Without a doubt, the two forces that are constantly at work in this novel is the battle between justice and corruption. Grisham reveals that these two forces clash in multiple ways and sadly, corruption wins out most of the time.

Fitch engineers a way for Lonnie’s company to be bought out and for Lonnie to be hired by a new company. This new company is very keen on seeing that Big Tobacco wins this lawsuit. They are able to influence Lonnie to vote a certain way which clearly goes against justice. Fitch corrupts Lonnie’s decision-making in order to reach his goal.

Marlee and Easter are also corrupted and this is shown as Fitch digs deeper into their pasts. It reveals that they have been stalking tobacco trials in order to plant Easter in the jury and engineer a verdict for cash. Although it’s not technically illegal to move around and register to vote, the reason that they do it is extremely corrupt. They obviously could care less about the law and justice.

The Colonel is bumped from the trial because, it seems, h has been reading unauthorized material in his room. In reality, Easter planted the material there in order to make him look guilty. Justice would have kept Herrera there because he really wasn’t doing anything wrong. Yet, Easter is able to corrupt him.

Another situation that Fitch engineers is the Hoppy sting. He uses two of his goons to pose as FBI agents and convince Hoppy he has committed a federal crime. They then use this situation to pressure him to influence his wife’s vote. This shows complete corruption yet is ironic in that Nitchman and Napier pose as agents of justice.

The ultimate example of total corruption in the story is the deal that Marlee and Fitch make to buy a verdict. They even talk about how corrupt their deal is, but it’s obvious they really don’t care for justice. Justice is thrown aside in favor of money and power. The entire purpose of our legal system it to avoid corruption yet it happens here. It’s set up so the jury is made of multiple people so it’s harder to influence. Yet, Fitch has enough resources to do it.