Confessions: The Debra Sue Carter Court Case
In the early 1980’s in a small Podunk town of Ada, Oklahoma, a young woman named Debra Sue Carter, was savagely raped and killed in her own apartment after work at the local cocktail bar. Quickly, the town drunk was arrested in relation to the rape and murder with nothing more than a single “eyewitness” that placed him at the woman’s job that night. Many regulars to the bar said that “they would know if Ron Williamson was at the Coach Light and he wasn’t there.” They, in fact, named another man: Glenn Gore, the prosecution's main witness. Gore was also the man that Debbie’s friend said that she was afraid of and he was supposedly at Debbie’s apartment the night of the murder, according to the friend who received a phone call that night from Debbie. Gore was also seen being pushed away by the victim at the victim’s car the same night as the murder.
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Additionally, Investigators used Williamson’s dream confession as an actual confession even though they did not have it conveniently recorded, despite having the means to do so. In this confession, he said he dreamt that he strangled and stabbed Debbie. Investigators found that this was not only not the cause of death but that the victim had not been stabbed nor strangled. This, also conveniently, was produced one day before the prosecution would have had to drop Fritz’s charges. Another inmate, female, claimed to have overheard Williamson speaking to his mother on the jail phone threatening to kill her as he did Debbie if she did not bring him cigarettes. The defense did not challenge this. They could have by proving where the female inmates were held compared to the single jail phone that Williamson supposedly used. They could have also tried to find a guard that overheard it as well to strengthen or refute the
Additionally, Investigators used Williamson’s dream confession as an actual confession even though they did not have it conveniently recorded, despite having the means to do so. In this confession, he said he dreamt that he strangled and stabbed Debbie. Investigators found that this was not only not the cause of death but that the victim had not been stabbed nor strangled. This, also conveniently, was produced one day before the prosecution would have had to drop Fritz’s charges. Another inmate, female, claimed to have overheard Williamson speaking to his mother on the jail phone threatening to kill her as he did Debbie if she did not bring him cigarettes. The defense did not challenge this. They could have by proving where the female inmates were held compared to the single jail phone that Williamson supposedly used. They could have also tried to find a guard that overheard it as well to strengthen or refute the