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Judge dismisses Grisham lawsuit
A federal judge has dismissed a libel lawsuit filed against John Grisham over his book The Innocent Man, an account of the wrongful conviction of two men in a 1982 murder, reports the Associated Press.
The lawsuit was filed last year by former Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson, former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation investigator Gary Rogers and Melvin Hett, a state criminalist. All three helped win the original convictions in the murder of cocktail waitress Debbie Sue Carter.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants conspired to commit libel, generate publicity for themselves by placing the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
The lawsuit named Grisham his publishing company and the authors and publishing companies of two other books critical of Peterson and his prosecution of murder cases. Also named as a defendant was Barry Scheck, founder of the New York-based Innocence Project and an attorney for one of the men falsely accused in the murder.
But US District Judge Ronald White rejected the claims in his ruling Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
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