That's the title of Jane Jacobs article in today's Corsicana Daily Sun. LINK
An independent review that claims the arson investigation that led to the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham was flawed will be presented to a state panel Oct. 2 in Dallas.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission will hold its next quarterly meeting at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 2 at the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas. On the agenda is a review and discussion of the report on the investigation into the Willingham case.
Willingham was executed in 2004 for murder, having been convicted of killing his three small daughters in a 1991 house fire in Corsicana. At the request of the Innocence Project the commission contracted with an independent company to review the case for possible forensics errors.
The reviewer, Craig Beyler, will be on hand at the meeting and will answer questions from the panel.
In his report, issued on Aug. 17, Beyler was critical of the investigation, primarily based on the court testimony. Local investigators have said the report is incomplete and misrepresents the work done in the case.
Also at the meeting, the commissioners will draft specific language on the types of responses needed from the Texas Fire Marshal’s office, according to the agenda. The case was investigated by local fire officials, and state fire arson investigators.
The primary investigator with the state fire marshal’s office has since died.
Today's Dalton Daily Citizen of Georgia has a column by Charles Oliver, "It couldn't happen here?"
Did Texas execute an innocent man? Well, we may never know that, but an expert hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found that Cameron Todd Willingham should never have been convicted for arson for the fire that killed his two children. The state killed Willingham for that crime in 2004. The main evidence for Willingham’s guilt was a state fire marshal’s report that claimed the fire was intentionally set and that Willingham’s injuries from that fire were inconsistent with the story he told police. The expert’s report blasts both of those conclusions, stating that the fire marshal “seems to be wholly without any realistic understanding of fires and how fire injuries are created” and his report was “nothing more than a collection of personal beliefs that have nothing to do with science-based fire investigation.” Since Willingham’s death, eight other forensic arson specialists have reached basically the same conclusions.
Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage in the Todd Willingham category index.
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