read the book. It doesn’t really make any difference if you like the author. The same for the main character in the story. There’s a story of injustice here describing a plague in our nation…one that demands your attention and mine. The National Registry of Exonerations’ Annual Report finds that “official misconduct (by police officers, attorneys, prosecutors, judges)” is the main cause of wrongful convictions. 

At the end of the book, on the last page, I read the final words of the presiding judge to Simon Latch, a man whose life had been upended in an imperfect system. 

I wept.