There are new OpEds and columns this morning focusing on the Todd Willingham case. Boyd Richie, Chair of the Texas Democratic Party, writes, "For Perry, it's self before service," for the Austin American-Statesman.
When Gov. Rick Perry took the oath of office, he swore to "preserve, protect and defend" the laws and people of Texas. The governor might as well have sworn to preserve, protect and defend his political interests at all costs, because every time he has to choose between doing what's best for Texans or his politics, Perry chooses himself.
This fall, Perry is at it again, spurring concerns about a political cover-up by abruptly replacing three Texas Forensic Science Commission members without warning just days before they were to conduct a hearing into evidence used in the Cameron Todd Willingham arson case. Apparently fearing revelations that might hurt his campaign, Perry's action forced the hearing to be postponed indefinitely, sealing the evidence in a conspiracy of silence.
As the millions who watch "CSI" know, advances in forensic science provide better evidence to make sure we convict and punish the bad guys and not the innocent. The central issue involved is not Willingham or the death penalty. When Willingham was executed five years ago, his case was closed, but respected experts had raised serious questions about the forensic evidence used to convict him.
And:
A Senate committee will hear testimony this month regarding the Texas Forensic Science Commission controversy. Unfortunately, it appears that public pressure and legislative action will be required to provide an independent review of the facts and prevent the same kind of neglect that occurred at the Texas Youth Commission and the Corpus Christi State School.
Time and again, Perry has tried to sweep embarrassing scandals under the rug. Perhaps he thinks a cover-up is good politics, but it's not good for Texans. By forcing the commission to at least delay an investigation, Perry's conspiracy of silence threatens the ability of our criminal justice system to use the best forensic science to protect, preserve and defend the laws of Texas. Texans deserve better.
Today's Amarillo Globe-News carries Enrique Rangel's Eye on Austin column, "Watchdog and the mouse."
State Rep. John Smithee recently recalled that, in the 1980s, Gov. Bill Clements walked into the House of Representatives and some reporters grilled him on an issue of the day. Upset by the questioning, an irate Clements responded, "My comment is, you can all go to hell."
Those were the days when most media companies in the U.S. made good money and covered statehouses aggressively. In Austin, more than 60 reporters covered the Capitol year-round, and when the Legislature was in session, some large publications assigned as many as 10 staffers to keep a close eye on lawmakers.
Not anymore. For most of this decade, the traditional media have been hurting financially, and this year, fewer than 30 journalists, including yours truly, covered the 81st Legislature regularly. Even before the 140-day session ended, some publications laid off veteran reporters, including a bureau chief with more than 35 years of experience.
The decreasing coverage worries veteran journalists like Ross Ramsey, an Amarillo native who believes that if there had been a strong Capitol press corps five years ago, some publications would have reported that the state was poised to execute an innocent person - a man convicted of setting his house on fire, killing his three small children.
The 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham of Corsicana, which the Chicago Tribune has covered extensively, has dogged Gov. Rick Perry in recent weeks and has become an issue in the heated gubernatorial race.
"You just have to wonder how many other big stories we are not covering," Ramsey said.
This explains why Ramsey, along with Evan Smith, former editor of Texas Monthly magazine, soon will launch the Texas Tribune, a free online publication.
The Tribune will focus on state government and politics and will be funded largely by donations and foundations with no political agendas, said Ramsey, the managing editor.
"Our goal is to promote civic engagement, because the more the public becomes engaged, the better our democracy works," he said.
Sam Barr's Harvard Crimson column is, "A Texas-Sized Injustice."
This has been quite a year for Republican governors. First there was Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who spent five days crying in Argentina and came back to tell us that he just met a girl named Maria. Then there was Sarah Palin of Alaska, who resigned her post because she’s a point guard, gosh darn it, and she knows when to pass the ball of freedom so that America can dunk it into the basket of small government. And now there’s Rick Perry, governor of Texas, whose story is less scintillating but more jaw-droppingly, head-shakingly unethical.
The sad tale goes like this. In 2004, under Perry’s watch, Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for setting the 1991 fire that killed his three daughters. A few days before the execution, Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles received a report from independent fire expert Gerald Hurst, which said that there was not “a single item of physical evidence” to suggest arson. The governor and the board could have delayed the execution to find out more, but they didn’t.
In the last few years, Hurst’s findings have been confirmed by three other independent examinations of the forensic evidence, including one by Craig Beyler, a fire scientist hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Beyler’s scathing report, released in August, concludes that the original investigation of the Willingham fire “did not comport with the scientific method” and was “more characteristic of mystics or psychics.” Days before Beyler was to present his findings before the commission, Perry fired three commissioners, including the chairman of the nine-member panel, and a fourth got the axe shortly thereafter. Perry’s replacement chairman, a conservative prosecutor, promptly canceled the hearings. Samuel Bassett, the former chairman, said that the governor and his lawyers repeatedly expressed their disapproval of the commission’s investigation and implied that its funding could be cut.
In short, Perry is fighting an audacious and losing battle to prevent a full, public recognition of the fact that Willingham was, in all likelihood, innocent. But talk of probabilities and likelihoods do death-penalty opponents little good. The legal reality is that Willingham should not have been executed; the doctrine of reasonable doubt establishes that much. But the moral reality is that we may never have, as Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick put it, a “sufficiently innocent criminal.” The biggest fans of the death penalty will always assume away the exonerating evidence and focus on the little things that help them sleep at night.
And:
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about Perry’s behavior is how little he seems to care for evidence. He insulted the skeptical fire scientists as “latter-day supposed experts” and called Willingham a “monster”—as if that settles the matter. Perry could have let the commission hold its hearings, and it would have been an embarrassment to him; he would have had to admit a mistake. Instead, he has bumblingly tried to cover his hide, demonstrating in the process that truth and evidence, guilt and innocence, just don’t matter to him.
Joshunda Sanders posted, "Morality and the Death Penalty," at the Austin American-Statesman Sacred and Secular blog on Friday afternoon.
The first thing I read about Cameron Todd Willingham was David Grann’s good piece in The New Yorker. But in the past two months, as Gov. Rick Perry has replaced four members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and defended the state’s decision to execute him, Willingham’s case has gotten even more attention.
Last week, as I covered an anti-death penalty march at the Capitol, I noticed that Willingham, who was executed in 2004, was featured on a number of t-shirts. His stepmother, Eugenia Willingham, was scheduled to address the hundreds who showed up for the march, but she couldn’t make it. There were lawyers and activists, but I wondered where the religious leaders were. Is it just a given that people of faith believe the death penalty is immoral?
The Dallas Morning News posted a blog this week with commentary from various clergy from around the state that addresses this very issue.
And:
Is there a different moral code in place when a person has been found guilty in the absence of doubt? Should there be?
Earlier coverage of the Todd Willingham case begins with this post. 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."
More on the Texas Tribune is here.
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