---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 14:55:11 -0400 From: "Abolish (Capital Punishment)" Subject: USA Almost Kills More Innocents! DNA Proof Frees Oklahoma Death-Row Inmate, 2nd Man By Ben Fenwick ADA, Okla. (Reuters) - A death row inmate and another man jailed for a 1982 rape-murder in Oklahoma were freed Thursday after DNA evidence showed they did not commit the crime. Ronald Williamson, 46, and Dennis Fritz, 49, walked unshackled out of the Pontotoc County Courthouse after Oklahoma District Judge Tommy Landrith granted their motion to dismiss the case. Williamson had been on death row awaiting execution for nine of his 12 years in prison, while Fritz was serving a life sentence. At one point, Williamson was five days away from being put to death. The two were convicted in 1987 of raping and killing Debra Sue Carter, 21, who was found with a rag stuffed in her mouth. Williamson won a retrial, but was found guilty and sentenced to death a second time. The original evidence in the case consisted of semen samples and 17 hairs found at the crime scene that were matched by experts to the defendants using methods that were common before DNA testing was widely used. Prosecutors also used jailhouse informants to make their case. Attorney Barry Scheck, a DNA expert who gained national attention for his work on O.J. Simpson's defense team, became interested in the case and won a court order for new tests on the evidence using modern DNA analysis. Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson said Wednesday the tests showed that the hairs did not come from either man convicted of the crime. "These men are victims of our justice system," Scheck said after their release. Williamson, a former professional baseball player, said he had pleaded his innocence for years, but with little success. "It's hard to get anybody to listen to you on death row," he told reporters outside the courtroom. He said he was not angry about his treatment, but Fritz, a former schoolteacher, said, "Twelve years of my life is lost." "I wouldn't say I'm angry at this point, I'm upset. I want to do everything in my power to prevent this from happening to someone else," Fritz said. Both men said they would now try to get on with their lives, which for Williamson means continuing treatment for a mental disorder he blamed on his years behind bars. "Anybody knows that being locked is no good for anybody," he said. Peterson, who prosecuted the case, said he was speechless when the DNA tests exonerated the men. "This man has been found guilty by 24 people," he said, referring to Williamson's two trials. Peterson said police have reopened the case with the new DNA results and were checking suspects against the hair and semen samples. The Oklahoma case is the latest in a series in which death-row inmates have been freed after DNA tests proved they had not committed the crime for which they were convicted.