Reflections on Innocence, Justice and Courage with John Grisham & Deirdre Enright
- Jun 17
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 22
On Wednesday April 22, 2026, at the 14th Annual Tom Tom Festival, bestselling author, John Grisham, joined Deirdre Enright, founder of the University of Virginia Innocence Project, for a fireside chat that blended storytelling, legal insight, and firsthand experience. The audience at The Paramount Theater moved between laughter and stunned silence as Grisham and Enright shared story after story of wrongful convictions—and the heartbreak, determination, and hope that drove the fight to free the innocent and confront injustice.
With more than 300 million books sold worldwide and 52 consecutive #1 New York Times Bestellers, John Grisham is a literary titan. He is also a longtime advocate for justice, serving on the board of the Innocence Project, which has helped secure the freedom of hundreds of wrongfully convicted people.
The whole of the evening — Innocence, Justice and Courage —helped launch the Festival, whose theme was COURAGE, and continued important themes from that day's Civic Futures Summit and years of Tom Tom Festival programs that had highlighted local justice organizations and important initiatives related to prisons, reentry, and justice reform.
Below are some clips of the evening’s most quotable moments.
“...there aren’t really that many innocent people in prison, right?"
The United States imprisons nearly 2 million people, the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Even conservative estimates suggest that tens of thousands of those behind bars are innocent. John Grisham reflected on this staggering truth: “I practiced law for 10 years and never had a client that was wrongfully convicted...and I thought it was that way everywhere…boy was I wrong.”
"Why do we do Innocence work?...There's a lot of bullies in the criminal justice system"
When asked what motivates her to take on such demanding work, for comparably very low pay, Enright doesn’t hesitate: “I grew up hating bullies...there’s a lot of bullies in the criminal justice system.” In what she describes as an “unbalanced and underfunded system,” that conviction fuels both her and the students of the UVA Innocence Project, whose guiding principle is simple: “outwork the other side.” Their relentless efforts challenge junk science, expose the unreliability of jailhouse informants, and confront other systemic failures that contribute to wrongful convictions.
The Innocence Project has helped exonerate and free 257 innocent people. 205 of those convictions were overturned through DNA analysis alone.
"That's the most courageous thing you will see."
Many innocent people facing criminal charges are offered plea deals. Some accept them to avoid the risk of a harsher sentence, while others steadfastly maintain their innocence and refuse to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit, choosing instead to serve their sentence until they are exonerated. Grisham and Enright praise that courage, pointing to the well-known Virginia case of Keith Harward as a powerful example.
"These problems are not supposed to be there...the system is supposed to work."
Grisham describes the origin and realities of Innocence Projects scattered across the nation. “They’re not supposed to exist,” he notes, since our criminal legal system promises fairness. Yet, the need for these projects persists. Grisham praises the work Enright does with the UVA Innocence Project - since 2008, they have helped secure more than a dozen exonerations.
“There’s tens of thousands of innocent people in prison, how can this happen?"
Grisham and Enright discuss why so many innocent people are convicted. The top reason for a wrongful conviction is unreliable eyewitness testimony. Enright notes that we, as humans, are bad at being witnesses - the details we pay attention to in a criminal situation may not be relevant to a conviction. Individuals who are interrogated often cannot recall simple details. And an emotionally charged eye witness testimony can easily impact a jury, more so than facts alone. “That’s how bad we are,” she comments.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT
During the pre-show reception and toast, Grisham praised Enright, “She has fought the good fight for many years…. She’s a relentless fighter. She does the heavy lifting. I get to sit back, watch her, and write about it.” Grisham noted that he is continually drawn to the intensity in stories he encounters in his work: “Every wrongful conviction story I’ve heard deserves a book”
Paul Beyer, Executive Director of Tom Tom, and Martize Tolbert, National Director of Client and Community Engagement at The Fountain Fund, welcomed and opened the evening by highlighting the dozens of local justice organizations and leaders in the theater. Audience members then rose from their seats to meet those around them, sharing what had drawn them there and setting a tone of connection and community before the conversation began.
The evening also featured a Local Justice Showcase in the lobby of The Paramount Theater, giving attendees the opportunity to connect with local and statewide organizations working for justice and reform. Sixteen nonprofits engaged with hundreds of participants throughout the night.
As audience members exited the theater, the justice nonprofit organizations showcasing in the lobby offered something important—practical opportunities to turn awareness into action and make a tangible difference in the lives of their neighbors. See the full list below.
LEARN MORE ABOUT TOM TOM'S RELATED WORK
Explore some of the programs, partnerships, and conversations we’ve helped convene to support reentry, restorative justice, and stronger community well-being.
At the 14th Annual Festival, Tom Tom cohosted its annual Jail Tours & Restorative Justice Conversations with Central Virginia Community Justice. Later in the week, The Fountain Fund and the City of Charlottesville put on a One Stop Shop, gathering dozens of service providers who gather monthly to offer a single point of resources for those returning from jail and prison.
Previous year's work included important programs like the 2024 Reentry Summit which focused on strengthening coordination among service providers and fostering a comprehensive, cross-sector approach to supporting successful reentry. And a Coming Home program that featured a Reentry Simulation with UVA Law, and a film screening on the Bridge Ministry.
