Ron Williamson Trial Essay

Ron Williamson grew up in Ada, Oklahoma, the youngest of three children and his parents’ only son. He played baseball at Asher High School, as his parents moved there so he could play under the school’s legendary coach, Murl Bowen. After hitting 500 in the state championships his senior year, he was the 41st pick in the 1971 amateur draft. He turned down a scholarship offer to the University of Oklahoma and signed and spent the 1972 season primarily with the Coos Bay-North Bend A’s hitting 265 in 52 games in 1973. After he hurt his shoulder, the career ended and he returned home in the late 1970’s. In returning home to Oklahoma, he held several other jobs. Williamson became addicted to drugs and alcohol and suffered from increasingly

She worked at a restaurant, called the coach light Club, where Ronald Williamson and Dennis Fritz visited there quite often. A friend of hers said she complained that they made her very nervous when they were there. Shortly after the crime police treated Williamson as a suspect . He took two polygraph tests which were inconclusive. Williamson was seen there the night of the murder. Ronald Williamson was convicted of murdering her 5 years after her death. Williamson was sentenced to death row and Fritz was sent to life in prison. The two were tried separately. Williamson’s trial began on April 21, 1988. The prosecution presented evidence from Glenn Gore, the main

He went for months without showering and barely eating. He paced his cell screaming about his innocence. The night guards would sometimes make fun of him over the intercom. Williamson filed many appeals but all were denied. On September 22, 1994, just five days before he was scheduled to be executed, his public defender filed a habeas corpus petition. It was filed against his trial lawyer because the lawyer failed to acknowledge Williamson’s lace of mental competency to stand trial. Williamson was granted a stay of execution and moved to a special care unit for psychiatric treatment while the court considered the petition. They had to exhume the body because of an incorrect analysis of fingerprints at the scene. While Williamson was in jail for another charge of writing bad checks, an inmate said that he confessed the murder to him. Williamson told police that he had a dream stabbing and strangling the victim. His statement was treated as a confession. While in jail, one of the inmates that was in with Fritz said he had confessed to the murder. A person named Glenn Gore said that Williamson was seen at the restaurant the night of the