OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Ada man who was exonerated by DNA evidence five days before he would have been executed and who once had hopes of playing in major league baseball, has died.

Family members say Ronald Williamson died Sunday at age 51,
nearly seven weeks after being told he had liver cirrhosis.

A second-round draft choice for the Oakland Athletics in 1971
and a star high school athlete from Ada, Williamson spent six years
playing baseball in the minor leagues.

Williamson's sister -- Annette Hudson of Tulsa -- says her brother turned to alcohol after the disappointment of not making it in baseball's big leagues.

In 1987, Williamson was convicted of murdering a 21-year-old Ada
bartender and drugstore waitress. He served 12 years on Oklahoma's
death row before D-N-A evidence cleared him of the crime in 1997.