Ada, Oklahoma

==Controversies==
In 1987, journalist Robert Mayer published ''[[The Dreams of Ada]]'' exploring major flaws, irregularities, forced confessions, and possible miscarriages of justice in Ada in the convictions of Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot for the rape and murder of Denice Haraway, who died in 1984.

In 2006, [[John Grisham]] brought Ada into the national spotlight in his nonfiction work ''[[The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town|The Innocent Man]]'', relating a similar story in the convictions of [[Ron Williamson]] and Dennis Fritz for the murder of Debra Sue Carter. After 12 years on death row, DNA evidence proved the men's innocence and established the guilt of the prosecution's main witness. Similar problems surrounded the trials of the two men convicted for the murder of Denice Haraway. Prosecutor Bill Peterson has self-published his disagreements with Grisham's version of events.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/burden/profiles/williamson.html Frontline: burden of innocence] (accessed November 13, 2008)</ref><ref>[http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/295.php The Innocence Project] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20080919005615/http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/295.php |date=2008-09-19 }} (accessed November 13, 2008).</ref><ref>[http://www.billpetersondistrictattorney.com/ Grisham's Folly] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021084706/http://www.billpetersondistrictattorney.com/ |date=2008-10-21 }} (accessed November 13, 2008).</ref>

In 2018, Grisham's book was adapted into a Netflix series, also titled ''[[The Innocent Man (2018 TV series)|The Innocent Man]]'', combining and extending the cases outlined in his and Mayer's books.