Prosecutor made a website to counter Grisham's "The Innocent Man"
Pontotoc County (OK) District Attorney William N. Peterson in Oklahoma, who sent the wrong man to prison for a 1982 murder which became the subject of a best-selling book by author John Grisham, has put up a website to tell his side of the story. Grisham’s response to the prosecutor’s criticisms: “Lose my address and fax number.”
The book “The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town” is about the conviction and eventual exoneration of Ron Williamson in the 1982 rape and murder of Deborah Sue Carter in Ada. Williamson and Dennis Fritz were convicted with Williamson given the death penalty and Fritz life in prison.
Both were later cleared by DNA evidence and a key prosecution witness in the case has been convicted of the crime.
Bill Peterson says the book is not accurate and he’s started a website in which he disputes conclusions made by Grisham and points out suspected errors. He says circumstantial evidence convinced him at the time that Williamson and Fritz were the killers.
On his website, www.billpetersondistrictattorney.com, Peterson lays out why he believes the book is factually incorrect in an outline with at least a dozen points. Peterson meticulously cites page numbers where he suspects errors occurred and disputes conclusions Grisham made in his book, which remains on The New York Times best seller list.
“Mr. Grisham was not very truthful and honest, he was barely scratching the surface,” said Peterson, who has been elected to consecutive terms as district attorney since 1980. “I figure I’d put it all on the Web and let people decide for themselves whether I’ve really got horns and suck people’s blood from them. When people read this book, they think it’s true, it’s John Grisham. I’m just a little old country prosecutor from Ada, Oklahoma.” Grisham’s book makes Peterson and investigators look like they’re out to get Williamson and Fritz, Peterson said.
The case happened before DNA evidence was available, and circumstantial evidence found at the scene and taken from Williamson and Fritz seem to match up, Peterson said. DNA evidence later freed both men and linked Glen Gore to the murder. He was convicted in 2006.
“I’ve tried to conduct myself in an honorable way for 27 years. I was what I was. I was a prosecutor, a passionate prosecutor,” Peterson said. “I went after them. I was convinced they killed Debbie Carter. If that was your mother, your sister or your daddy who was killed, you wouldn’t want a pansy prosecutor. You would want someone passionate.”
A publicist for Grisham’s publishing company did not offer comment on the site.
Included on Peterson’s website is correspondence between Peterson and Grisham that occurred after the book came out last fall. After some exchanges in which Peterson attempts to point out inconsistencies in the book, the author tells Peterson, “I have no desire to re-hash the facts and bicker about who’s right and who’s wrong. I do not read reviews, fan letters, hate letters, and I will read nothing else from you. Save yourself some time. Lose my address and fax number.”
Sources: kait8, Crime Scene KC (PDF file)
Interesting. I have printed off Mr Peterson’s information from his website and will read it. I find it funny that on the scanned letters between himself and Mr Grisham, he crosses out his fax/phone #, yet leaves Mr Grishams address and # visable.
Mr Grisham’s novel seems to represent the same facts that I’ve read else where. I will be curious to read Mr Peterson information. I throughly enjoyed this book, as I suspected I would, and had a very difficult time putting it down. Another outstanding novel by Mr Grisham!!
It’s difficult to tell who is right and who is wrong, but the thing that irks me the most is that, after wrongly sending Fritz and Williamson to prison for 12 years, neither Peterson, City of Ada, or the State of Oklahoma offered an apology for the gross miscarriage of justice that took so many years from the men’s lives. If that is true, then everything Peterson claims as integrity on his site is a lie. That is the very least he should have done. I began this book wanting Ada to be in a good light, since my family founded Ada (John Beard), but in the end, I was just embarassed.
I was born and raised in Ada, OK and was still living there when this murder took place. The fact of the matter is that this town was so hell bent on solving this murder that they didnt care who they convicted, as long as there was a conviction. The D.A. comes from the prominent side of Ada and will have a job as the D.A. for as long as he wants it no matter what kind of mistakes or injustices are done, because as long as the “money” people are in charge, the other “money” people feel safer.
It’s a shame that this injustice has not produced more of an outrage. In my message to Peterson, I expressed my hope that he receive the same “justice” his partner in self-serving rhetoric, namely Mike Nifong, received. And lastly, Amy, this is only typical of the self-serving crap Peterson has tried to shove down our throats.
I was amazed reading the book. It seems Justice in the US is ages behind Europe. E.g. when someone is wrongfully imprisoned in Holland (it happens!), the victim is entitled to a fixed amount of compensation for each day.
Furthermore, the book is one lengthy essay arguing against juries and against electing DA’s.
For the rest, my compliments to the author for this book!
Contrary to the conclusions of some, it is not difficult to know which is right. When you read Peterson’s rebuttal, remember to ask yourself if he addresses the failure to take hair and blood samples from Gore, the last person Debbie was seen alive with? Then ask yourself if he addresses why he withheld exculpatory evidence, which is against the law and a violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights. All the other little niggling “errors” are just “smoke.” The evidence is clear that the miscarriage of justice was discovered and understood BEFORE the DNA analyses. The only person who couldn’t see the light was ‘ol Bill. There are two kinds of people in the world: the ones that quickly make up their minds what is right and thereafter exclude all information that contradicts what they now believe, and those who tentatively make up their minds, and keep themselves open to new information. A prosecutor must be of the latter type, else he/she will be an instrument of gross injustice. Sadly, it is clear that Peterson still believes he is right, DNA evidence notwithstanding. It is to the shame of the Ada citizens that they can’t see through the smoke and discover the truth.
Peterson’s suit against Grisham et-al is “eye wash”, and will go nowhere.
The fact that the DA and his organization were sued, and lost before, shows the weakness of any case he could bring.
Its good news that he has chosen to retire. It is the unarticulated imperitives of a society that say the most about it, and the fact that Ada would never vote him out says the most about they themselves.
as much as i would like to get upset about the events in ada, i find that it does not surprise me, lots of people will tel you about the injustice in the american system but it really does not count unless it is really exposed by the likes of barry scheck and mark barret, and then everyone acts surprised.as for bill peterson, nothing surprising there, just another hick old boy ho can do n wrong in his honky tonky town. i actually hope he runs into one his wrongfully convicted felons late at night on a dark road and see how he feels.
I read Grisham’s book and I have read numerous accounts of Mr Peterson’s side of the story. Notice that during his “research” Grisham did not question any Law enforcement Officers or anybody from the Proecutor” office. I find this strange in itself as these were the people who were involved and one would think that they might have some information that Grisham could use in his book. Grisham would have you believe that all the Police and Prosecutors are rotten to the core. Where does he get this information from? He gets all his information for this “Book” from ordinary citizens, Criminals and people with a limited knowledge of what went on. Not once did he question any law Enforcement personnel connected to this case. Why is it that some of you are so quick to believe these people and not a Prosecutor who has served his Town for 25 years + and still keeps getting voted in by the decent people. This book is so biased that it is sickening. If the Police were going to frame these men then they would have just planted evidence and came up with an admission of guilt and claim that the Accused persons had confessed. They would have done it the first year instead of investigating for several years. By reading some of the comments on here, it is pretty sad that some of you accept Grishams word as 100% factual. This guy is trying to sell a book and maybe the absolute truth here would not have made it very interesting so he improvised by adding stuff that did not happen, left stuff out that should have been mentioned and guessed the rest.
Keep in mind that Grisham is a lawyer and we all know that lawyers always tell the truth and never make anything up or exaggerate.
Come on people read between the lines of this book.
I have never read a story in the news media that accurately reflected all the events of any incident I had personal knowledge of. Books are surely the same. I am always amazed at how a conclusion can be arrived at that seems to be at odds with my knowledge and my interpretation. I guess I am human too! The notion of truth and accuracy seems to be something that we would all like, we all claim it, but biases are always there.
I read the book on the plane – frankly, the first hundred or more pages were hard to get through…I nearly left it on the seat of the plane….but I finished it and then went to the web and read pretty much everything I could find including Peterson’s extensive rebuttal.
The real heroes if there are any, are Payne, Chesley and Seay. The fact that they reviewed the case and found clear and convincing (to them) evidence of a mismanaged trial BEFORE the DNA evidence was available tells me a lot. I’ve lived in “small town USA” for many years and it seems to go with the territory that we end up with what we pay for in legal, healthcare and even education. I don’t so much agree with Grisham’s reflection of Peterson and the small town cops as being nasty and malicious, rather I think its a matter of lack of competence (as opposed to incompetence).
Peterson says that he did what he did because it was the logical thing to do at the time. To some extent he is correct – but it is also a fact that the Jim Payne reviewed the same materials Peterson had and came to a different (and apparently correct) conclusion.
Noone likes their good name dragged through the mud – particularly in public. But Peterson was the force that obtained a conviction for these men that essentially destroyed their lives. If Peterson was as good as he claims in his website, and if he was fooled by the evidence chain so much, why did he not question his own motives earlier? I don’t think its easy for any prosecutor – they have a tough job and I suspect we don’t pay them so well. But what we give them in return is incredible power. When they send my brother, father, cousin, friend, or someone I have never heard of before to the death chamber, they better be sure without any possible doubt that they are correct. This means trying to disprove their own theories, critically evaluating their own data, questioning the accuracy of their own detectives, witnesses and motives.
Only then can the Bill Peterson’s of this world do their jobs with impunity.
Can someone please tell me why Bill Peterson was allowed to keep his job after nearly costing two innocent men their lives? Surely his gross misconduct is worthy of prosecution and a prison sentence? If Peterson prosecuted all his past cases like this he likely has the blood of innocent men on his hands.
Traveling to Ada sounds like a scary prospect. I know I’ll never go there.
Peterson is a perfect example of what is wrong with the justice system in this country. His web site is a weak attempt at covering up his incompetence by pointing out the few inaccuracies that Grisham stated in his book. Compared to the host of inaccuracies, lies, misconceptions, ignorance of factual information and just plain incompetence, that Mr. Peterson has displayed, Grisham’s mistakes seem inconsequential.
His web site is a poor attempt at covering his own failures. Just the fact that he knowingly allowed a former police chief of the town to sit on the jury without revelation of that fact is enough for me to rate Bill Peterson as a low life who should have been removed from office a long time ago. As Bob Dylan said many years ago it “Makes you feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game”.
Read the book and studied Peterson’s site in depth. Peterson you are still wrong. You failed big time and all for self esteem. You are a big fish in a little pond (Ada) and you exploited it to the end. You still do not have the courage or honesty to correct or admit your horrendous behaviour. In spite of witnesses identifying Glenn Gore as the last person to be seen with Deborah Carter, why was this man allowed to evade questioning or even come under suspicion and questioning by police. Answer: the apalling police and judicial system in Ada. When are the cases of Ward and Fontenot to be reviewed Peterson?
Mr. Peterson needs to learn the difference between the words “passionate” and “overzealous”.
Bill Peterson, I have just read the book and your website. I must say you are an asshole. The best thing that you can do in your life is now start reviewing all the cases that you have worked so far and apologize to the innocent people that you harassed or convicted. Start apologizing with Ron and Dennis.
Bob Mac: Are you related to Bill Peterson or are you Bill Peterson? Clearly, only a relation (or Bill himself) would stand up for someone that has so clearly violated the justice system he was put in place to protect.
Twice I have defended innocent men from criminal charges. Both times the prosecutor, who were clearly passionate about their jobs, shook my client’s hand after the jury returned their verdict. I think they knew then they were wrong, but were just their jobs. Peterson has no doubt he was wrong, DNA proved that, yet he will not apoligize to two men he put behind bars for years, one he almost had killed. It takes a special kind of person to be a prosecutor, passionate to a point where logic then takes over. These two were both just out of law school. They are everything that Peterson is not, and can never be.
I’ve just finished reading the book, I’ve also read Petersons website and his excuses. I’ve also read the comments on several websites left by folk saying they were from Ada.
My conclusion is that I’m astonished that Peterson has been allowed to continue as DA as long as he has, it’s absolutely incredible.
His continued reference (throughout his excuses) to the JG book as a ‘novel’ speaks volumes about the man to me.
I sincerely hope his actions and incompetence have caused him a lot of grief and stress, even then it will be nowhere near the amount of distress he himself caused at least 2 innocent men to suffer, very probably many more.
I hope Grisham sticks it to him in court if the idiot Peterson actually has the gall to pursue hi libel case.
Well done John Grisham for bringing this atrocity to the attention of the masses.
I applaud Grisham for another fine book. I thought this non-fiction was indeed an eye opener to the potential ills of the american justice system and should be read by every american. I still can’t see what’s Peterson doing with this lawsuit of his. If I were him, i’d banish myself from all public attention.
I used to watch ‘dirty harry’ movies and other cop shows and always thought to myself how the system seem to limit the cops from putting away criminals, after the movie of course clearly make known the criminals, hiding behind their ‘rights’. Now I think differently. It’s sad that such injustices take place. Thank god for such projects as the ‘innocence project’.
So what about the other two guys, Ward and Fontenot? What’s being done about them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_and_Fontenot
Bob Mac: In response to your closing comments.
Grisham is a lawyer and Bill Peterson also is a ……?
I’m an Italian Law Enforcement Officer. It’s difficult for me to accept what two of my “colleagues” did while investigating such a horrible crime. We don’t have the “miranda rights” in Italy, but we do have something similar. In any case, confessions or rumors cannot be used in court if they the lawyer is not present. They can be used only for further investigation. We never treat witnesses or suspects like that. Grisham has rightfully enphasized those misconducts and the errors or discrepancies found by D.A. Peterson in Mr. Grisham’s book are not going to send anybody to death row. The urge to find a killer is understandable in a small town and in a big city as well, but I’d rather have 100 killers hitting the streets than one innocent in jail.