Books Related to the Ward and Fontenot Case And If They Did It....

I thought it would be interesting to do this interesting post, "If They Did It" or "Why You Could NEVER Convince Me" and you as a reader finish it. To do this go to the bottom of post and click on the small word comments below and add your story. If approved I will post it. I can not edit comments, so please use spell check. If "THEY", meaning Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot are the real killers of Denice Haraway.

Tommy Ward's Dream Gets Him Death Penalty - A Cousin Starts a Blog For Help

Please Help My Cousin Prove His Innocence

My cousin Tommy Ward was wrongfully convicted of Murder over 20 years ago. Despite evidence, he was convicted because of a dream he had about the event. The details of his dream/confession were nowhere close to matching the actual events of the victims death, rape, or the location of her body. My family and I have been stripped of the joys of having Tommy in our lives for far too long. He has been denied a wonderful life because the justice system needed someone to blame for the crime.

Persons with information about the Denice Haraway homicide may send e-mail to:
barrettlawoffice@gmail.com
Or write to:
Mark Barrett, Attorney
P.O. Box 896
Norman, Oklahoma 73070

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

~Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot were convicted of murdering Denise Haraway. Haraway, 24, worked part-time at McAnally’s convenience store in Ada, Oklahoma. She was last seen leaving the store on April 28, 1984, with a man who had his arm around her waist. The two appeared to be a pair of lovers. The store was found deserted with the cash register drawer opened and emptied. Haraway’s purse and driver’s license were found inside, and her car nearby.

~Months later, after Haraway still remained missing, police questioned Tommy Ward, who resembled the man accompanying Haraway from the store. After days of interrogation, Ward confessed to the crime.

He also implicated his friend, Karl Fontenot, and Odell Titsworth, a man he never met. During the videotaped confession, Ward frequently forgot Titsworth’s name and called him “Titsdale.” Ward said the three gang-raped Haraway, murdered her with Titsworth’s knife, and dumped her body near Sandy Creek.

~Fontenot was soon arrested and confessed after only two hours of interrogation. His confession was similar to Ward’s but contradicted it many details, like the order in which the three raped Haraway, or the location and number of stab wounds on her. Fontenot said the three brought Haraway into an abandoned house, where Titsworth poured gasoline over her body and burned down the house. Ward had mentioned a burned down house in an earlier unrecorded confession, and police knew it existed.

~Titsworth was arrested, but he had broken his arm two days before the murder in a fight with police. Medical and police records made him an unlikely suspect, and he was never charged with murder. While police were sifting through the remains of the burned down house, the owner appeared. After police told him of Fontenot’s confession, the owner said Fontenot’s story was impossible, as he himself had burned down the house 10 months before the murder.

~At trial, the prosecutor presented the confessions and was forced into the position of telling the jury the defendants were lying about details while asking the jury to believe them anyway.

Two jailhouse informants supplemented the confessions. One said Ward confessed, while the other said he overheard Fontenot talking to himself, saying, “I knew we’d get caught. I knew we’d get caught.”
The jurors returned with guilty verdicts and death penalties.

~Haraway’s body was found four month’s later in Hughes County, far from anyplace that was searched. She had not been stabbed or burned, but died from a single gunshot to the head.

Other Links of Importance:
http://journeytowardjusticebookexcerpts.blogspot.com/
http://www.wardandfontenot.com/about.html
http://barbarasblogspot.blogspot.com/2007/05/karl-fontenot-and-tommy-ward-deserve.html
http://www.nysda.org/Publications/06_DreamsofAda.pdf

There are three books about this and other wrongful convictions by ex-DA Bill Peterson of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma.

The First is titled, "The Dreams of Ada", Author Robert Mayer, next two are:

"Journey Towards Justice", Author Dennis Fritz,

and "The Innocent Man" , Author John Grisham.

Please help spread the word about this tragedy that has been plaguing my family for over two decades.

Your comments are very much appreciated.

Thank you,
Stacy

(cousin of Tommy Ward)

My Blog Here Please Help My Cousin Tommy Ward Is Innocent

Tommy Ward Innocent A Message From His Sister

Tommy Ward's sister Joice sent me an email along with a comment on my blog, "Barbara's Journey Toward Justice". The email she wrote to me was heartbreaking. She knows her brother Tommy Ward is innocent and has the facts to prove it.
Never mind that the police had no real evidence against him, no motive, no prior knowledge of the victim, no crime scene clues, such as fingerprints, blood, semen, hair, saliva, footprints and there was no crime scene. And in spite of the fact that Tommy Ward's dream of the killing has been proven false - and proven false again and again in multiple ways.
I guess that means nothing to the court of law and Ada, Oklahoma police. And for the interrogators from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
Joice does read my blog, please post any comments or your thoughts to her here. Joice may God Bless you and your family and with His help your brother Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot will be set free.

Here is the story of Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot for people not familiar with the murder case.
From Ward and Fontenot Website
They were literally dreamed onto death row.
And in spite of the fact that the dream has been proven false - and proven false again and again in multiple ways - Karl Fontenot and Tommy Ward remain in prison. Tommy Ward, for hours, told police he didn't kill Denice Haraway.

He told them, however, that he had a dream about her.

That was good enough for the Ada, Oklahoma police. And for the interrogators from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

It took them nine hours of questioning in a locked room for officers to extract the confession from Tommy.

Karl, an impressionable street kid with no family and few friends, was easier to break. After only two hours the police had another confession, one suspiciously similar to Tommy's.

Problem was that the confessions shared some of the same wrong information.

A major mistake was that both identified Odell Titsworth, a man who could not possibly have committed the acts, as the primary culprit in the abduction, rape and killing of Ms. Haraway.

The police questioned Titsworth, realized he couldn't have done it, and let him go.

Never mind that the police had no real evidence against Tommy and Karl, they remained in jail.

There was no motive, no prior knowledge of the victim, no crime scene clues, such as fingerprints, blood, semen, hair, saliva, footprints.

There was no crime scene. At the counter where Ms. Haraway had apparently talked to her abductor, the cigarette in the ashtray was thrown away and the counter was wiped clean.

The site of the killing?

At the time of the trial, there was no site of the killing. There was no body. Ms. Haraway had simply vanished.

At the first trial, not a shred of physical evidence was presented. Yet, both Tommy and Karl were sent to death row.

Four months after the trial, the confessions were proved erroneous in additional ways.

The body was found.

Tommy's dream, the primary evidence against him, had placed the body at the west edge of Ada. The actual body was found in a remote area twenty-five miles east of town.

The prosecution had told the jury, based on the dreams, that Tommy and Karl had killed the young woman with a knife and then burned the body.

It turned out that she had not been stabbed. She was, however, shot once in the head. That head wound had been described by neither Tommy nor Karl.
Karl and Tommy were given new trials.

But they were both again convicted.
They have been incarcerated about 22 years.
Tommy is serving a life sentence. Karl's sentence: life without parole.
As they serve another man's sentence, the real killer walks free.