NORMAN, Okla. — The night Dennis Fritz was sentenced to life in prison, it should have been the most frightening evening of his life.

Yet, when the bars to his cell clanged shut, there was a sense of relief.

“I was in a state of shock,” Fritz said. “That evening when I was taken back to the one-man cell, the finality of it hit me. I wasn’t surprised, but I was in a state of shock.”

Even though there was a chance he would never see the outside world ever again or never see the smile on his daughter’s face, Fritz was not sent to death row and that meant he could still fight for his freedom.

But what made it unbearable for the Oklahoma native was that he knew he didn’t belong there.

Going to prison for a crime you didn’t commit, it’s a fear most Americans do not have to worry about.

However, for Fritz it was very real. He spent 12 years locked away after being convicted of rape and first-degree murder.

Fritz has written a book called “Journey Toward Justice,” in which he details his arrest and subsequent imprisonment until his release April 15, 1999.

“It is something that was a devastating circumstance,” Fritz said after a recent trip to Norman for a book signing. “It was a 12-year nightmare I suffered with my family for not doing anything and being completely innocent. That’s a large part of the book, the obstacles and hurdles we had to go through.”

Acclaimed author John Grisham wrote “The Innocent Man,” a book about Fritz and co-defendant Ron Williamson’s ordeal. It was then that Fritz, who now lives in Kansas City, Mo., knew he had something to say, despite having to endure the pain of reliving the past.

“When Grisham announced in 2005 he was going to write a book I decided then that if he could do it so could I,” Fritz said. “My stance now is that although I am exposed to it everyday, I have gotten to the point I realize I have a mission. That is to bring about public awareness of false convictions.”



Wrong place,

wrong time

Fritz’s life changed forever one fateful night in 1982. Dec. 8, 21-year-old Debra Sue Carter, a waitress at the Coachlight Bar , was found in her apartment raped and murdered. A wtiness at the bar, Glen Gore, told police Williamson had been harassing Carter that night at the bar.

Because Fritz was a friend of Williamson, he was questioned by the police, even though he was not seen at the bar. But they were both released due to lack of evidence.

Fritz, who had an 8-year-old daughter named Elizabeth at the time, went back to his life, hoping the ordeal would be put behind him. What he didn’t know was that it was just the beginning.

Five years after the murder, Williamson was in jail for writing bad checks. A prisoner told officials Williamson claimed to have killed Carter.

The prisoner’s declaration, along with hair found at the scene, led to Fritz and Williamson’s arrest May 8, 1987, for Carter’s rape and murder.

“Just the fact that I was a suspect in a murder got me fired from my job,” Fritz told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. “Five years later I was arrested. The detectives then told me they knew I had not committed the crime, but they believed I knew who did it. From the very beginning, I always told them I was innocent, but it made no difference.”

The evidence still was slim until the day before charges against Fritz would have to be dropped. A fellow inmate came forward and stated that Fritz had confessed to the murder. According to Fritz, when they went to trial, an overzealous District Attorney, Bill Peterson, had a case built on flawed hair evidence and jailhouse snitches who received reduced sentences for their testimony.

However, it must have been enough. A year and a month after his arrest Fritz was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison while Williamson was sent to death row.

“After I got my life sentence, there was a sense of relief,” Fritz said. “The pressure of whether I was going to get death was over. I had prepared myself for the worse. I believed I was going to be convicted with the reputation of the county.”



Faith and family

Fritz’s daughter, now named Elizabeth Challis, went to live with her grandparents because her mother was murdered by a neighbor when she was 2 years old. She was 13 when she found out her father would be going to prison for the rest of his life.

Even though it took an emotional toll on him, Fritz made the decision early on that he would not allow Elizabeth to see him in prison.

“I think it is the strongest part of my book is the total anguish and misery that I go through from being totally excluded from family, including my daughter,” Fritz said. “I would not let her come and visit me because of the sexual activities that were going on in the visiting rooms. I could not bear for Elizabeth to see what went on in that prison, so I restricted her from visiting me. It was not the kind of thing that any 11-year-old girl should see, and it tore my heart out by not being able to see her.”

However, Fritz knows he would not have been able to do his time or dream of getting out if it had not been for his family.

“My family, my mother my aunt and daughter stuck behind me the whole way,” Fritz said. “Through our faith and their belief in my innocence, that is what busted those prison gates wide open. If it was left up to man himself, I would still be in their today.”



Set free

When his appeals to higher courts failed, Fritz was at the point to where he was about to cut off all communications with his family.

“I was thinking maybe I should just separate myself from my daughter,” Fritz said. “Didn’t want her to linger and hang on. I wanted her to have a happy life. Didn’t want to be a burden to her.”

Fritz finally reached out to the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic which only handles cases where postconviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence.

Led by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld, the Innocence Project was able to get the DNA test on the hair found at the scene of the crime. The tests showed the hair did not belong to Fritz or Williamson, but to Gore, the state’s main witness.

Mark Barrett, who was Williamson’s lawyer, Jim Payne, Janet Chesley, Bill Luker and Kim Marks of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, were also key in proving Williamson and Fritz’s innocence.

Almost 11 years to the day Fritz was sentenced to life in prison, he walked out a free man.

“There is no more decent and dignified a man, no a more gentle soul, than Dennis Fritz,” Scheck said. “He has had the fortitude to tell his whole story. As always, I am in awe of his courage and humbled by his efforts.”

On that same day he saw his daughter’s face for the first time in more than a decade.

“Our love prevailed over the mighty forces of the evil prosecutions that went on then,” Fritz said. “Love itself is the most powerful thing. No matter what circumstances love always prevails. It just took 12 years for it to happen. We would not let go that the good Lord would set me free one day.”



A story to tell

After his release Fritz had to get used to life back on the outside. It was not an easy transition as he went through counseling for post traumatic stress.

But Fritz says the best help for him was taking pen to paper.

“After I began writing my book in July of 2005 I found myself going back into feeling the facts of post traumatic stress. For about four or five months it was the kind of thing if I saw a cop car I would go back into the mode of being overly cautious. I was there again as I was writing my book in the harms way of corrupt officials. But I kept on writing. It started to become a cathartic thing for me. Getting those last remaining tentacles hanging on, the feelings that were deep inside, and purge them out.”

With Grisham’s involvement, Fritz’s story has gotten national attention. That includes a piece on NBC’s Dateline, which will air this month.

“The story of the unwarranted prosecution and wrongful conviction of Dennis Fritz is compelling and fascinating,” Grisham said.

According to Fritz, his and Grisham’s book are companion pieces to go hand in hand. Grisham’s is narrative written in third person and predominately center’s on Williamson, who came within one day of being executed. In his novel Fritz gives readers a first person account of the entire saga.

Williamson, who came within five days of being executed, will not be able to read either book. He was in a nursing home when died of cirrhosis of the liver in 2004 Williamson was 51.

It was Williamson’s obituary that inspired Grisham write his book.

With the release of his novel, Fritz’s goal still is the same. He wants the world to know innocent men and women have been sent to jail and it can be stopped.

If not, what happened to him could happen to anyone.

“The harm that it did to me was that it took 12 years out of my life and away from my family members,” Fritz said. “I was subjected to indignities that no person should have to suffer, let alone a person who was innocent of the crime.”

Michael Kinney writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.