Mark BarrettAt this point, Mark Barrett, Williamson's attorney, gained permission to get a DNA analysis of the physical evidence from the Carter case for Williamson's new trial.Jun 6, 2021
In 2003, Gore was convicted of Carter's murder and sentenced to death, per The Oklahoman. The Ada News reported that he appealed this and was granted a new trial, but was convicted again in 2006. He's now serving life in prison without parole, according to Oklahoma inmate records.Dec 14, 2018
Williamson had once been a local hero as a baseball player in the US minor leagues, but a shoulder injury had ended his career and seen him return to his hometown at the age of 25. He was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, severe depression and schizophrenia, and self-medicated with drugs and alcohol.Nov 26, 2018
No amount of money on the face of the earth could even begin to make an amend for what happened.” Immediately following his release, Fritz moved to Kansas City to live with his mother.Dec 14, 2018
The book tells the story of Ronald 'Ron' Keith Williamson of Ada, Oklahoma, a former minor league baseball player who was wrongly convicted in 1988 of the rape and murder of Debra Sue Carter in Ada and was sentenced to death....The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.Book CoverAuthorJohn GrishamOCLC702512305 more rows
While Fontenot has been free on bond since late 2019, Ward remains incarcerated. In Ward's case, a state judge overturned his conviction in December, but the Attorney General's Office appealed the case to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled he was to remain incarcerated during the appeal.Jul 14, 2021
Published in 2006, the true-crime story profiles Ron Williamson, a mentally ill man who, along with his friend Dennis Fritz, was wrongly convicted in the 1982 rape and murder of cocktail waitress Debbie Sue Carter.Dec 6, 2018
2003Glen Gore was originally convicted in 2003 for Carter's murder. However, the OCCA ruled in August 2005 that Gore was denied a fair trial, so he was tried and convicted again in 2006.Mar 25, 2021
eleven yearsDennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were exonerated and released in April 1999. Williamson had, at one point, come within five days of execution. The two had been wrongfully incarcerated, respectively, for eleven years.
In 2004, only five years after he was freed, Williamson passed away from cirrhosis of the liver. He had only learned of the condition six weeks before his death, but had been suffering from severe stomach pains before that, according to his sister, Annette Hudson.Dec 14, 2018
Ron Williamson grew up in Ada, Oklahoma, and was the youngest of three children and his parents’ only son. A talented baseball player, he was the 41st pick in baseball’s 1971 amateur draft. A shoulder injury ruined his career though, and Williamson returned home in the late 1970s.
Soon after their release, Williamson and Fritz visited New York, where they took a tour of Yankee Stadium. Williamson said he “just got a taste of how much fun they were having up here.”
Williamson and Fritz were not charged until five years after the murder (the charge was delayed by state exhumation of the victim after an incorrect analysis of fingerprints at the scene was noted). An inmate that Fritz was paired with eventually came forward and stated that Fritz had confessed to the murder. This confession came one day before the prosecution would have been forced to drop the charges against Fritz. Another informant testified that she had heard Williamson threaten to harm the informant’s mother as he had the victim. Additionally, police said that Williamson told them he had a dream about committing the crime. He allegedly told police that he dreamed that he stabbed and strangled the victim. This statement was treated as a confession.
In May 1987, 37-year-old Dennis Fritz and 34-year-old Ronald Keith Williamson were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, and rape by instrumentation, per an archived article from The Daily Oklahoman. The charge was delayed five years because of incorrect analysis of fingerprints at the scene, per The Innocence Project. ...
Dennis Fritz at West Dennis Fritz, one of two men wrongly convicted for a murder at the heart of John Grisham's "The Innocent Man," appeared at West on Oct. 15, 2008. More information is available at WestBlog.net. 2008-10-17T20:24:04.000Z
Based on John Grisham's only true crime best-seller, The Innocent Man, an old case that shook the small town of Ada, Oklahoma in the 1980s is re-opened with unbelievable evidence that has everyone questioning if the right men were charged, or if the killer is… 2018-12-03T14:29:53.000Z. Per Grisham’s book, Williamson was born on February 3, 1953.
In separate trials, both Fritz and then Williamson were found guilty in 1988. Williamson received a death sentence, while Fritz was sentenced to life without parole. The evidence included expert testimony in hair analysis, which is now regarded as unreliable.
Best-selling novelist John Grisham read Williamson's obituary in The New York Times and made him and Fritz the subject of his first non-fiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, published in 2006. The book became a bestseller.
Their story became the subject of bestselling author John Grisham 's first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town , and the adapted Netflix docu-series of the same name .
Dennis Fritz. Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of 21-year-old Debbie Carter, whose death shook the town of Ada, Oklahoma in 1982. After over a decade of appeals, Williamson and Fritz were eventually exonerated and cleared of any wrongdoing, after it was found that DNA evidence overruled any ...
On The 700 Club (as seen in the video above), Fritz has spoken about how his religion helped him get through the hard times. He said, “I prayed to the lord, that I would be found innocent…but I also prepared myself for the worst.”