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‘The Innocent Man’ on Netflix: Who are Tommy Ward, Ron Williamson, and Terri the Snitch?

By Meghan O'Keefe @megsokay

Published Dec. 17, 2018, 11:30 a.m. ET

Side-by-side of Karl Fontenot and Tommy Ward in The Innocent Man — *The Innocent Man* is a gripping look at two awful murders that affected the same small town. Here's your guide to all the major players in the Netflix docuseries.Photo: Netflix

John Grisham in The Innocent Man — **John Grisham:** *The Innocent Man* is based upon author John Grisham's sole work of nonfiction. Like the book, the docuseries follows the grisly true crime stories of Debbie Carter and Denise Haraway. Grisham helps set up some of the more complicated parts of the story, and talks about his work as a board member of the Innocence Project in later episodes.Photo: Netflix

Debbie Carter in The Innocent Man — **Debbie Carter:** Debra "Debbie" Sue Carter is one of the two murder victims profiled in *The Innocent Man*. Carter was raped, beaten, and murdered in her own apartment. Later, Ada police arrested Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz for her murder. Photo: Netflix

Peggy Carter in The Innocent Man — **Peggy "Peppy" Carter:** Peppy is Debbie's devastated mother. She remembers her daughter and details how her murder caused immense trauma.Photo: Netflix

Christy Sheppard in The Innocent Man — **Christy Sheppard:** Christy Sheppard is one of the first people we meet in *The Innocent Man*. She is Debbie Carter's cousin and Glenna's daughter. At first, she exists as another character witness recounting the trial, but later we learn about her activist work on behalf of the wrongfully convicted. Photo: Netflix

Glenna Jones in The Innocent Man — **Glenna Jones:** Glenna Jones is Peppy Carter's sister and Debbie's aunt. She not only remembers Debbie fondly, but describes the toll the murder and the trials took on their family.Photo: Netflix

Ron Williamson in The Innocent Man — **Ron Williamson:** In the 1980s, Ron Williamson was found guilty of the rape and murder of Debbie Carter. However in 1999, DNA evidence proved that he was not at Carter's apartment, and he was exonerated and freed from prison mere days before his scheduled execution. Photo: Netflix

Dennis Fritz in The Innocent Man — **Dennis Fritz:** Dennis Fritz was Ron Williamson's friend and was also charged with Debbie Carter's rape and murder. While in jail, Fritz learned about DNA evidence and assembled the paperwork required to appeal his conviction. Photo: Netflix

Elizabeth Clinton in The Innocent Man — **Elizabeth Clinton:** Elizabeth Clinton is Dennis Fritz's daughter. She herself is a survivor of violence, as she witnessed her own mother's murder as a toddler. Photo: Netflix

Robert Mayer in The Innocent Man — **Robert Mayer:** Before John Grisham wrote *The Innocent Man*, the leading source on the cases was Robert Mayer's *The Dreams of Ada*. Here, Mayer gives important details from his own reporting on the cases. Photo: Netflix

Denise Haraway in The Innocent Man — **Denice Haraway:** Denice Haraway is the other victim at the center of *The Innocent Man*. In 1984, she was abducted out of the gas station mart where she worked. Years later her body would be found in a location far from where Tommy Ward falsely claimed she was killed.Photo: Netflix

Tommy Ward in The Innocent Man — **Tommy Ward:** This is Tommy Ward as of today, still in prison for the murder of Denice Haraway. Ward has been trying to get his sentencing overturned for decades, on the grounds that he was coerced into giving false testimony. Photo: Netflix

Karl Fontenot in The Innocent Man — **Karl Fontenot:** Fontenot was also found guilty of the murder of Haraway. We don't see much of him in *The Innocent Man* outside of vintage footage of his coerced confessions. Photo: Netflix

Bill Peterson in The Innocent Man — **Bill Peterson:** Bill Peterson refused to be interviewed for *The Innocent Man*, but his shadow looms over every episode. He was the District Attorney who pinned Debbie's murder on Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz, and Denice's murder on Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot. Peterson also refused to accept new evidence.Photo: Netflix

Terri Holland in The Innocent Man — **Terri Holland:** Both the Debbie Carter and the Denise Haraway trials featured scathing testimony from a woman who overheard jailhouse confessions from the alleged murderers. In both cases, this was Terri Holland, aka "the snitch" with a "c-spot" talent. Towards the end of the series, we learn what may have motivated Terri Holland to falsely testify.Photo: Netflix

A.C. Shilton in The Innocent Man — **A.C. Shilton:** We don't meet investigative reporter A.C. Shilton until Episode 4, but at that point, the plot shifts to her search for Denice Haraway's true killer. Photo: Netflix

Where to Stream:

The Innocent Man

'The Innocent Man' on Netflix: Who are Tommy Ward, Ron Williamson, and Terri the Snitch?

Who's Who in 'The Innocent Man'

Stream It Or Skip It: 'The Innocent Man' On Netflix, A True Crime Docuseries Based On John Grisham's Book

Netflix's 'The Innocent Man' Will Wreck You

Netflix’s The Innocent Man takes a deep dive into not one, but two, horrible crimes. Both murders took place in Ada, Oklahoma in the 1980s, and both led to the wrongful convictions of two men. Needless to say, The Innocent Man is a gripping tale that juggles the stories of a lot of people. You’ve got the first victim, Debbie Carter and her family, the second victim, Denise Haraway, and all the suspects, witnesses, and journalists touched by both cases. Making the narrative all the more complicated, The Innocent Man shuffles these storylines together to make a bigger thematic point about the victims, trials, and appeals.

So it can get a little tough to figure out who’s who and how everyone is related to one another, especially since there is a bunch of overlap in the two cases. Both trials were overseen by District Attorney Bill Peterson, and both trials featured damning evidence from a jailhouse “snitch” named Terri Holland. So how is Tommy Ward related to the Denise Haraway case? What does best-selling author John Grisham have to do with it all? And who is literally blood-related to whom? (There are a bunch of family members who pop up in the show.)

Here’s your guide to the major players in Netflix’s The Innocent Man.

Watch The Innocent Man on Netflix