Whitcoulls Recommends: Framed and We are the Stars

Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey. The authors have taken 10 cases of miscarriages of justice in the US and shown the impact of wrongful imprisonment on the men involved and their families and communities – but also look at how such things occur – the racism, misconduct, flawed testimony and court system that allows the convictions to stand and pleas for exoneration ignored – even when there is overwhelming evidence against the verdict.

We are the Stars by Gina Chick. Gina Chick is an Australian force of nature. She’s led an extraordinary life – an unconventional childhood, a love affair with a conman that sent her to the wilderness to find herself and recover, and is in possession of a truly elemental nature. Through love and grief, she’s used those qualities to make sense of the world and her place in it and she’s a fiercely tough, independent woman who’s been through the fire and out the other side.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're with the Sunday Session and it is time to
talk books now, and I'm joined by Joe McKenzie. Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
So John Grisham and Jim McCloskey have joined up. Yes,
And John Grisham, of course is most well known for
his fiction, of which he has written a great deal.
But I've always said, and I'm sure I've said it
on this show, he's always on the right side of things.
And in this book, he's teamed up with a guy
called Jim McCloskey, who founded an organization to look into
miscarriages of justice. And the two of them in this

(00:40):
book are presenting ten miscarriages of justice in America.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
And I tell you what, if he had written this
is fiction, you would read it and you'd say, well,
this is simply unbelievable. Yeah, but it's all true, and
it's just shocking. Many of these people have spent decades
in prison, but they are innocent, or they were innocent,
and they've got corrupt judges and really bad lawyers and

(01:06):
completely ill informed, inadequate juries. You've got an incredibly corrupt police.
You have DNA evidence which clearly exonerates these people that
were simply ignored, or the police then completely reconstructed their
case so that the DNA didn't need to be included.
There's all sorts of extraordinary stuff, and I've found it deeply,

(01:28):
deeply moving. In some cases, judges would eventually grant a retrial,
but the retrial process would take years and years, so
some of them would spend eight to ten years ongoing
in prison simply awaiting the retrial. It's an appalling indictment
on the American judicial system. And as Grisham says, all
of the judges in America are elected, and if you

(01:50):
look at the lowest level of the judiciary who often
hear cases in the first instance, he says, you don't
even need a high school diploma.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Okay, I don't think you've said I don't think you
need to say anything else.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
It's just it's shocking. But I will say, if if
you are interested in justice, or if you like a
good thriller in the style of John Grisham, then this
is the book for you. But criky, it's hard.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Where Are the Stars by GENA Tick is the next
book you're going to talk about and us fortunate enough
to talk to Gena a few weeks back. Really remarkable
story and just you know, she has learnt so much
throughout her life about living and life and loss, hasn't she.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
She's learned some really hard life lessons. People who heard
that review will know of that interview, Sorry, will know
about this book. It is quite an extraordinary story. She
had a childhood where she felt she never fit in.
She eventually moved to Sydney where she joined the rave scene,
but eventually was fell in love with a guy who

(02:55):
was not who he claimed to be led her on
a treat and she spent I think at least two
years living with this guy who was completely misrepresenting himself
and just you strung her aligned for a very long time.
And when she came out of that, she realized that
she needed to get back to nature, which is her
happy place, and she needed to kind of find herself,
and she signed up to go to New Jersey to

(03:17):
a school where they teach you tracking out in the wilderness.
So she went there and did that and met a
guy who then moved back to Australia with her, and
of course they spent some years together. The poor woman
had five miscarriages. She did eventually have a daughter. Gina
herself had cancer twice. Her daughter so sadly, also got

(03:38):
cancer and didn't survive it. And Gina then began to
live this really elemental life in nature, just you know,
she needed that to try it and help herself get
through it, and she does it in the most extraordinary way.
It's not in the book, but she quite recently competed
in the first episode of Alone Australia, which is where

(04:01):
ten contestants were signed up and they were dropped into
the wilds of Tasmania with only I think it was
ten essential essential survival items, and the thing of the
program was to see who would be the last one standing,
and it was her after sixty seven days.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
And quite frankly, she could have sat there for another
thirty if she had to.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
I saw the photos of her when she came out,
absolutely extraordinary. So, as I say, that's not in the book,
but that is the kind of woman that she is.
She's completely remarkable and this is a very moving, compelling story.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
It certainly is. The book is called We Are the
Stars by Gina Chick and the first book we spoke
about was framed by John Gresham and Jim McCloskey. Thank
you so much, Joan.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
See you next week.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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