The Innocent Man

Five months after Haraway's murder, a man named Jeff Miller appears and tells the police that he had heard from some friends that Tommy Ward had been at a party by the river when the beer ran out. According to Miller, Tommy went to buy more, but when he returned to the party he was very distraught, and confessed to the people at the party that he had "snatched the young female clerk, raped her, killed her, disposed of her body, and now he felt awful about it" (46). No witnesses could be found to corroborate this story, but Detective Smith pursues it as a lead, bringing Ward in for questioning. They insist they know he killed Denice, but Ward denies it. They pressure Ward to take a lie detector test, and when he takes it a few days later, they tell him he "flunked it" (49).

This time, the police question Ward for hours, shouting that they know he killed Denice and is lying about it. They hammer him with accusations that he denies, until finally Ward cracks under the pressure and decides to play along with the accusations, thinking that surely the police will realize he isn't serious. But as they make increasingly wild claims and Ward continues to respond "Sure, whatever" (52), the police treat Ward's statements as a legitimate confession. Ward tells them he had only dreamed about Denice, but they wear down his resistance and press him to confess. Eventually, each time they make an accusation, he simply agrees that that must have happened, even though the claims contradict one another.

Shortly thereafter, Karl Fontenot is arrested and given a similar interrogation. Fontenot also insists that he had nothing to do with Haraway's murder, but after hours of interrogation, he, too, breaks down and agrees to the detectives' claims, though he "repudiated his confession immediately after he was placed in jail" (54). There are major discrepancies between the two confessions, including on such key points as how the victim had been killed and where the body was disposed of, but the police pursue their case against Fontenot and Ward with full seriousness. Despite numerous Constitutional and logical problems and a total lack of supporting evidence, the forced confessions become the basis of a murder trial.

Ron is paroled to house arrest but soon violates the rules and is "charged with the felony of escape from a penal institution" (57). Back in jail, talk centers on the Haraway murder. Ward and Fontenot maintain that they are innocent, and even though there is a lack of evidence and the two confessions are acknowledged to be contradictory, the two are brought to trial. Detective Smith expresses certainty that Fontenot and Ward are guilty. Meanwhile, Ron goes to trial for the escape charge, but he is unmedicated, and his behavior in court is so disruptive that two competency hearings are cancelled, and the judge refers Ron for a psychiatric evaluation.

A few months later, Ron's mother, Juanita, is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. She remembers that she had saved a rental receipt validating Ron's alibi—that he had been home watching videos with his mother on the night of Debbie Carter's murder. She brings it to Detective Smith, who agrees to videotape her statement, but no tape is ever produced in the subsequent trial. Juanita’s condition worsens, and Ron begs to be allowed to visit his mother before she dies. After much resistance, they agree to let him visit the hospital, but they refuse to remove his shackles. A similar procedure is followed for her funeral.

Ron is declared mentally incompetent and sent for inpatient psychiatric treatment. After a few weeks, he is released back to jail, without access to his prescribed medications. The trials of Ward and Fontenot proceed, despite numerous constitutional concerns, such as the biased jury and the coercive tactics used to extract the confessions. Multiple "jailhouse snitches," people who claimed to have overheard incriminating talk while in jail, are called as witnesses, but hard evidence is almost completely lacking. Nonetheless, after the prosecution's emotional appeal, the jury finds both men guilty and calls for the death penalty.

New York journalist Robert Mayer hears about the case from an acquaintance and he wonders why anyone would "confess to such a terrible crime, but fill the confession with lies" (63). He travels to Ada to research the story, and soon publishes a book called The Dreams of Ada, a very damning account of the miscarriage of justice in the Haraway case. The book is highly critical of prosecutor Bill Peterson in particular. Angered by the account, Peterson doubles down on the Carter murder and his case against Ron. Ron, out on parole, bounces between family members' homes and various treatment facilities. He is jobless and unstable, and often exhibits strange or belligerent behaviors.

Desperate for evidence, Peterson latches onto hair samples from the crime scene, which a state expert reports could have been "microscopically consistent" with (67) samples taken from Ron and Dennis Fritz. Peterson insists that Debbie's body be exhumed so that the girl’s handprint can be compared again with the print taken from the wall of her apartment. Though the OSBI agent who had analyzed the print at the time of the murder had previously reported that the print did not belong to Debbie, three years later he suddenly becomes uncertain about his earlier conclusions, and, on re-examination of the remains, changes his report to state that the print on the wall had been made by Debbie. This is a crucial turn, because since the print did not match Ron or Dennis, if it had not been left by Debbie, that would mean the killer necessarily had to be someone other than Ron or Dennis.

On the strength of this new “evidence,” Ron and Dennis are both arrested. Under interrogation, they both maintain their innocence. Despite the presence of various recording devices, neither of their statements are recorded. The police version of the conversation states that Ron claimed to have had a dream about Debbie Carter, but Ron neither signs nor approves this statement in any way. In jail, Ron is "far from a model inmate" (73), shouting for hours at a stretch, then singing, wailing, and generally being disruptive.