The worst fact is: "While the Williamson/Fritz case is shocking, even more disheartening is the fact that this case is not all that unusual in Oklahoma, a state which prides itself on a reputation for being "tough on crime'. If only we could manage to get the right persons the first time around it might help us gain a reputation as a state where justice is served rather than perverted."
In short, Oklahoma [like Texas] "is a state where the "word' of police officers, prosecution witnesses and districts attorney are held in a degree of reverence associated with Biblical commandments and as such are often unquestioned by juries, judges and appellate courts in a head long rush to judgment to convict someone, anyone and this without regard to guilt or innocence."
See link to the Daily Oklahoman Special on the Police Lab Scandal about other Oklahoma scandals. "Numerous reports there center upon Oklahoma City Police Lab Chemist, Joyce Gilchrist, the person at the heart of that on-going scandal. She was also the prosecution witness that provided "scientific' testimony in the Williamson/Fritz case. This testimony not only resulted in the false conviction of the two men but also [should have] discounted as a suspect [as] the prosecution's star witness. That man, Glen Gore is now charged with the rape/murder for which Williamson and Fritz were falsely convicted, served 12 years in jail and prison and in the case of Williamson was almost murdered by the State of Oklahoma."
EPILOGUE: The Ward and Fontenot Case
Meanwhile, as millions of Americans are bedazzled each week by the investigative technology and CSI episodes from CBS-TV and AXN-TV, another two Ada victims still sit in Oklahoma penitentiaries. They are the aforementioned Tommy and Teri Fontenot.
Their tale was already chronicled in the non-fiction work, THE DREAMS OF ADA, before Williams and Fritz case went to trial.
According to the publishers, Robert Mayer's,THE DREMS OF ADA "is [t]he true, bewildering story of a young woman's disappearance, the nightmare of a small town obsessed with delivering justice, and the bizarre dream of a poor, uneducated man accused of murder--a case that chillingly parallels the one, occurring in the very same town, chronicled by John Grisham in The Innocent Man.
In Mayer's tale: "On April 28, 1984, Denice Haraway disappeared from her job at a convenience store on the outskirts of Ada, Oklahoma, and the sleepy town erupted. Tales spread of rape, mutilation, and murder, and the police set out on a relentless mission to bring someone to justice. Six months later, two local men--Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot--were arrested and brought to trial, even though they repudiated their "confessions,' no body had been found, no weapon had been produced, and no eyewitnesses had come forward. The Dreams of Ada is a story of politics and morality, of fear and obsession. It is also a moving, compelling portrait of one small town living through a nightmare."
In this tale about a tale of dreams, we learn how Tommy Ward had a dream about the kidnapping and the murder of the young Denise Hathaway that proved to be untrue in almost every detail. Nonetheless, Ward and Fontenot are convicted for a dream because the town of Ada and its worried citizens were seeking closure.
The two, Fontenot and Ward, have been in jail for more than 22 years--both serving life sentences. According to FACEBOOK supporters, "There is no way these two men could have possibly murdered Denice Haraway. They are both imprisoned for life for a murder they did not commit. They were convicted guilty based on a FALSE dream they had confessed (in order for the cops to stop harassing them, they gave them a bogus story hoping the cops would realize the truth that they are truly innocent..eventually, their hope went from days to weeks to months to years and now we are looking at life.) They remain in prison. the evidence the plaintiffs had was absolutely ZERO. They convicted them based on their bogus story. NO DNA, No physical evidence, NO nothing. It has been 22 years in counting.
Watchers of CSI and real-potential jurors of America need to remember, "Every time an innocent man is convicted, a guilty man goes free."
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