"Surprises under Williamson DA's image," is the title of Miguel Liscano's Austin American-Statesman report. It appeared in the Sunday edition.
Through 22 years as a prosecutor, the past eight as Williamson County district attorney, Bradley has amassed convictions and accolades, developing a tough-on-crime reputation.
He also hasn't shied from controversy.
His recent appointment as chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission will probably bring more.
Gov. Rick Perry shook up the commission this fall and thrust Bradley into the national spotlight at a time when the panel is investigating a high-profile death penalty case.
Critics have charged that Perry's four new appointments to the board were aimed at delaying and thwarting the commission's investigation into whether faulty evidence was used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham of setting a fire that killed his three daughters. Since Willingham's execution in 2004, several studies have found major flaws in the arson investigation that led to Willingham's conviction.
Bradley, a sometimes polarizing public figure known for seeking maximum punishments for violent criminals, has already faced questions about whether he will approach the matter fairly.
On Tuesday, he'll have to answer to state lawmakers, when the Senate Criminal Justice Committee holds a hearing to question Bradley's plans for the commission.
Austin lawyer Keith Hampton, vice president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said he wonders, knowing Bradley's background as a prosecutor, whether Perry had a role in mind for Bradley.
"My only concern with Bradley is not his thoroughness, but the color of the lens through which he views evidence," Hampton said. "Is the case for innocence for Willingham starting out as a neutral? Or is it weighted some way?"
Bradley, who like Perry is a Republican, insists that he will approach his work on the panel "without political favor."
"When you're dealing with controversial issues, you cannot expect to please everybody," he said. "But I will always try to at least convince all of those people that the process itself is fair."
As district attorney, the tall, slender Bradley seeks the limelight, running a solo public relations machine, crafting and e-mailing frequent news releases touting convictions and lengthy sentences. He works aggressively and wields considerable influence, sometimes pursuing criminal charges when law enforcement agencies balk.
And:
His office prosecutes about 2,000 cases a year, and about 50 receive a sentence of 20 years or more, he said.
There is no single study available comparing lengths of sentences for similar crimes or cases disposed to probation among counties, said Tony Fabelo, director of research for the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments.
Bradley's record shows that his tough-on-crime reputation is more nuanced than his news releases might suggest, balanced partly by his work to find alternatives to jail for those with mental disabilities and efforts to show discretion with young or first offenders.
"If your client has a terrible criminal history, they're not going to cut you slack," Hunt said. "That's only reasonable. If your client is young and doesn't have that kind of criminal history and appears to be someone who is redeemable, then the prosecutors and the judges up there will cut them some slack."
Bradley currently leads the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Advisory Committee on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments. Perry appointed him to the panel in 2004. The committee brings together state agencies to find ways to divert offenders with mental illness out of the criminal justice system. He sits on a similar Williamson County panel with the same goal.
During this year's legislative session, he also pushed for a bill that reduced the punishment for capital murder by a juvenile from life without parole to life with parole, after 40 years. It became law.
In the courtroom, defense attorney Bob Phillips said, Bradley's office is consistent.
"He's fair in that he's predictably severe," Phillips said.
The Dallas Morning News carried, "Texas forensic science agency's new chief calls for changes as arson inquiry continues," by Terrence Stutz in the Saturday edition.
The new chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission has called for several key changes at the agency, including new confidentiality requirements, to ensure that its future reviews of criminal cases are credible.
John Bradley, the district attorney in Williamson County and chairman of the commission, also promised that the panel will apply a "disciplined, scientific approach" to its continuing inquiry into a flawed arson investigation that led to the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham of Corsicana.
"Those with agendas separate from the advancement of forensic science have made exaggerated claims and drawn premature conclusions about the case," Bradley said in a commentary sent to newspapers this week.
The prosecutor also pointed out that the commission was created in 2005 "to determine only whether there was negligence or misconduct by an accredited laboratory" conducting forensic analyses of evidence in specific cases.
"The commission does not decide whether persons are guilty or innocent of criminal offenses," he said.
A spokeswoman for the commission said Bradley would not speak to a reporter to elaborate, pending his planned testimony next week to a state Senate committee.
Bradley said he will be seeking changes at the agency to improve its operations, including new written policies and procedures, investigative standards to guide its work and new requirements to keep information confidential until a final decision is rendered.
Implementing such changes could take months, and it's unclear how that would affect the commission's work in the Willingham case.
"Most state agencies with investigative and deliberate functions are protected by laws designed to keep such information confidential until a final decision is released," he said. "Unfortunately, the law creating the commission does not include those protections."
Bradley said he would seek advice from the Attorney General's Office on how the commission can have tighter control over its functions and protect against "interference and improper outside influences."
That suggestion drew a cool reception Friday from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, which pointed out that the Legislature had a choice whether to make the information public or private when it passed the law setting up the agency.
"We prefer to think they wanted the public's business to be conducted in public," said Keith Elkins, executive director of the foundation.
"If Mr. Bradley wants to have the public's business conducted in secret, the appropriate thing would be to go to the Legislature to ask for a change rather than going around the legislative process and trying to get it changed by the attorney general," he said.
Bradley also said he will seek additional resources from the Legislature in the next session "so the commission can grow into a mature, well-respected entity." He noted that the agency now has one employee to handle its administrative, legal and public contract work.
"Case Open," by Emily Ramshaw and Matt Stiles is posted at the Texas Tribune.
If you want closure on questions of Cameron Todd Willingham's guilt or innocence, get comfortable.
The new chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission says the board doesn't yet have the rules, staff or resources to be investigating allegations of faulty science in criminal cases -- including the high profile arson-murder case that led to Willingham's execution.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who Gov. Rick Perry appointed chair two days before a now-canceled hearing on evidence in the Willingham case, says the commission will stick to its mission – analyzing forensic science mishaps – from here on out, as opposed to leaving the door open for a death penalty debate.
Though the commission will still investigate the Willingham evidence, which includes testimony from arson experts critical of the arson investigation methods, Bradley said his first priority is turning the commission into a professional investigating arm. Right now, he said, the body has no formal rules, a measly budget and a single staffer – hardly the resources to make investigative recommendations that carry weight.
"The commission is going to conclude the Willingham case and complete the report as it’s required to do. But it needs to be done in a way we can trust it," said Bradley, who will testify before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday. "…If [Perry] knew what I know, there were very good reasons for making changes" on the commission.
Critics of the Willingham execution – and of Perry’s decision to replace commission chair Sam Bassett and one other member just days before the anticipated hearing on it – are likely to see Bradley’s recommendations as a stall tactic.
The governor, who staunchly believes Willingham set the 1991 house fire that killed his three daughters, refused to halt the 2004 execution after an arson expert warned the investigation appeared flawed. The hearing that was derailed by Perry’s new appointments featured a prominent arson expert who found no evidence Willingham set the fire, and said arson techniques used to convict him were outdated. Perry has since replaced two more commission members.
One of the lawmakers who voted for the nine-member commission, established in 2005 but not funded until 2007, said this idea of it being a ruleless, unguided entity are false.
"The commission members can determine how to do their business, within reason, but the scope and purview of the commission is clearly set out in legislation we passed more than four years ago," said State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who chairs the board of directors of the New York-based Innocence Project, which brought the Willingham complaint to the commission. "Mr. Bradley’s priority should be carrying out the commission’s mandate, not finding ways to delay investigations that can help ensure quality forensic analysis in cases across the state."
The Willingham case is one of three the commission has considered, and is the farthest along.
Earlier coverage of Bradley and the Willingham investigation is here. The Senate Criminal Justice Committee will hear from Bradley tomorrow at a hearing in the Texas State Capitol.
All coverage is also available through the Todd Willingham category index.
The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format. David Grann's New Yorker article is noted here. The Innocence Project's Todd Willingham resource page provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents. Steve Mills and Maurice Possley first reported on the case in a 2004 Chicago Tribune series on junk science. The December 9, 2004 report was titled,"Man executed on disproved forensics."
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