The latest controvery started yesterday when Governor Rick Perry spoke to the Texas Association of Realtors. Asked about the Willingham case and his removal of Forensic Science Commission members, Perry carved his position into stone. That led Craig Beyler, the respected fire and arson expert, whom the FSC commissioned to examine the science behind the Willingham conviction, to speak out. There is also lots of fresh commentary sparked by the most recent events. Let's start with the news reports.
"Fire scientist knocks Perry," by Jason Embrey is posted at the Austin American-Statesman. Here's an extended excerpt:
Dogged by three weeks of news coverage questioning his decision to shake up the Texas Forensic Science Commission, Gov. Rick Perry appeared intent Wednesday on recasting the story to make it about Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for killing his children in a house fire, and not about the expert reports that have found major flaws in the arson investigation that was the basis for the case against Willingham.
But late Wednesday, the fire scientist who was set to address the forensic commission before Perry shook it up offered some severe criticism of Perry’s handling of the case. Craig Beyler, a nationally recognized expert, said in an interview with CNN that Perry was trying to protect his political hide. He also said the newly appointed members of the forensic commission should resign, and he called Perry’s actions “unethical.”
“(Perry) should have recused himself from any appointments to that commission because now it gives the appearance he’s using his political clout to protect himself against any incrimination by the commissioner,” Beyler told CNN.
See the full story from Anderson Cooper, which includes an interview with Willingham’s stepmother, below. Interestingly, Cooper asked the stepmother whether Willingham beat his wife. Yes he did, the stepmother said, but she pointed out that the wife also beat him.
Perry’s comments Wednesday to the Texas press corps — a dramatic change in tone from just a couple of weeks ago —Â followed a speech he gave to the Texas Association of Realtors Government Affairs Conference, where he was warmly received.
After he highlighted Willingham’s death-bed tirade against his wife and said Willingham tried to beat her into having an abortion, Peggy Fikac said to Perry, “It sounds like you’re saying he should be executed because he was a bad man.”
Perry responded, “No, I’m saying, look how many courts looked at this? There were nine federal courts that looked at this case. It was before the Supreme Court of the United States four times. Now surely Peggy you’re not saying that the supreme court of the united states fouled up four times.”
Perry took a somewhat combative tone, saying reporters were being distracted by sideshows. The implication seemed to be that Beyler’s review, which was sought by the Forensic Science Commission, was a sideshow.
Christy Hoppe writes, "Fire investigator accuses Perry of 'unethical' behavior; governor defends
execution," for today's Dallas Morning News.
The nationally noted fire expert whose investigation of arson evidence called into question a 2004 Texas execution blasted Gov. Rick Perry late Wednesday, accusing the governor of "unethical" behavior in the case.
Baltimore-based Craig Beyler, hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission to examine the case, said in an e-mail that the governor should not have upended the commission, which was to have heard his report just days after Perry replaced several members. He said the governor had a conflict of interest because he approved the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham of Corsicana.
"His failure to recuse himself is both unethical and injurious to the cause of justice," Beyler wrote in a note intended for the Forensic Science Commission and forwarded to several reporters with his permission.
Beyler's report found that no credible evidence existed to show Willingham intentionally set the blaze that killed his three children in a 1991 house fire. When Perry moved to replace several commission members, including the chairman, the hearing was postponed indefinitely. The new chairman has not rescheduled it.
Beyler, who is technically a contractor to a state commission, called on the new appointees to step down and seek the reinstatement of the people they replaced. He could not be reached to elaborate.
Perry's press secretary, Allison Castle, said the comments call into question Beyler's report and his motives.
"This statement demonstrates that he was never an objective scientist looking only at forensic facts," Castle said. "He clearly had another agenda."
It was an unusual turn in the case, which has drawn national attention on whether Texas might have executed an innocent man. It followed Perry's forceful defense earlier Wednesday of Willingham's execution.
Calling Willingham "a monster," Perry said he harbors no doubt that Willingham, an unemployed mechanic, purposefully set fire to his home.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has, "Perry calls Willingham a 'monster' and labels story a media 'sideshow'," by Dave Montgomery.
Gov. Rick Perry, seeking to defuse an election-season controversy over the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, described Willingham on Wednesday as a "monster" and "bad man" whose conviction in the deaths of his three daughters was sustained "every step of the way" by the courts.
Perry, facing a vigorous re-election challenge, has drawn national media scrutiny after shaking up the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Perry dismissed three members two days before the panel was to review an expert report challenging the arson investigation that led to Willingham’s execution. A fourth member was dismissed later.
The controversy took another turn Wednesday night when Craig Beyler, the Baltimore fire expert who wrote the report, called for the reinstatement of the ousted members and the resignations of Perry’s replacements. "Sadly, the political influence which has been exercised with respect to the commission has compromised the integrity of the enterprise," Beyler said in an e-mail to commission coordinator Leigh Tomlin and ousted Chairman Sam Bassett.
Beyler said Perry should have recused himself from making the commission appointments, contending that the governor has a "conflict of interest" because he allowed the execution to be carried out after rejecting a last-minute postponement bid from Willingham’s attorney.
"He had a personal role in the Willingham case," Beyler wrote. "Under these circumstances, he should have recused himself from making appointments. His failure to recuse himself is both unethical and injurious to the cause of justice."
In a telephone interview, Beyler said he doesn’t "have any illusions" that the new members will resign but said he chose to write the e-mail out of concern that politics could "eat away at the credibility of the commission."
"Something has to happen to get that credibility back," he said.
Versions of Montgomery's report were distributed by McClatchy News Service and appear in the Chicago Tribune and Miami Herald.
The AP story is, "Texas governor: Executed inmate was 'a monster'," written by Kelley Shannon and Michael Graczyk.
A man put to death in 2004 for killing his three children was "a monster," and suggestions that he may have been innocent are anti-death penalty propaganda, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday.
Cameron Todd Willingham's convictions were upheld several times before he was put to death, and recent media reports looking into whether Willingham may have been innocent glossed over evidence that showed he murdered his children, Perry told reporters after addressing Texas Association of Realtors members at a luncheon.
"Willingham was a monster. He was a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so that he wouldn't have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that quite frankly you all aren't covering," Perry said.
Willingham was convicted of capital murder for the 1991 deaths of his children, 2-year-old Amber and 1-year-old twins Karmon and Kameron. Prosecutors said he set fire to the family's Corsicana home while the children were inside.
Forensic scientists have called into question arson evidence used to convict Willingham, who maintained his innocence until his death. John Jackson, the Navarro County prosecutor who argued the case, still believes Willingham is guilty, but acknowledges it would have been hard to win a death sentence without the arson finding.
The governor has been criticized for replacing members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission just before they were to review a new report critical of the arson science used to convict Willingham. If the evidence ultimately proves Willingham did not kill his children, it would be the first known wrongful execution in Texas.
Perry dismissed suggestions he was trying to influence the commission's findings, calling the commission members' replacement a matter of "process." He said capable new members of the panel will move forward with the investigation.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Perry's rival for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, has said that while she supports the death penalty, she disagrees with Perry's decision to replace the commission members.
She told The Associated Press on Wednesday in Houston that Perry should have allowed the panel's investigation to go forward to ensure that Willingham was in fact guilty.
"I don't have the facts. I'm not taking up for Mr. Willingham because I have no idea. I'm taking up for the process, for the criminal justice system in our state," Hutchison said.
Hutchison, repeating a point her campaign has been pressing for days, said Perry's actions were heavy-handed, much like his decision to replace appointees on university regent boards who didn't back him.
"I think the majority of Texans believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for the crimes that are the state law for the death penalty. I think every one of the people who believe in the death penalty would want to know we are using DNA evidence and the best technology in all the fields to determine if a person is rightfully convicted," Hutchison said.
Hutchison's campaign issued a statement saying Perry's handling of the commission has given liberals ammunition to discredit the death penalty.
Corsicana officials are also fighting back, as Janet Jacobs reports in the Corsicana Daily Sun, "Affidavits dispute claims of innocence."
Two affidavits have been released by the City of Corsicana that seem to dispute the declarations in the national media that Cameron Todd Willingham was innocent when he was executed in 2004 for murdering his three daughters.The first is from Ronnie Kuykendall, brother of Stacy Kuykendall, who gave a statement to Kirby Hill regarding one of Willingham’s last visits with his ex-wife. Kuykendall said that on Feb. 8, 2004, a week before Willingham was to be executed, that Willingham’s ex-wife, Stacy called her family together to tell them about her last visit with her ex-husband.
Earlier coverage of the case begins with this post, all coverage available via the Todd Willingham category index.
The Beyler report 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.
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