The Chamber

The Chamber is the 1994 legal crime novel written by bestselling author John Grisham. Set in contemporary Mississippi with flashbacks to the 1960s, the story revolves around Adam Hall, a rising 26-year-old lawyer destined for a brilliant legal career at Chicago’s top law firm. However, Adam decides to risk his career and reputation to defend death-row inmate Sam Cayhall, a white supremacist and former Klansman convicted of a deadly bombing in 1967 Mississippi. Sam also happens to be Adam’s own estranged grandfather. As Adam agrees to take the case only 28 days before Sam’s execution, he must race the clock to save his grandfather from the gas chamber, uncovering tragic family secrets along the way. Grisham’s fifth novel, The Chamber became an instant New York Times bestseller. The novel has been called “totally hypnotic” by The Washington Post, “compelling…powerful” by USA Today, and that “Grisham is at his best” by People. In 1996, Universal Pictures released a film adaptation of the novel, with James Foley directing, Chris O’Donnell starring as Hall, and Gene Hackman starring as Cayhall.

Narrated in the third-person perspective, the story begins in 1967 Greenville, Mississippi. Marvin Kramer is a lawyer and upstanding pillar of the Jewish community. Marvin’s office building is bombed, killing his twin sons, John and Josh. The police identify Sam Cayhall, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, as the culprit when he is found nearby with a shard of glass in his face. Sam is arrested for bombing Kramer’s office, motivated by Kramer’s family’s support of the Civil Rights Movement. Sam enlists his Klan-affiliated lawyer, Clovis Brazleton, and is given two criminal trials, both of which result in a mistrial. 20 years later, the FBI leans on a potential witness to testify against Sam one more time. As a result, Sam is sentenced to death and ordered to be executed by gas. Sam is transferred to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, aka Parchman Farm, and put on Death Row.

No longer aided by legal representation, Sam’s case gets the attention of high-profile Chicago law firm Kravitz and Bane. The case goes to a pro bono unit of anti-capital punishment lawyers. By chance, Sam’s case is assigned to his own grandson, Adam Hall, an idealistic 26-year-old lawyer with little knowledge of his family’s sordid history. Adam was born Alan Cayhall, but his parents felt so strongly against Sam’s racist views that they moved to California and changed Alan’s name to Adam, and their surname to Hall. Later, when Adam’s father Eddie hears that Sam has been arrested and convicted, Eddie kills himself.



With just 28 days before Sam is scheduled for execution, Adam travels from Chicago to Mississippi to meet his grandfather for the first time. Sam never knew he had a grandson. Adam hasn’t much family left, but learns of Sam’s violent past and hidden secrets from Sam’s alcoholic daughter, Lee Cayhall Booth, with whom he stays. Adam learns Sam murdered Joe Lincoln, a black neighbor, out of sheer racial hatred. Adam has little experience with death-row cases, but insists on arguing a stay of execution for Sam. When Adam begins assisting his grandfather, Sam is difficult at first. When Sam learns Adam is really his grandson, he tells the details of his life and crimes to Adam. Sam reveals a deep understanding of how the legal system works, information he gleaned from years of criminal activity.

Adam speaks with the FBI agent who was originally assigned to Sam’s case. Adam is presented with evidence proving Sam is innocent of the murders he’s been convicted of. However, Adam learns Sam conspired with the bombers as a lookout and getaway driver. Adam also learns Sam has a long history within the KKK, including murder, something he’s kept hidden from his family for years. Jeremiah Dogan, one of the bombers and fellow Klan members who testified against Sam during his third trial, is found dead. The KKK is blamed. Sam refuses to say whether he’s in cahoots with another affiliated Klan member, thereby maintaining his loyalty oath to the KKK.

Adam frantically files a series of motions in order to halt Sam’s execution. Adam seeks for Sam to be given a reprieve from the Mississippi governor, David McAllister. However, Adam knows such a grant would be politically unfeasible because of the way Sam would react. Sam would surely deny a reprieve on grounds that McAllister was using Sam as a political prop for his own interest. Adam files appeal after appeal as time to Sam’s execution runs out, but all of them are denied. Governor McAllister does not grant Sam clemency.



Sam, who’s had 20 years to express guilt and remorse, finally repents for all of the hateful violence he’s committed over the years. Sam and Adam become closer as the month passes, which contributes to Sam having a change of heart. Sam disallows Adam to be present during his execution, but faces his final moments with gallantry. Just before entering the gas chamber, Sam publicly rebukes his hateful criminal past with the KKK. Sam also expresses how proud he is of Adam and how close they’ve become in the final month of his life. Sam is escorted to the chamber. Adam is forced to walk away.

Following Sam’s death, the novel explains that a third man involved with the office bombings is still at large. The man, Rollie Wedge, continues to live nearby and has been secretly following Sam’s case under a falsified identity. Rollie has outgrown the KKK to become a “Proud Fascist.” What Adam will never know is that Rollie had tailed him for days, and even considered murdering him. In the end, Rollie opted not to kill Adam because he felt certain Sam wouldn’t rat him out. As the story closes, Adam becomes disenfranchised by the legal process and quits his job at Kravitz and Bane. Instead, Adam takes a low-paying job with a team of lawyers who staunchly oppose the death penalty.