What the Books all about~
It’s a true story based in a small town called Ada in Oklahoma. Debbie Carter, a young cocktail waitress was last seen by a couple of friends in & outside the pub she worked at. Later that night she was raped and brutally murdered in her apartment. At the crime scene, the cops minutely took into account every detail including a bloody palm print on a wall, hair strands, etc. There were then a series of interviews of people associated with her and seen around the pub she worked at. They were even asked to submit their urine/hair/blood samples for investigation. This incident in ’82 shook up the simpletons at Ada. Doors were locked, deadlines were set on teenagers. Years of investigations yielded no results, as there was no clear evidence to put a finger on any suspect. Pressure started building up on the detectives investigating the case when another young girl named Denice Haraway was abducted in ’84. Again, there was no clear evidence to figure out who was responsible.
But they had to prosecute SOMEBODY. Guessing that there were 2 guys involved given the nature of the Carter crime, they somehow had a suspicion that Ron Williamson & his friend Dennis Fritz were their guys to dwell upon. The book gives you a detailed account of their early lives. Ron was gunning to be the next Mickey Mantle (baseball hall of famee) of Oklahoma. But his drunken brawls and injuries led him no where. Skipping college in hopes of pursuing his career in sports was an added blunder. He hopped in & out of sales Jobs at Tulsa, close to Ada, and finally ended up jobless & drunk at his mother’s house. The situation affected his mental condition. Nervousness, inability to concentrate, depression were quite apparent. In spite of everything, he was the apple of his family’s eye and his parents & sisters protected him & took care of him at every phase of his life.
Although Ron had an alibi of being with his mom that night (a respected woman in Ada) & he had never met Debbie Carter, the detectives prepared a bogus case based on junk science (consistency of samples of hair found in the apartment & samples submitted by Ron) & testimonies of jailhouse snitches & convicts. Grisham provides a detailed account how Ron was put in jail for several years, how the District Attorney Peterson convinced the jury to put Ron on death row, how the lawyer defending Ron made multiple errors, & overlooked critical matters that could have easily disproved Ron of being guilty. Sentenced to death, appeals were made to re- open the case & fight once again, this time fairly. Ron eventually spent over 11 years at the ’death row’. He suffered deep and irreversible psychological scars & was intermittently treated for manic depression, personality disorders, alcoholism and mild schizophrenia. Amidst the horrible conditions at the death row, Ron would miserably be screaming for hours together that he "did not murder Debbie Carter".
Does Ron get justice? Did the system prosecute the real killer? Does his family stand by him? Does his mental condition further deteriorate? How did the people of Ada respond to the whole issue? Does the system pay for the injustice done?
Why you should read it~
The book is medium paced & very detailed. This story is also accompanied by the story of another 2 victims who were falsely sentenced to life for the abduction & murder of Denice Haraway. The reason why I’ve given a little more than a slight preview of the story is that there are no major surprises, we know from the start the general outline. Your heart really goes out to Ron’s sisters, who in spite of being far from well off, take care of Ron. This is in spite of there being virtually no hope for anything positive for Ron, his failing medical condition, & of course, financial troubles. If you feel that fate plays no part in your life & its all about the choices you’ve made you’ll probably have to relook that theory. You are infuriated seeing the blips in the judicial system, & you see how the arrogance, egos of certain people can completely alter other peoples lives!
Also there are references to Robert Mayer’s book, ’The Dreams of Ada’, which explored the means used by cops to solve crimes. He brought to light how cops would frustrate the suspects enough to bring out false confessions & close cases based on them. US of A, is the land of lawyers where we’ve read about people suing for the most absurd reasons. If injustice of this kind can prevail there, there’s little to comment about the situation in India!
If you think life’s unfair, read this story!