Ron Williamson
Encyclopedia
Ronald "Ron" Keith Williamson (February 3, 1953 – December 4, 2004) was a former minor league
baseball
catcher/pitcher who was one of two men wrongly convicted in 1988 in Oklahoma
for the rape and murder of Debra Sue "Debbie" Carter. His friend Dennis Fritz
was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Williamson was sentenced to death. Both were released 11 years later when DNA evidence proved their innocence. Their story became the subject of bestselling author John Grisham
's first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.
, Oklahoma
, Ron was the youngest of three children and the only son. He played baseball at Asher high school, as his parents moved there so that he could play under the school's legendary coach, Murl Bowen. He was a standout athlete even when very young. Directly after he graduated from high school, he was the 41st pick in baseball's 1971 amateur draft, a second-round selection by the Oakland Athletics
. He spent the 1972 season primarily with the Coos Bay-North Bend A's, hitting .265 in 52 games. In 1973, he had a poor year, hitting .137 for the Key West Conchs with only 13 runs produced in 59 games. A shoulder injury derailed his career for the next few years. His father, through a childhood friendship with former major league pitcher Harry "The Cat" Brecheen
, got him a look with the New York Yankees
, where he pitched in their minor league system for parts of 1976 and 1977. In his last season, he pitched in 14 games, working 33 innings. At the age of 24 his baseball career was over, as drugs and alcohol had taken over his life. He did try to spark further interest in himself from the Yankees camp two years later but was unsuccessful, although another small stint in the minors did follow. This was cut short due yet again to the nagging shoulder injury.
His baseball career over, Williamson held several other jobs. He became addicted to drugs and alcohol and suffered from increasingly severe mental illness
, becoming depressed and living with his mother Juanita Williamson.
were arrested five years later on flimsy testimony, including a highly unusual confession in the form of a dream related to the police by the mentally ill Williamson. In separate trials, both Fritz and then Williamson were found guilty in 1988. Williamson received a death sentence, while Fritz was sent to prison for life.
The evidence included expert testimony in hair analysis, which is now regarded as unreliable. The expert concluded that 13 of the 17 hairs found at the crime scene were "microscopically consistent" with those of Fritz and Williamson, and alleged that one of them was a "match." The defense failed to point out that although the hair samples could have implicated the pair, they equally could have cleared them both. Despite his rapidly failing mental health, no motion was made to assess Williamson's competence.
After their sentencing, a confession by a man named Ricky Joe Simmons came to light. Having learned of this while on death row
, Williamson became increasingly convinced that Simmons had committed the murder and repeatedly demanded his arrest. Simmons was never charged. At one time on September 22, 1994, Williamson was only five days away from being executed when the execution was stayed by the court following a habeas corpus
petition. At the time, Williamson screamed "I'm innocent! I'm innocent! I'm innocent!" from his cell to protest his impending execution.
, and following several appeals, Williamson and Fritz were cleared by DNA testing, and were finally freed on April 15, 1999. (Williamson was the 78th inmate exonerated from Death Row since 1973 as of November 29, 2010.) In 2003, they sued the City of Ada and won a settlement of $500,000; the State of Oklahoma also settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Many of the residents of Ada continued to believe that Williamson and Fritz were guilty long after they were exonerated. Indeed, both men reportedly felt the need to keep an eye over their shoulder since their release, such was their belief that the prosecutor Bill Peterson and other officials of the Ada police would try to bring them to trial again.
five years later. Although he had a history of illicit drug and alcohol abuse, Thorazine and other potent psychotropic prescription drugs may have precipitated the cirrhosis. 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.
Once Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz had been cleared of murder, Glen Gore eventually came to trial, based on the same DNA evidence that had cleared Fritz and Williamson. This evidence proved that it was Glen Gore's DNA that was left at the scene. On June 24, 2003, Gore was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, but his death sentence was overturned in August 2005. He was eventually convicted at his second trial on June 21, 2006 and sentenced by Judge Tom Landrith to life imprisonment without parole, which was required by law due to a jury deadlock on sentencing.
Minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
catcher/pitcher who was one of two men wrongly convicted in 1988 in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
for the rape and murder of Debra Sue "Debbie" Carter. His friend Dennis Fritz
Dennis Fritz
Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were wrongly convicted of the murder of Ada, Oklahoma resident Debra Carter. Fritz was given a life sentence, while Williamson was sentenced to death in 1988. Fritz and Williamson were the subjects of a non-fiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a...
was sentenced to life imprisonment, while Williamson was sentenced to death. Both were released 11 years later when DNA evidence proved their innocence. Their story became the subject of bestselling author John Grisham
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...
's first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.
Early life
Born and raised in AdaAda, Oklahoma
Ada is a city in and the county seat of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,008 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, the city population was estimated at 17,019....
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, Ron was the youngest of three children and the only son. He played baseball at Asher high school, as his parents moved there so that he could play under the school's legendary coach, Murl Bowen. He was a standout athlete even when very young. Directly after he graduated from high school, he was the 41st pick in baseball's 1971 amateur draft, a second-round selection by the Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
. He spent the 1972 season primarily with the Coos Bay-North Bend A's, hitting .265 in 52 games. In 1973, he had a poor year, hitting .137 for the Key West Conchs with only 13 runs produced in 59 games. A shoulder injury derailed his career for the next few years. His father, through a childhood friendship with former major league pitcher Harry "The Cat" Brecheen
Harry Brecheen
Harry David Brecheen , nicknamed "The Cat," was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played most of his career for the St. Louis Cardinals...
, got him a look with the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
, where he pitched in their minor league system for parts of 1976 and 1977. In his last season, he pitched in 14 games, working 33 innings. At the age of 24 his baseball career was over, as drugs and alcohol had taken over his life. He did try to spark further interest in himself from the Yankees camp two years later but was unsuccessful, although another small stint in the minors did follow. This was cut short due yet again to the nagging shoulder injury.
His baseball career over, Williamson held several other jobs. He became addicted to drugs and alcohol and suffered from increasingly severe mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, becoming depressed and living with his mother Juanita Williamson.
Arrest and conviction
On December 8, 1982, Debbie Carter, a waitress in the Coachlight, an Ada bar Williamson frequently visited, was found raped and murdered. Williamson and friend Dennis FritzDennis Fritz
Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were wrongly convicted of the murder of Ada, Oklahoma resident Debra Carter. Fritz was given a life sentence, while Williamson was sentenced to death in 1988. Fritz and Williamson were the subjects of a non-fiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a...
were arrested five years later on flimsy testimony, including a highly unusual confession in the form of a dream related to the police by the mentally ill Williamson. In separate trials, both Fritz and then Williamson were found guilty in 1988. Williamson received a death sentence, while Fritz was sent to prison for life.
The evidence included expert testimony in hair analysis, which is now regarded as unreliable. The expert concluded that 13 of the 17 hairs found at the crime scene were "microscopically consistent" with those of Fritz and Williamson, and alleged that one of them was a "match." The defense failed to point out that although the hair samples could have implicated the pair, they equally could have cleared them both. Despite his rapidly failing mental health, no motion was made to assess Williamson's competence.
After their sentencing, a confession by a man named Ricky Joe Simmons came to light. Having learned of this while on death row
Death row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
, Williamson became increasingly convinced that Simmons had committed the murder and repeatedly demanded his arrest. Simmons was never charged. At one time on September 22, 1994, Williamson was only five days away from being executed when the execution was stayed by the court following a habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
petition. At the time, Williamson screamed "I'm innocent! I'm innocent! I'm innocent!" from his cell to protest his impending execution.
Exoneration
After 11 years on death rowDeath row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
, and following several appeals, Williamson and Fritz were cleared by DNA testing, and were finally freed on April 15, 1999. (Williamson was the 78th inmate exonerated from Death Row since 1973 as of November 29, 2010.) In 2003, they sued the City of Ada and won a settlement of $500,000; the State of Oklahoma also settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Many of the residents of Ada continued to believe that Williamson and Fritz were guilty long after they were exonerated. Indeed, both men reportedly felt the need to keep an eye over their shoulder since their release, such was their belief that the prosecutor Bill Peterson and other officials of the Ada police would try to bring them to trial again.
Death
Williamson died in a nursing home of cirrhosisCirrhosis
Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...
five years later. Although he had a history of illicit drug and alcohol abuse, Thorazine and other potent psychotropic prescription drugs may have precipitated the cirrhosis. Best-selling novelist John Grisham
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...
read Williamson's obituary in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
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.
The real killer
Glen Gore, an Ada man who had testified against both Williamson and Fritz, was ultimately convicted of the murder of Debbie Carter. He was the last person seen with Carter, and also had been seen arguing with her on the night of her death. Although he had submitted hair samples after her murder, these were never processed. While Williamson and Fritz were incarcerated, Gore was also imprisoned on another unrelated violent crime conviction.Once Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz had been cleared of murder, Glen Gore eventually came to trial, based on the same DNA evidence that had cleared Fritz and Williamson. This evidence proved that it was Glen Gore's DNA that was left at the scene. On June 24, 2003, Gore was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, but his death sentence was overturned in August 2005. He was eventually convicted at his second trial on June 21, 2006 and sentenced by Judge Tom Landrith to life imprisonment without parole, which was required by law due to a jury deadlock on sentencing.
External links
- Ron Williamson, PBS Frontline
- Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen article
- Glen Gore, Oklahoma Department of CorrectionsOklahoma Department of CorrectionsThe Oklahoma Department of Corrections is an agency of the state of Oklahoma. DOC is responsible for the administration of the state prison system. It has its headquarters in Oklahoma City, in the former Mabel Bassett Correctional Center building.The Department of Corrections is governed by the...
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