The state judge went a step further, vacating Ward’s conviction and ruling he could not be retried.
#A TIME TO KILL NETFLIX FREE#
“The inept handling of reports, evidence, and all other vital documentation from this case clearly falls within a known pattern of police misconduct that the lead detectives and agents working on this case were known to commit,” Payne wrote in the opinion filed in federal court in Muskogee.įontenot, now 56, is free while the appeal is pending. The judge excoriated police and prosecutors for misconduct and declared newly discovered evidence about Fontenot’s alibi and other suspects provides “solid proof” of his “probable innocence.” He ordered Fontenot to be permanently released from custody or granted a new trial.
#A TIME TO KILL NETFLIX TRIAL#
Payne ruled in 2019 that Fontenot did not receive a fair trial because of “numerous” constitutional violations. Investigators found Titsworth had suffered a broken arm during a confrontation with police on April 26, 1984, and could not have been involved. Most significantly, both confessed the clerk was stabbed to death and Fontenot told police the body had been buried near the Ada power plant.Īlso, they confessed another man, Odell Titsworth, had participated in the robbery, kidnapping, rape and murder with them.
“But, she does have her family, the Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma, friends and many good people that worked to find her killers and bring them to justice that will never forget her or who is responsible for her death.”Īmong the issues in the case is that key details from the confessions, made before the victim's body was found, turned out to be wrong. “Denice doesn’t have a famous, wealthy author/film producer or people seeking five minutes of fame to stand up for her,” the family said. The reversals in the case are being appealed. “Anyone that has could not believe Ward and Fontenot are innocent men,” the family said. The family questioned whether the judges actually watched the videotapes of the confessions.
#A TIME TO KILL NETFLIX SERIES#
“We could write an entire book refuting the falsehoods and distortions contained in the book, series and briefs filed by the attorneys.” “Both are commercial enterprises designed to feed off of people’s desire to see and read about conspiracies,” the family said. Both are filled with distortion and are completely one-sided when it comes to the case against Ward and Fontenot. The only thing that has changed is the release of the so-called true book by John Grisham, followed by the Netflix series. “Because the facts of the case and the proof against Ward and Fontenot haven’t changed. “We ask the question why?” the family said in its statement. In December, a state judge threw out Ward's conviction. They claimed their admissions came from a dream.Ī federal judge vacated Fontenot’s conviction in 2019, months after “The Innocent Man” - a Netflix series based on novelist John Grisham's only nonfiction book - renewed national attention to the case. Two Ada men - Karl Fontenot and Tommy Ward - were convicted in her death but both have insisted for years they were innocent despite their having confessed. Her remains were found more than a year later in a field near Gerty, about 30 miles away. The newlywed college student worked as a clerk there at night. The victim, Donna Denice Haraway, disappeared from the McAnally's convenience store in Ada on April 28, 1984. “It has sickened us to see what has been done over the past few years to distort, mislead and outright lie about the facts of the case,” the victim's family said Friday in a statement sent to the media. The family of a murdered Ada woman is blaming Netflix now that both murder convictions in the infamous 1984 case have been thrown out.
0 kommentar(er)
