BOOKS: The Dreams of Ada

“The Dreams of Ada” by Robert Mayer tells a story strikingly similar to that recounted by John Grisham in “The Innocent Man.” Each book involves the murder of a young woman from Ada, Oklahoma in the early 1980s. In both cases, there are two defendants whose convictions rely on little probative evidence but involve “confessions” that emerged from a dream. Both prosecutions were led by Bill Peterson and both involved the same jail-house informant. The defendants in Mayer’s book, Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot, were both sentenced to death, as was Ron Williamson in Grisham’s book. Williamson and his co-defendant were eventually freed when DNA evidence excluded them from the crime scene. Ward and Fontenot remain in prison for life, after their death sentences were overturned. In their case, there was no DNA evidence to provide a more definitive answer. At the time of their trial, no body had even been discovered. Both Mayer and Grisham believe that Ward and Fontenot were victims of a complete miscarriage of justice.

(R. Mayer, “The Dreams of Ada,” Doubleday Broadway 1987, with new Afterword 2006). See Innocence and Arbitrariness.