Novelist Scott Turow was born in Chicago, Illinois (1949). He went to Harvard Law School, got a job with the United States District Attorney's office, and returned to Chicago to prosecute the infamous "Operation Greylord" case: a widespread crackdown and sting operation that nabbed corrupt judges and others in the Illinois legal system. Turow successfully prosecuted, among others, a state attorney general and a circuit-court judge. On his train rides to and from work, he began working on a novel in a spiral bound notebook. His wife finally made him take time off to finish it. The novel was called Presumed Innocent (1987). Narrated by a prosecutor who becomes the primary suspect of a murder, it begins, "This is how I always start: 'I am the prosecutor. I represent the state. I am here to present to you the evidence of a crime. Together you will weigh this evidence. You will deliberate upon it. You will decide if it proves the defendant's guilt. This man - ' and here I point. You must always point… And so I point. I extend my hand across the courtroom. I hold one finger straight. I seek the defendant's eye. I say: 'This man has been accused.'" The novel spent more than forty-three weeks on the bestseller lists, went through sixteen hard cover printings, and sold four million paperback copies. Turow was overwhelmed. Though he has continued to write books, he has also continued to practice law.
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