The Innocent Man

As a fan of John Grisham I bought this book without reading the blurb on the back, I hadn't realised it was actually a true story and not a work of fiction.

~The Story~

The book for the most part follows the lives of Ron Williamson and his family, although through association with Ron it also encompasses the life of Dennis Fritz. There are also substantial mentions for Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot.

The book is basically about the inadequacies and the injustices in the US justice system. The malicious prosecution of a man and his friend because he is different, because he doesn't fit in with societies ideals, because his physical appearance scares people and because his mental illnesses make his an ideal scapegoat.

~The Men and Women Involved~

Ron Williamson

Ron was a high school college star, destined for the big leagues, his temper and injuries combined to stop Ron making the most of the natural talent he had for sports. Ron is also blessed with a talent for the guitar, which leads him to spend hours and hours alone playing and drinking. Eventually he succumbs to alcoholism, and begins crawling the bars of his home town of Ada, Oklahoma. His temper continues to get him into trouble, eventually he has some psychological testing (over many years) and is found to suffer from bi-polar and schizophrenia. During his time drifting from bar to bar and drinking, he runs into Dennis Fritz.

Dennis Fritz

Dennis was a father and a teacher, separated from his wife he moved not far from the Williamson's. Eventually he met Ron, and through their love of the guitar and music they became friends and started to go out drinking together. Eventually Dennis found he couldn't cope with Ron's mood swings and stopped drinking with him. But the damage was done.

Debbie Carter

A young waitress at a local cocktail bar, who was brutally raped and murdered in December 1982.

Denice Haraway

A young woman who was abducted in April 1984.

Gary Gore

The last man to be seen talking to Debbie Carter, he had also asked her to dance earlier in the evening. But the dance was cut short as Debbie angrily stormed off to the bathroom.

Tommy Ward

A local boy who had the misfortune of having a few misdemeanours to his name, and bore a slight resemblance to a photofit of the suspected kidnappers of Denice Haraway.

Karl Fontenot

Another local boy, who had been fishing with Tommy when Denice disappeared, and was Tommy's alibi witness.

Terri Holland

A petty criminal and jailhouse snitch.

~Their Stories~

As I said before the book is about the mistakes in the criminal justice system which almost cost these men their lives. I don't want to go into a great deal of detail because that would defeat the object of reading the book. So the basic outline is; Ron and Dennis were arrested for the rape and murder of Debbie, many years after the crime had actually been committed, and after the death of Ron's mother who was able to say that Ron was home on the night of the murder.

Tommy and Karl were arrested for the kidnapping of Denice. Both sets of men were convicted on the flimsiest of evidence, mainly consisting of testimony from jail house snitches, particularly the evidence of Terri Holland. Even though it was shown that she could not have heard what she testified to.

The only other major pieces of evidence were so called confessions. After hours of police grilling and threats Tommy and Karl were coerced into giving confessions. The police gave them hypothetical scenarios telling them to imagine what might have happened if it was all a dream. After getting them to tell a reasonable sounding story they were told to repeat it into a video camera, but they were told not to mention dreams or anything similar.

The confessions were full of holes and contradicted each other. When the body of Denice was eventually found, it was shown that there was no resemblance to the crime and the confession. Despite this the prosecution went ahead and their fate was sealed when the jury saw the men on video confessing to killing Denice.

The police used the same tactics again years later with Ron, they also coerced a 'dream' confession, and again this was coupled with the testimony of Terri Holland, who again received a pass on her crimes once the testimony had been delivered.

Dennis was tried separately to Ron and found guilty, he was sentenced to life in prison. Ron was portrayed as the major protagonist and he too was convicted, his case wasn't helped by the incompetence of his attorney, and that the prison guards deliberately messed with the doses of his medication and whispered messages 'from beyond the grave' pretending to be Debbie. This meant Ron was in a terrible state in court and unable to control himself. Ron was sentenced to the death penalty.

Tommy and Karl were both convicted and received the death penalty. When further evidence came to light that proved their confessions to be false, they were retried and received life imprisonment.

The story then continues to tell the readers about the appeals process and how only one judge had the foresight to realise a terrible injustice had been done. It also tells of the horrendous treatment Ron received whilst on death row, and the blatant disregard by the prison service for his mental state.

~My Thoughts~

The description above really doesn't give justice to the complete and utter travesty that occurred in Ada and the criminal justice system. Its hard to believe that this could have happened in recent times, it reads like a tale from the 1800's.

I have never agreed with the death penalty, although sometimes when I hear vile acts against children, my immediate response is hang the b*stards. This is usually only fleeting and my true feelings about the death penalty come back to the fore.

This book strengthens those feelings, if it hadn't been for a few good men and women working tirelessly on appeals, three men would have been put to death. One of whom was so mentally disturbed at some points he could barely function.

I found myself sickened by the actions of the police, who completely disregarded any evidence and despite Miranda being introduced a couple of years early, they also disregarded the rights of their suspects.

But even more sickening was the attitude of the prosecutor, who even after the release of Ron and Dennis would not admit he had made a mistake. He relied on jail house snitches who he must have known would say anything to reduce their own sentence. If he didn't realise this then he is even more dangerous as he must have no sense at all.

At first I found the book a little hard reading, perhaps that was because I was expecting a fiction book, and factual books are written in a different manner. But by around the third chapter I was hooked, I kept having to turn the page, because I was convinced that the prosecutor couldn't be that stupid and the next chapter would show him admitting his mistake.

My heart absolutely went out to Ron's sisters, Annette and Renee. The heart break they went through watching their brother being convicted for a crime he didn't commit was bad enough. But then they had to watch his mental deterioration from afar, and had to fight every step of the way to get him medical help.

I also felt sorry for Debbie's mother, who actually gets only slight mentions in the book. But I can imagine how hard it was for her, not only to lose her daughter in such a vile way, but to think that her murder was solved, only for all the wounds to be reopened.

I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would especially recommend it to anyone who believes in the death penalty. These three men were almost killed by the state for just having the wrong look. Two men are still in jail 22 years later fighting for their freedom.

I now want to read The Dreams of Ada by Robert Mayer, which was published a few years after the convictions, and details the ludicrous confessions of these men.