Book Excerpt "Journey Toward Justice" Dennis Fritz Remembers Ronnie Williamson

Dennis Fritz met Ronnie Williamson July 1981
Book excerpt from Dennis Fritz's book "Journey Toward Justice" about that time.

"I'm more than ready, Ronnie Keith. Let's get out of here and find out where it's happenin'."
As we drove past the high-rise dorms, Ronnie said, "Pull over there, Dennie Leon, and let's check that basketball game out."
What's the deal? I thought you wanted to check out another club and get some of those pretty babes. Isn't that what you said?" Watching a men's basketball game outdoors was the last thing I wanted to do when there was a possibility of meeting a couple of nice looking gals. But I pulled over and allowed Ronnie his request.
Ronnie got out of the car and retrieved his guitar from the backseat. I stayed in the driver's seat and watched as he approached the basketball court. with his guitar strapped around his neck. I was reluctant to join him. I didn't want to interfere with the game. Secondly, all of the players were black and I didn't know how they would react if two white guys, especially one in a double-breasted suit strumming his guitar and singing, walked up and watched their game.
Ronnie got closer to the court, I got the feeling I should be a little closer to him in case something happened, and I moved my car so that it was thirty yards away from the court. I got out and leaned against the front fender,hoping there would be no confrontations. That was the last thing I needed - to have my ass beaten to a pulp.
By the time Ronnie made it to court's edge, all of the ballplayers had turned their heads and were eyeing him suspiciously, but kept playing, and so did he. They did not seem to be overly distracted by him, even when he started walking up and down the sidelines, playing his guitar and doing a musical play-by play commentary of the game.
Vivid images formed in my mind as to what the players' reactions would be, and I braced for the worst. Instead of becoming annoyed or bent out of shape, however, the players became more aggressive and appeared more confident in their abilities. I would never dreamed of a better outcome. Minutes later, Ronnie walked up to the car to get another beer.
Shortly thereafter, the game broke up and five of the players came over to us, extending their hands to congratulate Ronnie for his fine tuned commentator's skills. Ronnie wasted no time. He introduced himself as a criminal attorney from Dallas. All eyes were fixed on him as he eloquently pontificated about his legal expertise: "I am so proud to be here tonight in the presence of such a fine group of aspiring, athletically inclined young men. I am adorned with recourse to politically facilitate to you the most intricate and highly publicized interactions within the law. Needless to say, you fine young men are representative of an enterprise that travels in a circle around the globe without the due respect or favor from our prospective and highly enlightened judicial capacities. I have traveled here today to give birth to a astute relaxation but nevertheless to promulgate the truth and formidable destruction tendering the inflexibilities within our crowned judicial system. It is my great pleasure and reward to bestow upon your personage the wonderfully wet and abundantly flavorful substance existing in a chilled bottle of beer."
With eyes wide and mouths agape, the players nodded their heads up and down in mesmerized fascination. They didn't realize that Ronnie had just offered them a beer. I had not said a word up to this point - not because I didn't want to but because trying to get a word in edgewise while Ronnie was talking was nearly impossible. When he stopped talking for a moment to take a drink, I introduced myself myself as Ronnie's friend and asked the players if they would like a beer.
"Sure man, that would be great. We really worked up a sweat playin'ball," one of the guys answered.
While Ronnie walked around the car to get the guys more beer, the tallest ballplayer stepped slightly forward and asked me, "Say man, this cat is really on fire. Is he a good lawyer down there in Dallas"?
I didn't want to perpetuate something that was not true but I didn't want to expose Ronnie as a fake, so I said. "I haven't known Ronnie very long but I know that he considers himself to be a very good attorney."
Ronnie handed out cold beers to everyone and for the next thirty minutes did ninety-nine percent of the talking. The ballplayers were thoroughly impressed with him. Of course, in Ronnie's mind this was nothing more than just having a good time, with no intention of doing any harm or causing any misgivings. On the other hand, there was a strong possibility that at that moment Ronnie himself believed that he was an attorney from Dallas.
That, then was how I remembered Ronnie.......

From pages 21,22 and part 23
Excerpted from Journey Toward Justice by Dennis Fritz Copyright © 2006 by Seven Locks Press. Excerpted by permission of Seven Locks Press All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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DENNIS FRITZ

Dennis Fritz started his "Journey Toward Justice" July 2005.
July is when he started writing his book "Journey Toward Justice" in which he details his arrest and subsequent imprisonment until his release April 15, 1999.

Dennis Fritz was Ron Williamson's friend and co-defendant in the Debra Sue Carter murder case. John Grisham wrote about the case in his book,The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. Grisham writes about Ron Williamson and his role in the case. He does an excellent job and is a Great Book.
Dennis Fritz was close to Ron Williamson, and I am sure Dennis has his own stories about their life and times together.
John Grisham announced in 2005 he was going to write a book I decided then that if he could do it so could I", said Dennis Fritz. I am now on a Mission, and that is to bring about public awareness of false convictions." Dennis said, "It was a 12-year nightmare I suffered with my family for not doing anything and being completely innocent. That's a large part of the book, the obstacles and hurdles we had to go through.The harm that it did to me was that it took 12 years out of my life and away from my family members.I think the strongest part of my book is the total anguish and misery that I go through from being totally excluded from family, including my daughter," Fritz said. "I would not let her come and visit me because of the activities that were going on in the visiting rooms. I could not bear for Elizabeth to see what went on in that prison, so I restricted her from visiting me. It was not the kind of thing that any 11-year-old girl should see, and it tore my heart out by not being able to see her."
Fritz said. "I was subjected to indignities that no person should have to suffer, let alone a person who was innocent of the crime.""Just the fact that I was a suspect in a murder got me fired from my job," Fritz told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Five years after the murder Fritz was arrested, there was a delay by state exhumation of Debra Sue Carter after an incorrect analysis of finger prints at the scene was noted. Also, an inmate that Fritz was paired with eventually came forward and stated that Fritz had confessed to the murder.
This jailhouse snitch gave a two hour taped interview revealing what Fritz had allegedly confessed to him. This confession came one day before the prosecution would have been forced to drop the charges against Fritz. According to Fritz, when they went to trial, an overzealous District Attorney, Bill Peterson, had a case built on flawed hair evidence and jailhouse snitches who received reduced sentences for their testimony.

The detectives then told me they knew I had not committed the crime, but they believed I knew who did it. From the very beginning, I always told them I was innocent, but it made no difference."

"My family, my mother my aunt and daughter stuck behind me the whole way," Fritz said. "Through our faith and their belief in my innocence, that is what busted those prison gates wide open. If it was left up to man himself, I would still be in their today."

"Our love prevailed over the mighty forces of the evil prosecutions that went on then," Fritz said. "Love itself is the most powerful thing. No matter what circumstances love always prevails. It just took 12 years for it to happen. We would not let go that the good Lord would set me free one day."


Dennis Fritz now works with the Innocence Project in Kansas City, Missouri. He makes appearances related to "the innocence movement" nationwide. He is using a book he recently published, "Journey Toward Justice", as a vehicle to bring awareness of the overall, devastating effects of how false convictions can destroy people's lives and how mistakes can be made in cases. He travels the United States speaking to law schools and also hopes to reach prosecutors and judges. You can find his book here

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