Libel case dismissed against author John Grisham

ADA -- A best selling author known for his crime thrillers has been cleared of libel. John Grisham and his book about an Ada murder became the subject of a libel lawsuit. Now a federal court of appeals has dismissed the case.

Grisham published "The Innocent Man" back in 2006. The non fiction work details the murder of an Ada cocktail waitress, and the two men who were wrongly convicted and later exonerated of the crime.

A year later the former District Attorney and two local investigators who worked the case sued the author for libel.

Grisham explains the plight of Ron Williamson -- one of the men wrongly convicted of rape and murder -- in "The Innocent Man." In the book, Grisham says he explores the injustice in a small town -- what he calls a “broken criminal system” that includes “bad police work” and “lazy prosecutors.”

But Former District Attorney Bill Peterson says the book is inaccurate and paints him in a bad light.