The Innocent Man (2018) s01e02 Episode Script

Sometimes when I'm up here,
I feel I'm high in the balcony
of the theater,
looking down on a stage
where a great drama has been played.
Oklahomans have always been builders.
It is one of our finest qualities.
And there is one other quality
we Oklahomans have always shared.
We are
the dreamers.
Everything around us,
all is the result of someone's dream.
There can be no builders
if there are not also dreamers.
We are the wanderers,
the gamblers, the builders,
the dreamers and the preservers.
We are the cast
of a human drama called, Oklahoma.
[opera music playing]
Yes, I see that.
I've never looked at it
quite that way before.
That's the way I've always felt about it.
Let your healing virtue fill this room
and heal every person in it.
[camera rolling]
[Tommy] I borrowed my mom's car
to go get a pack of cigarettes.
And when I returned mom told me
that the police had been there
looking for me,
and I said, "What for?"
"They said, well, something about
that woman that come up missing
from that store out there."
[Tommy] She goes, "They wanted to talk
to you for something about this."
So I said, "Can you take me down there?"
So my mom was gonna take me down there.
We went to the car and started to back up
out of the driveway,
and a police car
pulled in the driveway behind us.
They said, "Are you Tommy Ward,"
and I said, "Yeah."
They said, "Well, we had call-inssaying
that you had lived in Ada all your life,
and that you might know who it was
that took this woman from the store."
[Tommy] And I said, "Well, no.
I've seen them composite drawings on TV."
I said,
"They don't look like nobody I know."
And he goes, "We've got some better
pictures down here at the police station.
We'd like for you to come down here
to look atto see if you might know 'em.
'Cause" and he goes,
"Would you help us out?
If you do recognize someone
you would tell us who it is."
And I said, "Yeah, sure."
[Tommy]
They took me downstairs to this basement
and they start asking me questions
about my whereabouts.
And then at that point,
I mean, they just come at me
and started saying, "You did it,
you know you did it,
this is how you did it.
[Tommy] They kept on.
And at first, I kept telling them,
"No, I didn't."
And they wouldn't take
a "No, I didn't do it" for an answer.
They kept lying to me,
and lying to me.
And in fact, after a while,
it just got me to lie.
[Tommy] They'd just sit there
and kept telling me that
more like, "Use your imagination.
What about your dream?"
[camera rolling]
- Did you kill this girl?
- No, I didn't.
I wouldn't kill nobody.
I wouldn't take nobody's life
away from them.
- Who killed this girl?
- I don't know.
I have no idea.
[Tommy] I keep on telling them
over and over again that I didn't do it.
He goes, "Well, if you didn't do it,
Why would you flunk the test so bad?"
I said, "I don't know." I said,
"Look my nerves, I'm a nervous person.
I've got bad nerves,
or something, you know?
And I also, it could've been
the dream that I had after y'all
come talk to me the first time
I had a dream."
And they were, "What about your dream?"
That's when I told them my dream story.
[camera clicking and rolling]
[Tommy] I was sitting in his vehicle
and I remember
like seeing, like through a glass
where I seen,
like hands handing money to hands.
[Tommy]
And then I had a flash in my dream.
I seen this guy kissing on this girl
and she said, "Leave me alone."
I said, "Leave her alone." He said,
"If you don't like it, you can go home."
And then I had to flash in my dream,
and I was standing at the sink
trying to get something black off my arm.
He said,
"Your dreams don't make no sense."
And I said, "Well, what dream makes sense?
Y'all just sitting there,
asking me what my dream was about."
And then, he told me
that we had to get rid of her
and asked me a good place
to get rid of her.
I told him about a house
and about this ditch down by the
Sandy River.
I thought they'd go out
and say that there was flies
because it was just a made-up story.
Did Denise Haraway,
she begged y'all not to hurt her,
or what did she say
when all this was happening?
She was asking us just to let her go.
Well, I went in
at ten o'clock that morning
and I think it was after six o'clock,
it was late in the evening,
when they turned the video tape on and
I gave the bogus confession.
[Bud]
College Heights, Missionary Baptist.
Turn that on,
so we can see where we're going.
Well, I got a BB gun
when I was about to seven years old,
and I was taught at that time
you kill nothing
except to eat
or to protect yourself.
Five in the clip, nothing in the chamber.
I've had 'em say, "Why?
Why nothing in the chamber?" It's
personal conviction.
[country music playing]
[Bud] If it came right down to it,
I don't think I would have a problem
with shooting somebody,
but it's only in self-defense.
[gunshot]
Capital punishment
if there is no doubt whatsoever
I'm still against it.
Of course, being a preacher,
I go with the biblical
rendition of that.
God's the only one that should take life.
It's not up to us to play God and say,
"Well, you did this,
so you need to die for it."
And you go back into the law
and it does say that,
"And eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth."
But as far as being able
to say when somebody should die
and how they should die
that's up to God.
[country music playing]
[gunshot]
[Tricia] Okay, just stop right here,
we're gonna say prayer.
We're gonna say prayer, Mama.
- Huh?
- We're gonna say prayer right here, okay?
Say a prayer?
- Yeah.
- So we can eat.
So we can eat.
[Bud] Lord, we thank you for this day
and the blessings you've given.
We thank you, Lord, for these
that have traveled this far.
We ask, Lord, that things be done
for your honor and Glory.
We ask Lord that you bless this food
to the nourishment of our bodies.
These are bodies in your service.
Forgive us where we've failed you.
- For as Christ's name, amen.
- Amen.
[Tricia]
I had heard about the confessions,
and it was by his own mouth,
when he called me.
He was telling me
about them keeping him in there,
and then how they would go over
Like he would say something,
and it was almost like they was trying
to read to him what they want him to say.
And he said, "I told 'em a dream,"
that's what he said.
"I told 'em a dream.
I had a dream
and I told 'em it was a dream.
And they took that dream as a confession."
[Tricia huffs] What's going on, you know?
[snickers]
How could this be possible?
[Kay] Here's the one of Tommy.
I told you I thought
it was the same one as this one.
- [Melvin] Is it?
- Yeah, it is.
[Melvin] This is a picture of Tommy.
I'm not sure if there's a date on the back
of it but it looked like he's more
six, seven.
[Susie] These are Look there.
You know who that is.
There's no way he would have ever done
anything like that.
And I know that because we know his heart.
And we know the type of person he is
and there's just no way.
[Robert] Denise
never showed up, never called home.
[Robert] But there was no evidence
of where she was.
One interesting thing that happened,
that they found out by talking to people,
was that, all over town, people said
they were dreaming about the case.
[Robert] Dennis Smith was
the Chief Detective on the case.
So I went to see him
and I started talking about the case.
And he says,
"Let me show you something else, first,
because I'm not worried about that case.
Those guys are in jail already."
[Robert] He says,
"It's a case that burns at my stomach.
We had another murder here
about a year-and-a-half ago,
a girl named Debbie Carter.
And we still haven't got that person,"
he says.
And I knew Debbie Carter.
We lived on the same street.
And I knew her,
every time I look at those pictures,
it just tears me apart.
[camera clicks and flashes]
"And that's the one
I would want to solve."
And he hesitates and he says,
"Well, actually, it is solved.
We know who did it."
And I said, "Well, what's the problem
if you know who did it?" [laughs]
And he said
"We can't do anything about it."
I had went down there one day after work,
to the police department.
I go in and ask him and talk to him.
"Well, we just don't know anything.
We hadn't come up with anything."
And I'd leave there so upset
because I think
they've gotta do something,
they've gotta know something.
[Grisham] In small towns like Ada,
the prosecutors and the police
are under enormous pressure
to solve a crime.
In a neighborhood where there are
several crimes, could it be the same guy?
It's total fear, total terror,
you know, it's, "Find the guy."
[Grisham] Well, it's gotta be two men
who did this, okay?
Because it's so violent.
I've been down and read this case file,
every interview,
everything that's in that file.
And what there is a mention of,
quite often, is Ron Williamson.
Where you live
I know it. That's what gets me, man.
- You are a very good suspect.
- I know it.
I'm just telling you.
Dennis Smith and some local police thought
that Ron might have been a good suspect
because of his personal history.
In 1978, Ron had a case in Tulsa, Oklahoma
where he had picked up this gal
and apparently had forced himself on her
and had raped her.
[Dan] He had also been arrested
in Oklahoma City.
But in both cases,
he was found not guilty in trial.
[Dan]
He was a regular at the Coachlight and
there was a report that had Ron
Williamson in the Coachlight that night.
[Grisham] He was drinking a lot,
partying a lot, raising hell,
no real job.
Lived very near the crime scene.
They are very concerned
that you are the one that did it.
[suspect laughs]
Don't you think they've got better things
to do than keep coming back on you?
No, that's it.
[continues laughing]
I'll tell you what, if that's
your opinion, you're sadly mistaken.
I've read the reports.
They seriously think that you're capable
of committing this type of crime, Ron.
They're hoping that you didn't.
You know what I'm saying?
And if the allegations were to get
right again, the same guy's liable to
do it again.
You know,
this scene doesn't look like the scene
of a guy that goes around, you know,
pulling just your basic rapes.
[Grisham] Ron was very suspicious,
had a bad reputation.
And at that time in his life, the only
person Ron was hanging around with
was Dennis Fritz.
[chattering]
And this is their biggest concern
with you, with Ron,
because with the history
of both of you
they feel like
it's a very strong possibility.
Something went wrong.
Either rejection, resistance, whatever
and somebody got killed.
[Peggy]
I had got home from work at eight o'clock.
Phone rung and it was Dennis Smith.
[Peggy] He wanted me to come down
and sign some papers.
And I said, "Sign some papers?
What's going on?"
He said, "Come down and me
and Bill Peterson will talk to you
about it."
[Peggy] So I went down there.
They handed me this paper. "Sign it."
I said, "What's going on?"
They wanted to exhume her.
I said, "No.
No, we're not gonna do that."
[Peggy]
And he said, "Her daddy signed it."
I say, "I don't care what he did.
I'm not signing it.
You're not going out there
and getting her."
[Peggy] They said, "Well, Peggy,
do you want this solved?"
And I said, "More than anybody."
And he said, "Well
We have found a handprint."
[Dan] There was a palm print
on the side of the wall.
I believe it was below a window.
We're somebody had actually put
their bloody palm against the wall
and had a smear there.
[Christy] The original report says
that the handprint is not Debbie's.
And they'd said that it wasn't Ron's
and it wasn't Dennis's.
They couldn't go to court
with this hand print.
[Judge] Because, if they had a palm print
from a person that was not Debbie Carter's
and if it was not Dennis Fritz
and if it was not Ron Williamson's,
then the prosecution
probably had a problem.
Somebody else was there
with a bloody palm print.
[Dan]
So they exhumed the body and develop
additional prints
and palm print off of Debbie's body.
And later determined,
at that point in time,
it was Debbie Carter's palm print.
That was the hardest thing for me to do,
was to sign that paper.
And I told him I said,
"Oh, wait a minute.
Tell you what I'll do.
I'll sign that on one condition."
Bill said, "What's that?"
I said, "I get to go with you
when you go out there and get her."
I thought, "I get one more kiss,
one more hug, one more kiss."
[Peggy] I was at work one morning,
and this guy that lived out
on the other side of Rosedale Cemetery,
he come to work at eight o'clock.
He come up me and he said,
"What are they doing?
They're out there, it looks like
they're digging up Debbie's grave."
"Are they?"
I run and got my keys and my car.
[Peggy] I clocked out.
[Christy] So she leaves work.
She knows exactly what's going on.
She hauls across town.
Gets there, and when she's there
Just empty hole.
[Christy] Her open grave is there
and there's nobody there with her.
[Peggy] And I just walk over and sit down.
I was so upset
because they wouldn't let me go,
I sat there and cried.
There's that big old vault down there,
and Debbie's gone.
[Peggy] They must've went out there
at 6:30 or seven and started that.
But I was so upset
because they wouldn't let me go.
They wouldn't let me.
I just sat there
kicked my feet in that dirt.
Sat on the side of her grave
and just kicked my feet in that dirt.
I was so mad.
And I went and got me a 12-pack
and went home.
[Christy] I think,
some of the biggest changes came
after Debbie's body had been exhumed.
[Christy]My Aunt Peggy had really
started to drink.
Oh, yes, got to drinking.
Ooh-wee! [clicks tongue]
Pills wasn't working.
Nothing worked.
I got to drinking.
[Peggy] I'd get off at midnight
and I'd stop at a convenience store
and get me a whole 12-pack.
And I'd hit them country roads,
roll my windows down,
turn that radio up,
and I just sang and drank
and sang and drink.
Throw out them beer cans,
get me another one.
[beer tin clanks]
[Christy] She kind of developed
almost like a double life,
in that she would just drive
country roads and drink,
and somehow make it home and get up and
go do shift work all over again.
[Peggy] There's times I just
I mean, I've been on anti-depressers
now for 35 years.
You know, it's bad.
It's bad.
Because I had such a hard time
and still do at times.
[Christy] That hand print
and exhuming Debbie's body,
was a pivotal moment in the relationship
that my mom and her sister had.
And my mom actually admitted her.
That was the first time that Peggy
went to a psychiatric hospital because
they broke her that day
by having her sign those papers.
[Glenna]
She would be so drunk and so out of it,
you know, that she just would be
on one hand just sloppy
and on the other hand just crazy,
you know, with rage and anger.
And that's when I
- [takes a deep breath]
- really I look back on it.
And that's when I had to decide, you know,
that's when I learned
I had to separate myself from it.
[Glenna] I've had to put it on the shelf.
I had a seven year old child,
I had to move on.
That was just the breaking point
for my mom, she just couldn't
she couldn't do it anymore
and she told her, "I can't
I can't relive this with you every day."
[fire crackling]
I don't think
it was ever the same after that.
[Christy] That hand print is
what sent them on their way to court.
Debbie's case moved pretty fast
after that.
Mr. Williams?
I never killed nobody! I'm gonna prove it!
[Ron Williamson shouting at Judge]
Oh my goodness.
He come in one day
and he was real upset about something.
Mr. Williamson, any further
outbursts of anger and this hearing
will be conducted without your presence.
That's fine with me.
This is your own personal decision
to waive
I said, I'm threatening!
He gets mad.
I don't know what the lawyer says to him.
But he flips this table.
Papers go everywhere, people sit back.
I'm going, "Oh my goodness."
He throwed my little girl
around that apartment like that,
I'll bet you.
Oh my goodness, and I just sat there.
Court record will reflect
that Ron Williamson attempted
to overturn a table
and go after the co-defendant
in this matter
and had to be subdued
and escorted out of the court room.
first game of the one.
Here's the payout pitch.
It's a hit! There it goes!
It's out of here!
[Grisham] Ron was a small-town boy
with a family
that was very devoutly religious.
[Preacher] Now thou wicked hateful devil,
I come against you!
And I charge you, devil,
take your hands off God's property.
[Grisham]
By the time Ron was finishing high school,
he thought, as did a number of scouts,
that in this section of Oklahoma,
he was gonna be the next Mickey Mantle.
[Grisham] From an early age,
he was on that trajectory
to be a professional sports star.
[fans cheering]
[Grisham] He was drafted and took off.
He was a party boy.
Didn't take care of himself,
a lot of booze, lot of girls.
Cocaine hit that part of the world,
hit American in early '70s and, you know,
Ron was in the middle of it.
He threw his shoulder out.
Hurt his shoulder.
And he came back in rehab
and then went back and he hurt it again.
And I think he kind of realized, then,
he probably wasn't gonna make it.
But I think he went back maybe
a third time and couldn't do nothing.
[Bowen] He just got hurt and couldn't get
over it. It is a very sad thing.
And then later on,
I guess it just destroyed him.
He just was so down because
he couldn't make it and couldn't play.
It's just like
the whole world falls in on you.
He just had so much difficulty
with letting go of that dream.
That was his lifelong, the only dream
he ever had in his life, and it was gone.
[Renee]
He just didn't handle it well at all,
and he turned to drugs and alcohol.
[Grisham] He started showing signs of,
I guess it would be
called manic depressive back then,
bipolar now, I'm not sure what the
[takes a deep breath]
I'm not sure Ron was ever
properly diagnosed.
[clock ticking faster and faster]
[Christy] Ron had been in trouble
and he was in and out of
that same house up the street.
He would come and use the phone
across the street at the neighbors house.
And then I guess he would come out
and, like, sit on the curb
and smoke, or whatever.
So he was sitting across the street
from our house
looking towards our house.
[Williamson laughing]
What can I say?
[Christy] We were scared to death.
We thought he was watching us.
We had been inundated with all this fear.
I was terrified of him.
[Peggy]
I said it's gotta be more than one.
She could've handled
one.
'Cause I knew Debbie.
She told me one time, "As long as I've got
teeth and nails and feet
There ain't nobody ever gonna rape me."
[Elizabeth] Dennis Fritz is my father.
He grew up in both Missouri
and in a town in Oklahoma called Talihina.
[Elizabeth]
My mother was a year older than him,
and they met there when she was a senior
and he was a junior.
He was a school teacher.
He did that for most of my childhood
in the state of Oklahoma.
He'd move around,
town to town, and teach and coach.
His daughter was in the house
when her mom was shot in the head.
by a young man who lived
in the neighborhood, who was crazy.
And the daughter was a toddler.
[Elizabeth]
It was Christmas Eve, December 24th,
and we had been living
out at a house outside of Durant
and we'd been renting that house
from a near neighbor.
And he had a nephew.
[Elizabeth] That night
he actually came over to our house.
He knocked on the door
and my mom answered, she recognized him.
He ask to use the phone.
He came in and she stepped out
of the room while he did so,
and I was still in there.
So when she came back in she found
that he was doing something with me
that was somewhat
what she fell inappropriate,
at the time, and so she scolded him.
She told him
she was going to call his uncle
and the police and so on, so forth.
So he left. [takes a deep breath]
He went back to his uncle's house
and he broke into his gun cabinet,
took the gun out, came back,
and shot her through the window.
[Elizabeth] Got word to my dad
and everybody and the police were called.
My dad was just torn apart.
It destroyed him.
He couldn't care for me
for a period of time following that.
I end up moving to my grandmother's
and then, I think he floated around
in jobs and just,
you know, just wasn't real stable
during that period.
Has there been any time
in your life, I think you said
something like that,
that you have gotten mad enough at someone
where you wanted to kill them?
Well, yes, there has,
the man that took my wife's life.
And I wanted to kill the man.
[Grisham]
It messed Dennis up for a long time.
He worked on the railroad,
he taught school.
He somehow ended up in Oklahoma
and started hanging around Ada,
looking for friends, just something to do,
and met Ron.
That was his big mistake.
He was kind of talking crazy
that night, you know?
Like talking about
he didn't wanna live, you know,
and he didn't care to live no more.
He'd been drinking a lot.
[clears throat]
And
He passed this girl,
this girl passed him on the street
He said, "I'd like to rape her
and kill her.
You know, like that." I said,
"What are you talking about?
You are talking out of your mind."
[Smith] Fritz, I don't know.
His story doesn't really check out.
He never did tell anyone
where he was that night.
And he called in sick to work
the next day.
Did you find any pubic hairs
that match that of Dennis Fritz?
Yes, sir, I did.
I found one pubic hair from a washcloth.
My opinion that it is consistent,
I believe it was Dennis Fritz's
pubic hair, it's his.
[Christy]
I think Ron was kind of the mastermind.
You know, it was his deal,
he thought of it.
Dennis was just kind of
along for the ride, or whatever.
[Grisham]
In Dennis's case, he was found guilty,
and they move into the sentencing phase.
And Dennis came within one vote
of getting the death penalty.
RON WILLIAMSON'S
TRIAL STARTS APR 27
[Bill Peterson speaking]
The defendant says, "Just imagine this.
When I was living in Tulsa, been drinking
and taking Quaaludes all day,
and then drove to Coachlight,
and drank some more.
I got a little bit drunker.
I ended up at Debbie Carter's door.
Knocked on the door, and she said,
'Just a minute, I'm on the phone.'
I burst in the door,
I raped and killed her."
I sit there and thinking how
Why did they do it? I
Oh, I hated them so bad.
I just
I didn't look at them that much.
I kept my head down a lot.
[Peggy]
It was just sickening to look at them.
[Bill Peterson speaking]
Look at Debbie Carter,
you tell me she didn't resist
with every fiber in her body.
[gasping and grunting]
She had all these little places
on her nose.
It looks like somebody put out cigarettes
on her nose. Oh, it was
[takes a deep breath]
And her lips were so big
and Debbie had little lips.
[Peggy] He just
Was so mad at her.
He done so much to her.
One of her little eyes
was all messed up, they said.
And then he had
stuffed a wash rag down her throat.
They had that wash rag at court.
But they said the inside of her cheeks
looked like hamburger meat
where she had tried
to get that wash rag up.
[Peggy]
Well, I found out when I went to court
that there was two things
that he used on Debbie's neck.
Her cowboy belt
and her electric blanket cord.
I bought both of them.
Bought both of them.
[Bill Peterson speaking]
Question is who killed Debbie Carter?
Who killed Debbie Carter?
The death was caused by the defendant.
We had lot of people
that grew up in Ada who would tell us
You know when they were kids,
you know how your parents say,
"You be home by dark
'cause the boogeyman's out there"?
Well, for them,
the boogeyman was Ron Williamson.
[Smith] Ron Williamson lived
in a little thing behind his mom's house.
And you could step outside
the back fence of Williamson's mom's house
and see Debbie Sue Carter's apartment.
[Smith] A guy with a pretty good arm
could put a baseball through the window.
Halfway between them,
on the intersecting street,
was a woman named Andrea Hardcastle
that Ron Williams did exactly the same
thing too as he did to Debbie Carter
except he didn't kill her.
My neighbor that used to live
across the street from me, Roy Haney,
him, and what he introduced
as Ronnie Williamson
came over to my house.
It was on a Friday or Saturday night.
He said that the girls like me
should share themselves,
and he told me
that he was going to fuck me.
He hit me and he knocked me on the floor.
And handling my breast, between my legs.
He was very rough.
[takes a deep breath]
I was screaming at first.
And he kept telling me
that if I didn't do what he told me to do
that he was gonna fuck me up.
[Dan] Andrea Hardcastle was a young girl
at the time.
She came forward
and stated that Ron had molested her
some years before,
although she never pressed charges.
She was also friends
with Dennis Smith's daughter
and also knew Debbie Carter
as well, so
You know, all those kids
knew each other basically, so
Ronnie was sitting on top of my chest
and he said, "You know
I'm gonna have to kill you, don't you?"
And I said, "Yes."
And I had already made my peace with God
and just hoped
that someone would find the kids.
Glen Gore was one of our witnesses.
[Peggy] He testified that yes,
Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz
was at the Coachlight that night.
And him and Debbie
were kind of arguing with each other.
On the night of December the 7th, 1982,
did you have an occasion to see him?
Yes.
And where was that?
It was at the Coachlight.
I can't remember
who I was sitting there with us.
Anyway, I went up to get me another drink
and Debbie said,
"Glen, would you rescue me?"
Saying he was bugging her so
they went out me and her
went out on the dance floor.
Do you know, did you hear
or do you know if Ron Williamson,
what he said to Mrs. Carter?
No, I was just walking by.
She tapped me on the shoulder,
said, "Save me."
Save me.
But you did see
the defendant Ron Williams talk to her?
Yes.
[Dan] As the club was closing,
the Carpenters, both Terry and Mike,
both saw Debbie
and somebody arguing in her car.
She kind of push him away
and got in the car and drove off.
[Nancy Shew speaking]
Gary Rogers, agent with the Oklahoma State
Bureau of Investigation, testified next.
"Ron Williamson told him
and Rusty Featherstone
that he dreamed
about killing Debbie Carter;
that he was on her
with a cord around her neck.
One of Agents asked him why,
and he answered, "'She made me mad.'"
Then the witnesses testified
who told you about
hearing Ron Williamson talk about his
involvement in Debbie Carter's death.
Terri Holland was the first one of those.
She heard him say
to someone else there in the jail
"he said he shoved a coke bottle
up her ass
and her panties down on the ground.
And Mell Hett was the state last witness,
who told you,
tried to explain a little bit
about the science of hair comparison,
and the results that can be
obtained from those kinds of test.
Told you that there were two on the bed,
on Debbie Carter's bedding,
two pubic hairs,
consistent with those of Ron Williamson,
and that there were two head
or scalp hairs
on the washcloth taken
from Debbie Carter's mouth
that were consistent with the head hairs
of Ron Williamson.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
you've heard all the evidence
in this case.
The evidence is overwhelming.
The facts cry out
for a guilty verdict.
I'm gonna ask you to say,
"Ron Williamson,
you deserve to die
for what you did to Debbie Carter."
"We the jury drawn in panel
and sworn in the above entitled cause,
drew up on our own,
having here for found the defendant,
Ron Keith Williamson,
guilty of murder in the first degree,
states his punishment as death."
[Christy] One of the things
that's really troubling
about Debbie's murder
is that when you begin
to look at everything else,
to realize that she was
just collateral damage.
That it changed everything
about our family
and about how
certainly I've view the world.
Certainly changed everything
for my aunt
but that she was really
just collateral damage
in something bigger?
It is sickening
that we don't even know what all
It's 30-something years later
and we don't even know what all that is
and how that fits together.
New information tonight
in a rape and murder case
that a victim's family thought was over.
Now that family has learned
their daughter's killer
could still be on the loose.
New DNA testing could mean
that the two men convicted
of the 1982 rape and murder
of Debbie Carter of Ada
could go free.
It's our big story tonight at six.
Eyewitness News 5 reporter, Steve Volker,
joins us live from Ada tonight.
And Steve, some shocking news
in this case that many thought was solved.
It was in this county courthouse
where Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz
were sentenced 12 years ago.
And it will be in this courthouse where
we will learn if they will be set free.