This is the first article in a five part series examining justice as it is applied in the most serious cases our criminal court system is designed to handle— Murder. Future articles will examine other convictions and look at improvements that can be made to improve the justice system.
Every time an innocent man is convicted, a guilty man goes free.
Twenty-one-year-old Debra Carter had been found beaten, raped, and suffocated in her garage apartment in Ada, Oklahoma on December 8, 1982.
After five years of police work that can only charitably be called slipshod, detectives caught a break in the case: A career criminal named Glen Gore told detectives that he had seen Ada resident Ron Williamson with Debra Carter at the night club she worked at on the night of the murder.
Williamson would never be mistaken for a choirboy. He had been arrested and acquitted twice on rape charges. He also had a long history of mental illness that dated back to his playing days for one of the New York Yankees’ farm teams.
Dennis Fritz was implicated simply because he was Williamson’s only friend. No witness put him anywhere near Carter on the night of the murder. Ironically, Fritz was a single parent because of the murder of his own wife several years earlier, a murder for which he was never a suspect.
Six years later, the two men had a difficult time establishing alibis. When the case was tried in 1988, DNA testing was rare and in its infancy. The police had blood and hair on the scene that they thought could theoretically have come from the two men, but nothing conclusive.
During interrogation, Ron Williamson mentioned having had a nightmare about spirits attacking him. Police insisted that this dream was a thinly veiled confession.
District Attorney William Peterson handled the case. Three jailhouse informants testified against Dennis Fritz in his April 1988 trial. Coupled with the hair and blood evidence and his friendship with Williamson sealed his fate. One juror held out during the sentencing phase to make it a life sentence instead of a death sentence.
Attorney General William Peterson presented as evidence Glen Gore’s statement (Perhaps tellingly, he refused to testify at trial) that the victim had told him on the night of the murder that Ron Williamson had been bothering her. A jailhouse informant named Terri Holland told the jury that she had overheard Ron Williamson confessing to the murder in jail. She joined yet another jailhouse informant who miraculously heard Williamson confess to the crime less than 24 hours before police were going to have to release Williamson for lack of evidence. The jury returned a guilty verdict and sentenced Williamson to death.
In 1994, Williamson was five days away from his date with the needle when he was granted a stay of execution. The Innocent Man.
A year and a half after the murder of Debra Carter, there was yet another murder in Ada Oklahoma. If it sounds like I’m telling you the same story twice, I assure you, I’m not.
Twenty-four-year-old newlywed Denise Haraway had been abducted from the Ada convenience store where she was employed. The cash register had been emptied, and the victim’s car and purse were still on the scene.
Several months later, twenty-year-old Tommy Ward was questioned, as he resembled a man seen walking out of the store with Haraway. A jailhouse informant (Starting to see a pattern already? Just wait.) told police that he had overheard who had killed Haraway.
Ward initially denied any involvement in the murder. He was released and took a polygraph at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. When he was told he had failed, he explained that he thought the results might have been off because of a dream he had.
After eight hours of unrecorded interrogation, Ward confessed to the murder, implicating two others in the death. He told investigators that he had participated in the abduction, rape, and murder of Haraway with his best friend Karl Fontenot and another Ada resident, Odell Titsworth. He told them that Titsworth was the ringleader, and that the thre of them gang-raped her, murdered her with Titsworth’s knife, and dumped her body near Sandy Creek. He apparently didn’t know Titsworth very well, as he kept referring to him as “Titsdale” throughout the recorded part of the interrogation.
Karl Fontenot was arrested, and confessed after two hours of interrogation. His confession clashed with Ward’s on the order in which the three men raped her, as well as the number of stab wounds. In his confession, after murdering her with Titsworth’s knife, they took her to an abandoned house where Titsworth poured gasoline over her and burned the body.
Police picked up Titsworth for questioning, but decided that it was unlikely that he could have carried out the attack. He had broken his arm in a scuffle with police only days before the murder, a fact that neither Ward nor Fontenot apparently knew. He was never charged.
Police sifted the remains of the burned out house where Fontenot claimed the body of Denise Haraway had been destroyed. As they were examining the “crime scene”, the owner came out and told them that it was impossible for the suspects to have destroyed the body in that house— He had burned down the house himself ten months before the murder.
But none of that really mattered to District Attorney William Peterson (See the pattern forming again?). He had another jailhouse informant whose testimony would cement the case—
Terri Holland. Look a little further back up the page, and you’ll see that this is not the first time she’s provided testimony in a murder case. She claimed to have overheard Karl Fontenot confessing, just as she had claimed to have overheard Ron Williamson. I’m not sure there’s a priest in America that has heard as many confessions as Ms. Holland has claimed to have heard.
Besides her testimony, District Attorney Peterson had to ask a jury to believe two confessions that contradicted one another in almost every way, and both indicated the involvement of a third man that the police department never saw fit to file charges against.
And believe it they did. For Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot received death sentences.
Four months after the sentences were handed down, a trapper found the skeletal remains of Denise Haraway in a field. Forensic examinations have revealed no signs of stabbing, but a bullet hole in her skull. No soft tissue remained, so no DNA has been harvested. Her body was found 30 miles away from any place mentioned in either “confession”.
Ward and Fontenot were retried. And on the basis of “confessions” which not only didn’t match each other terribly well, but bore no resemblance to the physical evidence in the case, they both received life sentences.
Mark Barrett, the defense attorney that helped clear Williamson and Fritz in 1999, has taken over the case and feels confident that he can not only clear his clients, but he feels confident that he can prove who actually committed the murder.
William Peterson still serves as District Attorney for the City of Ada.
Great article Criminal Justice Part 1 and blog. I will make sure I read all 5 parts. I started a blog after I read Dennis Fritz’s Book “Journey Toward Justice”, called “Barbara’s Journey Toward Justice”, please stop by.
I am hoping that your initiative to tackle this subject of increasing awareness for the wrongfully accused can really turn into something good. John Grisham and Dennis Fritz have opened a door with their stories to get the word out to America that our innocent citizens and tax payers are at severe risk of jeopardy should this happen to them! That is the bottom line. We are not safe in the USA from prosecutors and detectives framing and railroading the innocent into prison to gain a sensational newspaper article for their career!! They do all this with tax payers $$$$! That’s where you may come in! Please visit our horrible story for some more motivation for your articles!! Thanks!
http://wrongfullyaccusedinusa.blogspot.com/
I can’t believe the guy is still D.A. of Ada. I guess the citizens of Ada have a high threshold for injustice. Unbelievable.
Bill Petersen is a real frightening man. Seems he likes to play act with the lives of the innocent. How many, just how many has this man killed ? My heart goes out to those many innocents who are incarcerated by deviant prosecutors and Keystone cops.
If many of the men sentenced to death by the justice system are being set free due to the indisbutable DNA evidence now available…what about the men already executed!!!
Im assuming if some of the men who are alive are innocent then so are some of the men who died at the hands of the state.
If so…..and if it is proved that these men were ‘wrongly’ executed who is held responsible for their murder, as thats what it amounts to in my opinion…..plain murder!!!
Also the fact that Bill Petersen is still allowed to act as the DA of Ada in light of his short commings and inefficiency to do his job fairly is nothing short of a joke.
The people of Ada should sound out the man who allowed a murderer to continue to roam their streets while two innocent men were locked up and left to rot. If his job was done right then maybe the girl that the real killer eventually kidnapped would have been spared the experience
When “The Innocent Man” came out and I heard that Bill Petersen was going to file a lawsuit against John Grisham, I was not surprised. John Grisham wrote absolutely nothing but the truth! If Bill Petersen can’t handle the truth, he needs to get the hell out of Ada. The books about the Ada murders show just how uneducated and stupid one can be and still be a DA! In Ada, as long as you come from a family that has a money or a business, you are a model citizen who can do nothing wrong. I know. I only live thirty minutes away! Petersen should have to set in jail for the same amount of time that the 2 innocent men did! And, if they had been executed, Petersen should have went on trial for 2 murders himself!
I was shocked and stunned after reading the book ‘The Innocent Man.’ Bill Peterson and his group disgust me. How are they still holding their office? They are the people that needs to be punished by the law. Isn’t it obvious that they ruined the lives of these men? Also, after this particular case, how come no one is bothered about Tommy and Karl. Isn’t obvious that they are innocent? Obviously, there should be evidences to prove that they are innocent. This is really ridiculous. I hope someone helps them.
I just finished John Grisham’s book — and I feel utterly and completely sorry for Tommy & Karl — my heart breaks for them. The kind of coersion they endured is only ever seen in the movies or part of the history of the MOB! Those so-called justice-seekers (police) should be stripped of all their honor and tried for injustice.
I am, unalteringly, appalled and devistated.
I am Tommy Ward’s first cousin. I read your article. Thank you. I have not read John Grisham’s book. My family knew Mr. Fritz. Bill Peterson was supposed to have retired from the office of DA back in January of this year. Mr. Peterson did file slander lawsuits against John Gisham and Mr. Fritz. It think the lawsuits are his way of denial that he has sent innocent people to prison. My dad used to work as a policeman for the city of Ada, OK. It was several months after Tommy was arrested that my dad was ran out of Ada by Mr. Peterson and his goons, because my dad was going to go to the press and tell them about Mr. Peterson. There was one story that my dad did tell us, after he left Oklahoma. My dad told us of a time when Mr. Peterson had a case where some rich kids had burglarized some homes and had broken into the Ada High School. When the boys were finally caught, Mr. Peterson let them go after they had spend about a day in the jail. Mr Peterson did not prosecute them, he felt that they had learned their lesson and had made the comment that, “they were good kids and had affluent lives ahead of them, I think they have learned their lesson. My dad also knew Ms Holland, the so called eyewitness that was supposidly overheard my cousin Tommy and Karl talking in their cells. One the women’s cell is no where near the men’s cells, also my dad said that Ms. Holland was told that if she would say that she had overheard my cousin, that her jail time would be shortned. This is why my dad was going to go to the press, but Mr. Peterson’s goons threatened to kill my dad, but harm my family if he ever told what he knew. My dad died back in 1974, knowing that my cousin Tommy was innocent.
Here not only did Peterson railroad Mr. Fritz into prison, because of a dream that Ron Williamson had, but railroaded my cousin because of a dream he had. At the time of Denise Haraway’s murder ( it was around Easter time) my cousin Tommy was no where near Ada. He was staying at with some friends in Norman, OK. His friends even had a picture of him with their daughter at Easter time in thier front room. The picture was never brough in to the trial as evidence. The police commisioner at that time and Mr. Peterson wanted to pin the murder on someone for Denise Haraway’s disappearance and murder. Denise Haraway was also the step daughter of the Police Commisioner (my never told me his name), and they did not want her case to be a unsolved mystery like the other murders involving other Convenience Store Clerks that had been found murdered. Hmmmmmmmm. To me that shows that the person, or persons who did those other crimes might be responsible for Denise’s death also. Instead my cousin was wrongfully convicted of a murder he did not do and he is serving prison time for the person who did do it. I just wonder if the person who did do this crime can live forever knowing that an innocent man is in jail for what he did. If he had any conscience he would come forward and clear my cousin. Mr. Barret is a good attorney, he is still working on leads in my cousin Tommy’s case. I still try to keep in touch with Tommy to help him keep his spirits up. He is a wonderful and gifted guy that had so much going for him. My aunt has lost her home, because she had put so much money into getting help to clear Tommy of this misjustice.
If anyone out there has any information that may help clear my cousin, please contact Mr. Mark Barrett. Thank you. I have seen this tragedy tear my mom’s side of the family apart. We just want the truth to come out and so Tommy and Karl can go free.
Sorry, for some of the misspelled words. This ordeal gets to all of us.
Again thank you.
i live out here on the left coast and was completly floored as i read john grishams ‘the innocent man’ over the weekend. lamb is dead on above about peterson still being the da in ada. how could that be? it’s as bizzare as the horrible ordeal ron & dennis went through. i guess the moral here is to keep your nose clean as possible in life and always have a solid alibi because you never know….
I just finished Grisham’s ‘The Innocent Man’ and actually he might have entitled it, ‘The Innocent Men’. What Mr. Grisham has really done is indict our U.S. criminal justice system. We have a problem with how long judges, prosecutors and others serve. San Francisco is studying a recent report about it. Some of the recommendations include 5 year terms for the police chief, better management practices regarding use of force training, more training for officers dealing with mentally disturbed citizens, etc.
I have also been a victim of brutal police behavior. There is virtually nothing a citizen victimized by the police can do. If you must rely on a public defender, forget it entirely. They cannot go after the police. Police records involving complaints by citizens are sealed in California and many other states under current law.
In my county, this past year, a new non profit service has started called the ‘Police Accountability Hotline’. Those who feel they have been abused by law enforcement officers and call and complain, get legal assistance and add names of cops to a database to track such behavior for future use.
In the U.S. approximately 20-25% of all law enforcement officers illegally abuse anabolic steroids to enhance physical performance in their line of work. Focus is needed everywhere to have all of them tested for abuse.
We as citizens need to put much effort into cleaning up our law enforcement communities. They will not do it themselves because of too much vested interest. We spend a significant percentage of our tax dollars on these people who treat us as the enemy.
I agree with anyone who feels distrusted by your justice system. I say “your” because I’m canadian. For the purpose of this text this distinction, as little as it is, will be ignored. I’m also a police officer and polygraph examiner.
When I read “the innocent man”, I really tried to be objective. I even tried to be the devil’s advocate and convinced myself that the investigators and prosecutor implicated were acting in good faith. My objectivity was mainly due because I didn’t realize until halfway through the book (when I saw the pictures) that this was actually a non fictional story! Needless to say, I never was able to justify the course of actions that lead to the guilty verdict of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.
To have so many judicial steps fail to protect those men is frightening to say the least. The closed mindedness, ill-fated work ethics demonstrated by Mr Peterson is exactly what the systems (your constitution, my Charter of Rights and Freedom) are suppose to protect us from.
I would, in the same breath, warn you not to demonstrate the same narrow minded attitude towards law enforcement. Police officers and prosecutors are honorable professions which includes courageous, dedicated men and women.
Don’t try to lay all the blame on William Peterson. There are alot of mysteries in Ada, Oklahoma and alot of innocent people taking the heat for the guilty.
Change needs to come to Ada, Oklahoma. But nobody has the guts to do much about it. Don’t think for one moment that by getting rid of Bill Peterson you got rid of the problem.
Unless you can take action on this subject, why make any comments at all? Why show repulsion if all you are doing is taking up internet space?
I believe Tommy Ward is innocent. He still sets in prison. And other than a Jew named Robert Mayer, nobody has done much about it.
When are you people going to bring America to Oklahoma? What’s it going to take?
Much injustice follows on how people dress and look.
These two young men had long hair and a mustache and liked to go to bars. This is enough for far too many people to make a person guilty. I think that is called profiling and it is about time that the legal system control this. I’m sure tattoos and body piericing put young people in the same class!!!
just finished the innocent man and never have i read a book and felt i should research more. the story is amazing and for a moment almost unbelievable. my sympathy goes to rons family and debbie .
i believe tommy ward is innocent
SANDRA, I HAVE READ OVER THIS BOOK MANY TIMES. i do’nt like to say this to you but from what i have read i would have to say they are quilty there is nothing in thier stories that would make any body thats been around criminals much that wound’nt think thier giving bullshit stories to try to throw the blame on someelse.BUT!! living around the wrong kind of people most my life and truly reading this book to make since of it. i know they did’nt kill Denise.
i don’t think they even know who did kill her. i honestely think i know who did. and if i can ever find out the real name of the cowboy they called lurch in the book i promise i will know for you and tommy’s sister trish, brotherlnlaw bud if they did do it or if it’s like i think it’s someoneelse because this is what i do, if i fell for family and they are being hurt and done wrong i WILL find the truth for you my way. wish me luck, and i would saysomthing might go good for tommy once but don’t get his hopes up. i do’nt even know if the man i’m trying to find is alive. see ya you will here from me again if i find the so called lurch