The Last Juror

The Last Juror Summary | Plot Summary

The Last Juror follows the coming of age of Willie Traynor. After college, Willie moves to rural Ford County, Mississippi to work for a small town newspaper as a staff writer. Shortly after his arrival, the paper goes bankrupt and Willie taps his rich grandmother to fund his purchase of the paper. At age 23, Willie has become the publisher and editor of a bankrupt newspaper.

Not long after, Danny Padgitt - the son of a local crime family - rapes and murders a young widow in front of her two children. The horrible story is a newspaperman's dream. Willie covers the news of the crime, as well as the subsequent trial, with vigor. His newspaper thrives as a result.

Meanwhile, Willie interviews Calia Ruffin, a local black woman, for a human-interest story. She and her husband have managed to raise eight children, seven of whom have gone on to become PhDs. Willie and Calia become good friends. In fact, Calia becomes a mother figure to Willie, who lost his mother to anorexia as a child. Willie spends every Thursday having lunch with Calia.

Calia becomes the first woman juror in Ford County and is chosen to sit on the jury during the murder trial of Danny Padgitt. After a series of gripping courtroom scenes, and in spite of Danny's threat to "get" the jury , Danny is convicted of murder. The jury then must decide whether to sentence him to life in prison or give him the death penalty. The jury can't come to a unanimous decision, and Padgitt is sentenced to life in prison.

During Padgitt's prison sentence, life in Ford County continues. Willie's newspaper thrives, and he becomes an influential member of his little town. The reader sees through Willie's eyes what it was like to live in rural Mississippi in the 1970s. There are local elections which compare to Friday night football in importance. There's also controversy over busing and the desegregation of schools. The Vietnam War is raging, and one of the town's young men becomes a casualty. In grappling with all these events and issues, Willie finds his voice and uses his paper as a venue for his opinions.

Then, Danny Padgitt is paroled, just nine years after his conviction. Jurors are being shot one by one. Because of his courtroom threat, Padgitt is the logical suspect. After a third juror is targeted, Padgitt is arrested. At his bail hearing the next morning, shots ring out and Padgitt dies. The gunman turns the gun on himself. He turns out to be the assistant prosecutor of the original murder trial. He was also the lover of the woman who was raped and murdered by Padgitt.

After covering this last dramatic story, Willie sells the newspaper and becomes a millionaire, after having bought it just ten years earlier for fifty thousand dollars. Before he's able to share the news with Calia, however, she dies of a massive heart attack.