A federal judge in Oklahoma has dismissed a libel suit against author John Grisham.
The New York Times reports that the law suit was field against Grisham and two other authors about books they had written about the wrongful conviction of two men in the 1982 murder of a cocktail waitress.
The plaintiffs, Bill Peterson, the former district attorney of Pontotoc County, Melvin Hett, state criminalist and Gary Rogers, a former investigator with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, all accused the authors of conspiring to commit libel and intentionally inflict emotional distress.
The case of the two men who were first convicted for the slaying of Debbie Sue Carter were exonerated by DNA evidence and were freed after spending 12 years in prison.
Grisham, in his 2006 non-fiction book “The Innocent Man,” wrote that Bill Peterson, the former district attorney of Pontotoc County and plaintiff in this case, and others tried to suppress evidence and prevent appeals to occurr.
Charlottesville’s own John Grisham has another suit pending, one filed by Katherine Almy, who alleges that Grisham intentionally inflicted emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
