Snow Falling on Cedars

FACTS:

Why do they suspect Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American fisherman?
The local sheriff, Art Moran and his deputy, Abel Martinson, found Carl Heine’s body, a fisherman, trapped in the boat’s fishing net underwater. They discovered an odd wound on his head. A practicing physician, Horace Whaley, notes that the wound resembles wounds he saw during the World War II, on soldiers who had fought in hand-to-hand combat with Japanese soldiers.
Of particular interest is a dead engine battery that was found on the boat. The type of battery is different from the type that Carl normally used to power his boat but it matches the type of battery that Kabuo used on his boat.
Art Moran found one of the mooring ropes on Carl Heine’s ship did not match the other three ropes but did match those on Kabuo’s boat. Furthermore, one of Kabuo’s ropes is brand new. Art thinks that he lost one and had to replace it.
Art soon discovers the blood-covered gaff. Dr. Sterling Whitman, a haematologist testifies that the blood on Kabuo’s fishing gaff is human blood, type B positive. This type matches Carl Heine’s and is relatively rare. Kabuo, on the other hand, is type O negative, so the blood clearly did not come from him. But Dr. Sterling admits that he did not find any bone splinters, hair, or skin on the gaff. He says that it is more likely that the blood came from a minor wound the coroner found on Carl’s hand.
Etta Heine, Carl's mother, accuse Kabuo of murdering Carl for racial and personal reasons. Because Kabuo wants to buy the Heines’ strawberry farm but he simply showed up too late to buy the land.
Ishmael Chambers, a reporter, realizes with the help of the radio at the lighthouse archives that a large freighter, the Corona would have produced waves easily large enough to upend Carl’s boat and knock him overboard. He steals one of the carbon copies of the lighthouse report from that night’s log so he proves Kabuo’s innocence.

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(In fact it was an accident: Carl was in the midst of tying a lantern to the mast when a massive wave from the Corona crashed into his boat, throwing him from the mast. As he fell, his head struck the boat, knocking him unconscious. He fell into the water and drowned.)