The Innocent Man; by John Grisham.

Based on a real life story.

A man might be not very educated, not well off, not honest, a criminal on a small scale, and even not clean. But when it comes to justice his rights to it are as sacrosanct legally as those of any other innocent man.

In practice however often justice is sidestepped as various law agencies have either reasons to find quick solutions and get on with it or are unable to see the point.

And the point always is - when you convict the wrong person, the real criminal is out there, free to continue; but that is a smaller one, compared to thae fact that an innocent person is being punished for something someone else did.