"Texas science panel adopts arson recommendations," is the AP report, via Google News. Here are extended excerpts:
A state panel on Friday recommended more education and training for fire investigators following its review of a case involving a Texas inmate executed after a fire labeled arson killed his three daughters.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission also recommended establishing procedures for revisiting old cases.
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004. Prosecutors accused the 36-year-old unemployed mechanic of setting the fire at his home in Corsicana, about 60 miles south of Dallas. A jury convicted him of capital murder and sent him to death row. His conviction was upheld nine times on appeal.
And:
Death penalty opponents have questioned arson investigators' testimony that led to Willingham's conviction and suggest he may be the first person wrongly executed in the U.S. since capital punishment resumed more than three decades ago. Several experts have since concluded the fire at his home was of undetermined cause or accidental but not arson, as two fire marshals at the scene ruled in 1991.
The commission on Friday completed an often tedious review of its nearly 50-page draft report based on Willingham's case and settled on the 16 recommendations for fire investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys and lawmakers.
"We're suggesting somebody else is going to have to carry these things out," said Commission Chairman John Bradley.
The panel said Thursday that it wouldn't decide whether arson investigators were negligent or guilty of professional misconduct in Willingham's case until the Texas attorney general's office decides whether the panel has that authority.
The state commission can't exonerate Willingham or reopen his case but determines whether forensic science in such cases was sound. The eight-member panel won't make a ruling on negligence or professional misconduct by the fire's initial investigators until it gets word from the attorney general, a decision not likely until July. John Bradley, a suburban Austin district attorney and the commission chairman appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2009, had requested the legal opinion. After courts rejected appeals in Willingham's case, Perry refused to stop Willingham's execution.
"In general, I'm satisfied," said Stephen Saloom, policy director for the Innocence Project, which first raised questions about the case. "They were constrained by the AG's opinion and have had to overcome the chairman's relentless efforts to keep a lot of issues down. In the areas they're permitted to address, they've made some significant progress and deserve credit for that."
He called it a great improvement over the draft report released Thursday.
"They've gotten much more specific," he said. "It responds to the allegations as much as possible. This gives a chance for all those past cases."
The panel's recommendations also include establishing a code of ethics for investigators and making procedure for involving the state fire marshal's office in fatal home fires. The commission acknowledged the Texas Legislature controls the money needed to implement a number of its recommendations.
Another wants the fire marshal's office to adhere to standards established by the National Fire Protection Association and become a model for local fire investigators in Texas. They also urged investigators to keep original files of their cases and forward copies of documentation to other interested parties like prosecutors and defense attorneys. In Willingham's case, the Forensic Science Commission can't see arson investigators' files because they've been lost.
The commission spent lengthy time Friday debating a review procedure they said fire investigators should establish for resolved cases, a re-examination process common in medical settings.
Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan called it central to the overall report, saying results and interpretations like Willingham's from 1991 may not be valid years later. They needed to be looked at and "stakeholders" impacted by any new interpretations be informed, she said.
"Forensic panel urges new look at old arson cases," is the title of Chuck Lindell's Austin American-Statesman report.
Adopting a stronger call to action Friday, a state agency concluded its review of the Cameron Todd Willingham case by urging Texas fire officials to re-examine investigations that may have relied on arson evidence now known to be unreliable.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission also added language to its final report clarifying the role that now-discredited "arson indicators" played in Willingham's conviction on murder charges.
The commission's inquiry, focused on the arson science behind the Willingham case, was never intended to weigh the guilt or innocence of the man Texas executed in 2004.
But the report adopted Friday marked the first time a state agency has acknowledged that unreliable evidence played a role in Willingham being convicted of setting fire to his Corsicana home in 1991 and killing his three young children.
"It's a good report," said Stephen Saloom, policy director of the Innocence Project, a New York legal advocacy center that filed the Willingham complaint with the commission in 2008.
"It makes clear that the old forms of arson evidence are not reliable and need to be banished from fire investigation practices in Texas," Saloom said. "And this gives a chance for justice for all those past cases where people may have been wrongfully convicted of arson."
The report, adopted 8-0 with one member absent, will be posted on the commission's website Monday.
The final version urged the Legislature and cities to set aside enough money to ensure that fire investigators are fully trained in the ever-evolving scientific understanding of fire behavior.
The panel offered 15 other recommendations for improving fire investigations, including formal adoption of investigative standards outlined in a National Fire Protection Association document, NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigation, and establishing peer review panels to examine pending arson cases.
But much of Friday's efforts were focused on whether the state fire marshal's office — whose investigator was the prosecution's star witness against Willingham — has a duty to re-examine other past investigations that may have been influenced by now-discredited investigative techniques.
"If the science changes, if the interpretation of the case changes over time, is there an obligation to inform the stakeholders and the criminal justice system? If the answer is no, then we're really in trouble," said commissioner Sarah Kerrigan, a forensic toxicologist and associate professor at Sam Houston State University.
"Texas Forensic Science Commission approves report calling for improvements in arson investigations," by Erin Mulvaney for the Dallas Morning News.
The report approved Friday mostly addresses “forward-looking” issues, such as suggesting what kind of experts should be allowed to testify at trial, how a fire should be investigated, and education requirements for prosecutors and judges. It also encourages the state fire marshal’s office and local agencies to adopt national fire science standards and practices, conduct internal audits and adopt a code of ethics.
Although national fire standards have been updated in the last two decades, the state fire marshal’s office stood by the conclusions reached in 1991. In August, a representative sent a letter to the commission contradicting the fire experts’ opinions, saying the investigation was valid, even after the new fire science standards were applied.
Steven Saloom, policy director at the New York-based Innocence Project, which originally filed the complaint, said after the edits from commissioners on Thursday and Friday, the panel’s report is “excellent.”
“It’s an affirmative statement to bring order to the chaos of arson investigations,” Saloom said. “This gives a chance for justice for all past cases where people have been wrongfully convicted.”
The commissioners adopted language Friday urging the fire marshal’s office to create standards consistent with accredited laboratories, which inform criminal justice stakeholders about updated science that could have changed the outcome of a case.
“We all concur that opinions rendered in the ’90s could be different than today,” said Sarah Kerrigan, the commissioner who suggested the change. “If science changes, they have the obligation to inform the criminal justice leaders.”
If the agency adopts the policies, she said, it probably would affect only a small number currently in prison for arson. More than 700 are currently imprisoned for arson.
The national fire science guidelines were released in 1992, a year after the Willingham fire, and although the fire marshal’s office said it began to train investigators based on the criteria, it did not re-evaluate cases where people were sent to prison based on outdated science.
Dave Montgomery writes, "Texas Forensic Science Commission suggests changes for fire investigations," for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A state commission reviewing the arson investigation that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham made far-reaching recommendations Friday to improve and modernize fire investigations.
The report was praised by the Willingham family and a spokesman for the Innocence Project, which initiated the review.
The nine-member Texas Forensic Science Commission issued its findings after a two-day meeting to review a draft report, which was 21/2 years in the making.
The report stopped short of determining negligence or professional misconduct in the Willingham case until Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott resolves jurisdictional questions about the inquiry.
But even commission critics hailed the recommendations as a much-needed step toward improving the quality of fire investigations in Texas and addressing standards of investigative practice.
Willingham's three daughters died in a fire at their Corsicana home in 1991. Willingham was convicted of setting the fire and killing them, and he was executed in 2004. He repeatedly maintained his innocence.
"After soliciting and reviewing input from numerous sources, the FSC concludes that there was no uniform standard of practice for state or local fire investigators in the early 1990s in Texas or elsewhere in the United States," the panel reported.
The report's 16 recommendations could collectively prod state and local fire investigators to adhere to modern investigative standards that have evolved over the past two decades.
One key recommendation could lead to a re-examination of old cases using newer forensic techniques.
"Board Approves Report on Willingham," by Aziza Musa for the Texas Tribune.
The final version will be available to the public on Monday. The original draft report, released Thursday, made recommendations to fire investigators, lawyers and judges and explicitly says the board will not rule on professional negligence while Attorney General Greg Abbott's decision is pending.
Willingham was convicted of setting fire to his Corscicana home and killing his three daughters in 1991, but he maintained his innocence. Following his execution in 2004, fire science experts questioned the evidence used to convict him.
The commission received a request from the Innocence Project, a New York-based ciinic that seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted people, to review the Willingham case for professional negligence in 2006 and took up the case three years later. But Gov. Rick Perry replaced his appointees on the commission and named Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley as chairman.
The board met twice in January 2010 to hear testimony and decide how to move forward with the Willingham case, but Bradley called upon Abbott's office to figure out whether they had jurisdiction over the case. Commissioners urged Bradley to move forward and begin drafting the report while awaiting Abbott's opinion.
Today, members discussed one recommendation to create a multidisciplinary panel that would review pending arson cases, and Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan said the board should add language that would establish the panel to review arson cases retrospectively as the science evolves. "We're talking about science," she said. "It will naturally progress." Kerrigan said there is an obligation to tell stakeholders in the criminal justice system when the science and interpretation of the science changes.
Commissioners largely agreed. Commissioner Lance Evans said the recommendation does not touch on the Willingham investigation. But Bradley argued doing so would step on the toes of the attorney general.
After nearly 20 minutes in executive session, commissioners decided that the report will now say, "Accredited disciplines of forensic science have standards that promote the reexamination of cases when science has evolved to create a material difference in the original analysis or result." The standards include a duty to correct, to inform, to be transparent and to implement corrective action, and the commission recommends the state fire marshal's office adopt those standards, according to the new report.
The FSC approved report should be available later today. I'll update when it's posted on the FSC website.
In the next post, I want to highlight Dave Mann's reporting on the meeting. Earlier coverage of the two-day FSC meeting begins at the link.
All Willingham coverage is available through the Todd Willingham index.
The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.
David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here. 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."
The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.
