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Ronald 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.
- Crime
- Trial
- Investigation
- Aftermath
- Background
- Death
- In popular culture
In December 1982, twenty-one year old Carter was found sexually assaulted and murdered in her apartment in Pototoc County, Oklahoma. Fritz and Williamson were known to frequent the restaurant where the victim worked and allegedly the victim had complained to a friend that they made her nervous. Williamson had also been seen at the restaurant the ni...
Investigation and Trial 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...
Forensic testing was performed on various items of evidence. Seventeen hairs were recovered and were matched to both Fritz and Williamson, though we now know that this type of hair analysis is not a validated forensic science practice. Furthermore, the semen evidence found at the crime scene was subjected to blood testing, and the results suggested...
Williamson and Fritz were released and exonerated in April 1999, after spending 11 years in prison for a crime they did not commit. Williamson had, at one point, come within five days of execution.
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 filed a civil lawsuit against the Pontotoc County district attorney and others, which was settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
Sadly, on December 4, 2004, Williamson died in an Oklahoma nursing home, surrounded by his family. He had recently been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. He was 51 years old.
Williamson and Fritzs case is the subject for John Grishams first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, which was published in 2006 and was a bestseller.
Dec 14, 2018 · Ron Williamson enjoys his first cigarrette as a free man, Thursday, April 15, 1999 on the steps of the county courthouse in Ada, Okla. after serving 12 years in prison for a murder that DNA proved he did not commit. Williamson died of cirrhosis of the liver five years after he was freed from prison.
- Eric Shorey
Nov 26, 2018 · Ron Williamson “left his small town in Oklahoma as a high-school baseball star with hopes of a major league career but was later sent to death row and came within five days of execution for a...
Five years after Carter’s murder, authorities pursued Ron Williamson and his best friend Dennis Fritz in the case. Both men were well-known around Ada, particularly Williamson, who had left...
Dec 14, 2018 · Five years after he was exonerated, on December 4, 2004, Ron Williamson died in an Oklahoma nursing home surrounded by family after being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. He was 51 years...
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Williamson had been a star baseball player before injuries sidelined his career. He had been in and out of mental institutions, suffering from a variety of psychiatric disorders. Fritz, his...
