Oklahoma Appeals Court Reinstates Murder Conviction Of Netflix's 'The Innocent Man'

An Oklahoma prisoner whose case was made famous by a Netflix documentary will remain behind bars.

Tommy Ward, featured in the series “The Innocent Man,” was expected to walk free after a district court overturned his murder conviction last year.

In December, a Pontotoc County judge threw out Ward's murder connected to a missing Ada woman in the 1980s. 

But now – the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously reversed that lower court ruling, ordering Ward to remain behind bars. 

Wards’ attorney’s argued prosecutors withheld evidence in the case that would have been favorable to him. 

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office argued the missing evidence would not have made a difference in Ward's case and that Ward's attorneys waited too long to file their appeal. 

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed with the attorney general.

Ward has been behind bars for 38 years now for the 1984 murder of Denice Haraway. The 24-year-old, newlywed, college student went missing from an Ada convenience store. Her body was never found.

Another man convicted in the case, Karl Fontenot, was released in 2019 after a federal judge vacated his murder conviction. It is not known yet on whether Ward will make a similar appeal to the federal court.