Ada (Oklahoma)
| Ada | |
|---|---|
| Nickname : City of Pure Spring Water | |
 Ada (from the south) |
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| Location in Oklahoma | |
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| Basic data | |
| Foundation : | 1889 |
| State : | United States |
| State : | Oklahoma |
| County : | Pontotoc County |
| Coordinates : | 34 ° 46 ′ N , 96 ° 40 ′ W |
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) |
| Residents : | 16,810 (as of 2010) |
| Population density : | 413 inhabitants per km 2 |
| Area : | 40.8 km 2 (approx. 16 mi 2 ) of which 40.7 km 2 (approx. 16 mi 2 ) is land |
| Height : | 308 m |
| Postcodes : | 74820-74821 |
| Area code : | +1 580 |
| FIPS : | 40-00200 |
| GNIS ID : | 1089523 |
| Website : | www.adaok.com |
| Mayor : | Greg McCortney |
Ada is a city in Pontotoc County , Oklahoma , in the United States of America . In 2010 the population was 16,810. Ada is the seat of the government of Pontotoc County, Oklahoma . Ada is also the capital of the Chickasaw Indians. The town was named after Ada Reed, the daughter of the town's first postmaster, Jeff Reed.
Judicial scandals
Ada has been the scene of two relatively well-known legal scandals in the recent past.
Debbie Carter murder case
In his non-fiction book The Innocent Man (Eng. Title: The Prisoner ) John Grisham described the judicial scandal involving Ronald Williamson and Dennis Fritz that had taken place in Ada. The mentally ill Ronald Williamson was wrongly sentenced to death for murder and was on death row for eleven years before the case could be reopened and his innocence proved. Grisham makes serious allegations against the investigators and judicial authorities responsible at the time, some of which are still on duty today.
After their rehabilitation, Williamson and Fritz fought for millions in damages in a civil lawsuit against the city of Ada. Since then, property tax has been increased twice in order to be able to make the payments due.
Denice Haraway murder
In this case too, two young men, Tom Ward and Karl Fontenot, were initially sentenced to death, although the evidence was extremely questionable. The two suspects had told investigators that they had dreamed of having committed the crime. This was then assessed as a full confession of the act (so-called “dream confessions”). Furthermore, the investigative authorities had not been able to find the victim's body before the trial (although American law allows proof of a homicide in some cases even in the absence of a corpse).
The death sentences were overturned in later appeals proceedings, and both convicts are now serving life sentences without the option of early release.
The case was dealt with by the New York journalist Robert Mayer in the book " The Dreams of Ada ".
Attractions
- Chickasaw Nation Visitor Center
Mars crater
A Martian crater is named after Ada .
Personalities from Ada
- Jeremy Castle - country star
- Dan Cody - National Football League - Defensive end
- Zac Maloy - singer and founding member of the post-grunge band The Nixons
- Dwayne O'Brien - singer and founding member of the country band Little Texas
- Dave Richard Palmer (born 1934) - Lieutenant General in the US Army
- Oral Roberts (1918–2009) - healing preacher, television evangelist, and entrepreneur
- Lee Shaw (1926-2015) - jazz pianist and composer
- Blake Shelton (born 1976) - country star
- Jeremy Shockey (* 1980) - National Football League - tight end
- Ron Williamson (1953-2004) - Former minor league baseball player and innocent man condemned to death, whose history in the non-fiction book The Prisoner of John Grisham is told
- Taylor Elizabeth Dye (* 1995) - singer and member of the country duo Maddie & Tae
Web links
- Information on the Denice Haraway murder case ( Memento from September 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )