Anyone who took the time to read the fascinating piece by David Grann in the New Yorker a few weeks back on the Cameron Willingham case might be intrigued to learn of an interesting development on the cases aftermath, currently playing out in Texas' top political circles.
Texas governor Rick Perry on Wednesday replaced the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and 2 other members, just 48 hours before the commission was to hear testimony from an arson expert who believes that Willingham was convicted on bad evidence. Willingham was convicted and in 2004 executed in for setting a fire that killed his 3 children.
As chronicled in vivid detail in Grann's New Yorker piece, Willingham was convicted of setting a fire in his Corsicana, Texas, home back in 1991 that led to the deaths of his three children. He was executed by lethal injection 13 years later.
To the very end, however, Willingham maintained his innocence: "I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit," he said before he was killed.
Various experts who took up the Willingham case after his conviction but before his execution came to believe Willingham's story. Gerald L. Hurst, an Austin scientist and fire investigator, reviewed the evidence and determined the investigators had relied on several outdated methods to reach their conclusions. Most of the evidence could be explained by an accidental fire, Hurst said.
Regardless, Gov. Perry declined to spare Willingham's life in 2004, and continues to maintain that Willingham was guilty.
Craig Beyler, an independent arson expert hired by the state's Forensic Science Commission, created in 2005 to investigate mistakes in crime labs, was to testify on Friday presumably to say that hed agreed with many of Hursts conclusions.
But the chairman newly appointed by Perry, John M. Bradley, canceled the hearing, saying he did not know enough about the inquiry. "I felt I had been asked to take a final exam without having an opportunity to study for it," he said. Bradley said he did not know if he would continue the inquiry into the Willingham conviction that his predecessor had started.
Perry's decision to shake up the commission has provided unexpected election-year grist to his opponents.
"If a mistake was made in this case, we need to know it," Tom Schieffer, a Fort Worth businessman and a Democratic candidate for governor, said in a statement. "No one in public life should ever be afraid of the truth."
Perry's opponent in the upcoming Republican primary, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, also questioned what harm the hearing could do. Perry denied Thursday that the changes he had made at the commission were intended to quash the investigation. At a news conference for his re-election campaign, he said, "Those individuals' terms were up, so were replacing them."
Source: Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2009
Texas governor Rick Perry on Wednesday replaced the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and 2 other members, just 48 hours before the commission was to hear testimony from an arson expert who believes that Willingham was convicted on bad evidence. Willingham was convicted and in 2004 executed in for setting a fire that killed his 3 children.
As chronicled in vivid detail in Grann's New Yorker piece, Willingham was convicted of setting a fire in his Corsicana, Texas, home back in 1991 that led to the deaths of his three children. He was executed by lethal injection 13 years later.
To the very end, however, Willingham maintained his innocence: "I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit," he said before he was killed.
Various experts who took up the Willingham case after his conviction but before his execution came to believe Willingham's story. Gerald L. Hurst, an Austin scientist and fire investigator, reviewed the evidence and determined the investigators had relied on several outdated methods to reach their conclusions. Most of the evidence could be explained by an accidental fire, Hurst said.
Regardless, Gov. Perry declined to spare Willingham's life in 2004, and continues to maintain that Willingham was guilty.
Craig Beyler, an independent arson expert hired by the state's Forensic Science Commission, created in 2005 to investigate mistakes in crime labs, was to testify on Friday presumably to say that hed agreed with many of Hursts conclusions.
But the chairman newly appointed by Perry, John M. Bradley, canceled the hearing, saying he did not know enough about the inquiry. "I felt I had been asked to take a final exam without having an opportunity to study for it," he said. Bradley said he did not know if he would continue the inquiry into the Willingham conviction that his predecessor had started.
Perry's decision to shake up the commission has provided unexpected election-year grist to his opponents.
"If a mistake was made in this case, we need to know it," Tom Schieffer, a Fort Worth businessman and a Democratic candidate for governor, said in a statement. "No one in public life should ever be afraid of the truth."
Perry's opponent in the upcoming Republican primary, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, also questioned what harm the hearing could do. Perry denied Thursday that the changes he had made at the commission were intended to quash the investigation. At a news conference for his re-election campaign, he said, "Those individuals' terms were up, so were replacing them."
Source: Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2009
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