Nothing could trouble a governor more than the thought that he or she has let an innocent person die.
"That's the decision that's irreversible," recalls former Gov. Mark White, who said gratefully that he never had a death row case in which the inmate claimed innocence.
"If you make the wrong one, it's a horrible thing," White said.
A corollary: Nothing of such intensity should be trifled with in politics.
Still, I wonder if Gov. Rick Perry's handling of a Corsicana man's case will become fodder for challengers rating him a failed leader.
The explosive message: Perry's judgment is so weak he didn't stop the killing of a man who experts say didn't murder his children.
Then again, there's a safe alternative. Candidates mindful that voters reward tough-on-crime messages could skirt the topic, leaving untouched the arguably wrongful state killing of Cameron Todd Willingham on Feb. 17, 2004.
Willingham was convicted of murder after his house burned on Dec. 23, 1991. At trial, it seemed that he left his three children to die as he exited the home.
No court or even his defense attorney subsequently questioned the conviction, as reported by Texas newspapers and, of late, David Grann in The New Yorker magazine.
But outside experts who later looked over evidence fueling the verdict concluded that the fire was accidental — not arson.
The first one, Dr. Gerald Hurst of Austin, hurriedly wrote a report faxed to Perry's office hours before Willingham was killed stating that most conclusions by the initial investigators "would be considered invalid in light of current knowledge."
Hurst told me this week that he now wishes he had been more direct.
"The whole case was based on the purest form of junk science," Hurst said. "There was no item of evidence that indicated arson."
And:
As far as I can tell, no one has divined precisely what Perry reviewed before denying Willingham's requested 30-day stay of execution.
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said Perry weighed the "totality of the issues that led to (Willingham's) conviction." She said he was aware of a "claim of a reinterpretation of (the) arson testimony."
Much like Gov. White, Cesinger said: "Signing off on an execution is probably one of the most serious considerations a governor could make. (Perry) carefully reviews these matters."
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
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