The Runaway Jury

The Runaway Jury is a 1996 legal thriller by author, lawyer, and former politician John Grisham. Grisham has written 50 consecutive #1 best-selling novels that have been translated into 50 languages. Grisham has won the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction and won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction twice. The Runaway Jury was adapted into a 2003 film, one of the seven Grisham novels that have been made into movies. The Runaway Jury follows a high-profile tobacco trial as the widow of a man who died of lung cancer sues a large tobacco corporation. The lawyers on both sides utilize shady jury consultants in an attempt to sway the verdict. Meanwhile, a man named Nicholas infiltrates the jury and influences the trial from the inside while working with a woman named Marlee on the outside. The novel deals with themes related to power, manipulation, and morality within the justice system.

This guide refers to the 2022 Penguin Books paperback edition. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, addiction, substance abuse, pregnancy termination, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with a jury consulting firm looking at the photos and backgrounds of potential jurors for a high-profile tobacco trial. One of these potential jurors is a man named Nicholas Easter, who stated in his jury forms that he is a part-time student who works at a computer store. The jury consultants send a woman to smoke inside the computer store to gauge Nicholas’s attitude toward cigarettes. Nicholas politely asks the woman to leave, but he doesn’t seem to dislike smoking or smokers.

The firm is employed by a man named Rankin Fitch, a shady consultant who works for “The Fund,” a secretive pool of money from the “Big Four” tobacco companies seeking to stop litigation against the tobacco industry. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a significant court showdown looms. Celeste Wood is suing Pynex, one of the Big Four companies, after the death of her husband, Jacob Wood, from lung cancer. Jacob was a heavy smoker, and lawyer Wendell Rohr seeks compensatory and punitive damages from Pynex, the producer of Jacob’s brand of cigarettes. Durwood “Durr” Cable and his law firm—chosen by Fitch—defend Pynex.

The potential jurors arrive at the courthouse for jury selection. Judge Fred Harkin presides over the trial, and he dismisses any potential jurors with medical issues or other problems that would preclude them from being a juror. Rohr and Cable then question the jurors about their attitudes toward smoking and litigation. Nicholas makes it on the jury, which thrills him. The jury selects a blind man named Herman Grimes as foreman. Nicholas attempted to get on the jury at two previous tobacco trials under different aliases, but he wasn’t selected. This time, he has the opportunity to influence the jury. During their first day as jurors, lunch arrives late, and Nicholas goes to the restaurant and talks to Harkin about the issue, establishing himself as the group’s leader. The deli delivers the jury’s lunch afterward, but the deli owner insists that he received a phone call from a young woman telling him to deliver the lunch later in the afternoon.

Both sides give their opening statements before the plaintiff’s lawyers show a video of Jacob, taken before his death, in which he discusses his life before and after his cancer diagnosis. Before the first day of the trial ends, a woman named Marlee, who knows all about the trial and Fitch, passes a note to Fitch through one of his consultants, stating what outfit Nicholas will wear the next day. Fitch is alarmed and sends one of his operatives to break into Nicholas’s apartment to look for a connection to Marlee. When Nicholas returns from court, he checks the security footage from his hidden cameras and is unsurprised to witness the break-in. He keeps the video footage for later.

The next day, Nicholas is wearing the outfit that Marlee predicted. Rohr calls Dr. Milton Fricke as a witness to describe how cigarette smoke causes lung cancer. Over the weekend, Fitch sends men to follow Nicholas and report on his movements, but Nicholas does nothing suspicious. On Monday, Marlee calls Fitch from a payphone, this time predicting what magazine a juror named Jerry will carry with him to court. Fitch goes to court and sees that Marlee is again correct. Nicholas begins telling the other jurors about jury manipulation, informing them that both sides have jury consultants who are paid to watch their every move, which isn’t illegal. Rohr calls another doctor to illustrate how addictive nicotine is and how tobacco companies can influence how much nicotine is in tobacco. Meanwhile, one of the Big Four companies buys the local grocery chain at which juror Lonnie Shaver works. They fly Lonnie to Charlotte and wine and dine him before offering him a larger salary while implying that he must vote for the defense. Lonnie agrees.

As the trial continues, Nicholas decides to tell Harkin that he’s been followed. Harkin tells Nicholas to keep him updated about any further jury tampering. Marlee calls Fitch and accurately predicts Nicholas’s outfit and that the jury will recite the Pledge of Allegiance. She also leaves a note with Rohr’s secretary with the same prediction.

Juror Stella Hulic travels to Miami, Florida, for the weekend with her husband, where they receive a phone call from Marlee claiming that they’re being followed by jury consultants. Stella becomes paranoid and stays in her hotel room all weekend, and her husband is followed by a photographer, secretly hired by Marlee. When Stella returns to Biloxi, Nicholas tells her that he was stalked but refuses to tell the judge, so Stella keeps her experience in Miami to herself. Nicholas then tells Harkin about the break-in and shows him the footage from his apartment. He also mentions that Stella was followed in Miami. Harkin calls Stella in to discuss her experience in front of both sides’ lawyers. He dismisses Stella, as she is too upset to continue. He also calls in Nicholas and shows the lawyers the footage of the break-in. Both sides deny being responsible. Harkin decides to sequester the jury to prevent further jury manipulation. All the jurors are upset, but Nicholas is secretly pleased.

When the jurors arrive with their packed backs for sequestration, the deputies attempt to search the bags until Nicholas kicks up a fuss, again acting as leader of the jury despite not being the foreman. The jury goes on strike until Harkin agrees to not search their bags and to offer an extra conjugal visit for the jurors per week. The jurors settle into the motel, briefly going on strike again until Harkin agrees to let them have TVs, beer, newspapers, and access to church services. The trial continues with the plaintiff’s witnesses, including a former Pynex employee who establishes the existence of a memo proving that Pynex has known that nicotine is addictive since the 1940s.

Marlee meets with Fitch in person, though she refuses to accept his money yet. Marlee then meets with Nicholas, and they brief each other and kiss. Fitch sends a man to entrap juror Millie Dupree’s husband, Hoppy, in a bribery scheme. Fitch then sends two men to impersonate FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agents and threaten Hoppy with jail time unless he convinces Millie to vote on behalf of the defense. Fitch also begins to research Nicholas, as he believes that Nicholas is the same man as the potential juror on two previous tobacco cases.

Fitch sends his men to steal Nicholas’s computer hard drive and computer discs, and then they burn down his apartment, severely damaging several other units in the building. Nicholas is shaken that his computer was robbed. Fitch hires computer specialists to crack Nicholas’s encryption. Fitch realizes that Nicholas’s real name is Jeff and begins tracking his past.

Marlee sneaks into the hotel and meets up with Nicholas. They spend a romantic night together. Marlee met Nicholas back when he was Jeff, a law student at Kansas University. Marlee was working as a waitress. She and Jeff fell in love and began traveling the country and following big tobacco trials.

Harkin meets with Nicholas to discuss the apartment fire before court continues. Rohr calls a notable anti-smoking advocate named Robilio to the stand, who blames the tobacco companies for advertising to children and teenagers. Cable cross-examines him and attempts to discredit his claims, but the jury finds Robilio sympathetic and convincing. Meanwhile, Fitch sends investigators to look into Nicholas’s mother, Pamela Blanchard. They find that Jeff’s real name is Jeff Kerr and that he attended Rice University before entering law school in Kansas, though he then dropped out and fell off the map after beginning to date a girl named Claire Clement, which Fitch thinks is Marlee’s real name.

The plaintiff’s side calls its last witnesses: an economist to assess the economic value of Jacob’s life and Celeste to speak about the loss of her husband. Fitch sends his operatives to dig into Claire’s past while Rohr sends a man to bribe juror Angel Weese’s boyfriend to encourage her to vote for the plaintiff.

Nicholas hides copies of magazines and newspapers discussing the trial under the bed of juror Frank Herrera and reports Frank to Harkin for reading about the trial, getting Frank removed from the jury and replaced with alternate juror Henry Vu, whom Nicholas thinks he can easily manipulate. Marlee meets with Fitch and demands $10 million to deliver a verdict in favor of the defense. The defense calls its witnesses, a series of doctors who claim that cigarettes do not cause lung cancer and that tobacco companies do not advertise to children.

Hoppy tries to convince Millie to vote for the defense, telling her that he may face prison time if she doesn’t. Millie confides in Nicholas, who tells her that it’s a scam. Nicholas and Millie tell Hoppy that it’s a scam, and they plot to catch the fake FBI agents in the act. Marlee calls the real FBI and gets an agent to arrive at Hoppy’s office and catch the fake FBI agents in the act, arresting them and taking them out of Mississippi. Fitch’s investigators find Claire/Marlee’s real identity: Gabrielle Brant, from Columbia, Missouri. The investigator goes to Missouri to find out more.

On the final day of the trial, Nicholas drugs Herman’s coffee to give him symptoms that he mistakes for a heart attack. Herman is replaced by alternate juror Shine Royce. The jury elects Nicholas as the new foreman. Both sides deliver their closing statements, and then the jury enters deliberation. Nicholas insists that everyone read all the documentation before they begin voting.

Marlee flies to Grand Cayman and uses the $10 million to short sell shares from the Big Four tobacco companies. Fitch’s investigator finds that Gabrielle’s parents both died of lung cancer. Fitch realizes that he’s been fooled.

In deliberation, the group begins voting. Nicholas finally reveals his perspective: He thinks that it’s been proven that cigarettes cause lung cancer, and that tobacco companies profit off people’s suffering, so they should penalize the tobacco industry. Only three jurors vote not to hold Pynex liable (Lonnie, as well as former alternate Phillip Savelle and Gladys Card). The group then decides how much money to award the plaintiff. Nicholas suggests $1 billion to set a landmark precedent, but the other jurors are uncomfortable with that amount. The nine jurors then each write down how much money they want to award; then, they average it. The amount is $400 million.

The jury gives their decision, awarding $400 million in punitive damages and $2 million in compensatory damages. Rohr and his team are thrilled, while Cable and Fitch are enraged. Fitch wants to go after Nicholas and Marlee, but he has no way to do so without revealing his own illegal activities.

Nicholas joins Marlee in Grand Cayman. Marlee repurchases the stocks she shorted, netting $8 million in profits. She and Nicholas go to Switzerland. Six weeks later, as the lawyers contemplate appealing the verdict, Marlee interrupts Fitch as he has lunch. She tells him that she’s returned the original $10 million to him. She tells him about the pain of losing both her parents to lung cancer before she hatched her plan for revenge on the tobacco industry during graduate school. She tells Fitch that if the lawyers appeal the verdict too strongly, she will release the copies of the wire transfers, proving that Fitch attempted to buy the original verdict.