Is Tommy Ward Still in Prison? 2020 Release Order and State Appeal

Yes, Tommy Ward is still in prison. The 65-year-old has been incarcerated since the mid-1980s for the 1984 kidnapping and murder of Donna Denice Haraway in Ada, Oklahoma, and he is currently serving a life sentence while a federal habeas corpus petition sits before the U.S. District Court in Muskogee.¹²

Ward has maintained his innocence for more than 40 years. His case drew wide attention through John Grisham’s 2006 book The Innocent Man and the 2018 Netflix series of the same name, but neither the publicity nor a judge’s 2020 order releasing him has freed him.

Where Ward’s Case Stands Now

Ward’s state-level options are largely exhausted. His legal team filed a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court in Muskogee arguing that he is innocent and that his constitutional rights were violated when prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence. The most recent filing in the federal case was in October 2024, and as of early 2025 the court had not ruled.¹

Attorney Gregory Swygert, who represents Ward through the Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, has said federal court offers a more promising path because federal judges are “insulated from some of these politics.” He pointed to co-defendant Karl Fontenot’s federal success as the model.³

He Was Ordered Released in 2020 — Then the State Appealed

On December 18, 2020, Pontotoc County District Judge Paula Inge vacated Ward’s conviction and dismissed the charges. She wrote that investigators “seem to have taken on the roles of prosecutor, judge and jury, determining that the only ‘relevant’ evidence was evidence which fit their theory of the case.” Inge found that police and prosecutors had withheld evidence helpful to Ward, that the case against him was circumstantial, and that nearly every detail in his confession was inaccurate. She concluded he could not get a fair trial after more than three decades.⁴⁵

Ward never walked out. The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office appealed immediately, and in January 2021 the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered him to remain in custody while the appeal moved forward.⁶

On August 26, 2022, that court voted unanimously to reverse Judge Inge and reinstate the conviction. The ruling turned on timing, not the merits. The court found Inge had “abused her discretion” by failing to apply procedural bars, concluding Ward had “waited too long and forfeited his claim because of his own inaction.” His first post-conviction appeal was filed in 2017, roughly 24 years after conviction, and the court noted the categories of claims he raised had been available since as early as 2003.⁷⁸

Swygert called the ruling unconstitutional, arguing it “incentivizes prosecutors to play dirty” by letting them withhold evidence without consequence so long as the issue has been raised in court at least once. Attorney Mark Barrett said that if the state court again sided with Ward, prosecutors would simply appeal again.³

What His Attorneys Are Arguing

The case against Ward rested almost entirely on a videotaped statement he gave police months after Haraway disappeared from a McAnally’s convenience store on April 28, 1984. He described the account as a dream. In it, Haraway had been kidnapped, raped, fatally stabbed, her body burned and buried near the Ada power plant. He recanted shortly after.⁹

When Haraway’s skeletal remains were found in January 1986, the facts did not match. Her body was in a rural area near Gerty, roughly 30 miles east of Ada, not near the power plant west of town. The medical examiner determined she died from a single gunshot wound to the head. There was no evidence of stabbing, and the body had not been burned.¹⁰¹¹ The confession also named a third man, Odell Titsworth, as the ringleader. Titsworth had a broken arm at the time and was never charged.⁹

After the Netflix series aired, Ward’s attorneys subpoenaed the Ada Police Department in January 2019 and obtained more than 300 pages of previously unreleased documents. The Oklahoma Innocence Project has reported that more than 800 pages of case records were never turned over to the defense during the original trials.¹¹¹²

According to court filings and reporting on those documents, the withheld material included information about other potential suspects, including a possible pattern of convenience store abductions in the region involving a white van; witness statements placing Fontenot at a birthday party the night Haraway disappeared; records of harassing phone calls Haraway had been receiving at the store in the weeks before she vanished; and a portion of the medical examiner’s report suggesting she may have been three months pregnant, along with findings describing the crime scene as mishandled.¹³¹¹ Swygert has also argued that key details in Ward’s confession, including the description of Haraway’s blouse, were supplied by investigators during interrogation.¹²

Why Fontenot Is Out and Ward Is Not

Ward’s co-defendant Karl Fontenot took a different route and found relief. In August 2019, U.S. District Judge James H. Payne issued a 190-page opinion overturning Fontenot’s conviction, finding that “not one detail of Mr. Fontenot’s confession could ever be corroborated with any evidence in the case” and that police had coerced a false confession from a man with “abnormally low intelligence.” Payne also found multiple constitutional violations, including withheld exculpatory evidence and threats against witnesses.¹⁴

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state’s attempt to keep Fontenot behind bars during the appeal, and he was released on bond in November 2019 after 34 years of incarceration. The Tenth Circuit later upheld Judge Payne’s ruling, calling the confession one that “rang false in almost every particular.” The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s appeal.¹⁴⁸

Fontenot is not fully free of the case. Oklahoma prosecutors refiled murder charges against him in October 2022. In February 2024, Tulsa County District Judge Clifford Smith suppressed his original confession, calling it “fatally unreliable.” On October 2, 2025, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed that suppression, ruling that admissibility must be decided at trial after prosecutors present corroborating evidence. Attorney General Gentner Drummond called the ruling “a significant victory that ensures the State can fully present its case at trial.” No trial date has been set.¹⁵¹⁶

What Happens Next

Ward’s immediate future depends on the federal court in Muskogee. If the judge grants his habeas petition, the state will almost certainly appeal, as it did with Fontenot. If the petition is denied, Ward’s path to release narrows sharply. For now, he remains in an Oklahoma prison, serving the life sentence he received after his 1989 retrial.⁷

1
ReadFrontier. Oklahoma Is Still Trying to Use a Recanted Confession To Retry Innocent Man Case
2
The Oklahoman. Innocent Man Case: Karl Fontenot Retrial Possible After Confession Ruling
3
ReadFrontier. Attorneys Innocent Man Case Eye Federal Court After Lower Court’s Order Is Reversed
4
Deadline. Tommy Ward Netflix True Crime Series The Innocent Man Conviction Vacated
5
KGOU. Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office Appeals Release of Tommy Ward
6
Courthouse News Service. Court Rules Innocent Man Defendant To Remain Imprisoned
7
KOCO. Oklahoma Netflix Ada Innocent Man Tommy Ward Murder Appeal
8
FOX23. Oklahoma Court Reinstates Innocent Man Murder Conviction
9
Injustice Watch. Ward and Fontenot: Dream Confessions Led to Death Sentences
10
The Oklahoman. Slain Woman’s Remains Found; Effect on Convictions Questioned
11
Innocence Project. Oklahoma Innocence Project Takes On First Case
12
ReadFrontier. Attorneys in Ada Innocent Man Murder Case Say They Were Blown Away by Content of Newly Discovered Documents
13
ReadFrontier. Judge Orders Release From Prison or New Trial for Innocent Man Defendant Karl Fontenot
14
Injustice Watch. Judge’s Order: Oklahoma Inmate Once Sentenced to Die Released From Prison After 34 Years
15
KOSU. Oklahoma Appeals Court Clears Way for New Trial in Karl Fontenot Case
16
Oklahoma Attorney General. Drummond Hails Court Reversal in Decades-Old Murder Case