"Texas panel meets, skips talk of Willingham case," is the title of Christopher Sherman's full AP report via the Dallas Morning News.
A state panel investigating allegations of misconduct and negligence in forensic analyses that led to a 2004 execution hammered out its procedures Friday, but did not resume its long-delayed investigation of the arson evidence in that case.
Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted and executed for the deaths of his three daughters in a 1991 house fire near Corsicana. Last summer, the Texas Forensic Science Commission received an arson expert's report that the investigation leading to his conviction was so flawed that its finding could not be supported.
Two days before the panel was scheduled to discuss the report and question its author, Gov. Rick Perry replaced three members of the commission, including its chairman. The new chairman, John Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney and a Perry ally, canceled that meeting.
If the investigations prove Willingham did not kill his children, it would be the first known wrongful execution in Texas. Perry's opponents have criticized the September reshuffle, saying it was a calculated move to push discussion of the case past the March Republican primary.
The delay and Friday's agenda, which failed to move forward any of the pending investigations, led to some terse exchanges between commissioners and Bradley. Some questioned his authority to speak for the commission, noting an editorial he wrote immediately after his appointment without consulting long-term commissioners.
"I apologize if any toes feel like they were stepped on," Bradley said.
When Commissioner Garry Adams mentioned that there were "weighty" items awaiting commission action, Bradley answered flatly that "our actions today are limited to what's on the agenda."
After the meeting, Adams, a veterinary pathologist at Texas A&M University, said he expected the commission's cases to be back on track at the next meeting, scheduled for April 23 in Fort Worth.
And:
The Innocence Project had sent letters and a legal memo to commissioners before the meeting arguing that the commission did not need to take time to develop new procedures.
Stephen Saloom, the group's policy director, said after the meeting that "the rules Mr. Bradley proposed create needless bureaucracy, steer the commission away from the Legislature's intent, limit the commissioners' authority and vest more power in him as the chair."
Under the guidelines approved Friday, authority still lies with the majority.
Both the New York Times and the Washington Post carried an abbreviated version of the AP filing.
Lynn Brezosky writes, "Forensic panel is mum on execution," for the San Antonio Express-News.
A state agency reshuffled by Gov. Rick Perry as it prepared to review a report linking bad science to the execution of an innocent man spent its first meeting hammering out policy language and trading jabs over commission structure.
No mention was made during Friday's meeting of the Texas Forensic Science Commission of the controversial report concerning Todd Willingham, put to death in 2004 at the age of 23 for murdering his children by burning down the family home.
The report by arson expert Craig Beyler put the investigation into question, as did a report presented to Perry hours before Willingham's execution.
Death penalty opponents accused Perry of replacing three members of the commission, including Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley as chairman to replace defense lawyer Sam Bassett, to scuttle an investigation that could hurt Perry during the Republican primary.
And:
The Innocence Project is tracking two cases reviewed by the Commission, director Stephen Saloom said.
“Clearly there's been a huge delay, and clearly some of the commission members would have liked to have taken them back up today,” he said. “But the chair put other matters on the agenda.”
That agenda started with introductions, followed by a history of a fledging agency that didn't accept complaints for review until June 2008. As Bradley has explained in an editorial on the commission's Web site, the commission lacked standards and procedures including definitions of professional negligence and misconduct.
Tensions sparked as the commission worked painstakingly through approving those policies and procedures, debating everything from if and how a vice chair should be named, whether the commission had the authority to define misconduct or negligence, or if it were right for the chairman to have published an agenda and editorial without the commission's full approval.
Bradley said he had to make some decisions without a quorum to move things along without violating the state's open meetings law.
“We should continue to follow more of a parliamentary procedure ... where the chairman is essentially another vote,” Commissioner Sarah Kerrigan said.
The McAllen Monitor coverage is, "Forensics panel dodges discussion of controversial execution," written by Jeremy Roebuck.
A state commission investigating claims that faulty arson science led to the 2004 execution of a Corsicana man met for the first time Friday since a controversial membership shakeup temporarily derailed its probe.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission spent hours hammering out new policies and procedures but made no mention of Cameron Todd Willingham — whose case has rallied death penalty opponents and led critics to accuse Gov. Rick Perry of playing politics in his political appointments.
“The commission has become a political football in the past few months, instead of identifying best practices and eliminating junk science,” said Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, who helped author the legislation that created the panel in 2003. “They have a great responsibility because they hold the integrity of our justice system before them.”
The panel was last scheduled to meet in September to receive a report from independent arson expert Craig Beyler which was critical of the expert testimony used to convict and sentence Willingham to death in 1992.
And:
Willingham’s name may never have come up during formal conversation, but his presence lurked everywhere in the small hotel conference room.
Protesters sat silently on the sidelines holding signs bearing his mug shot and proclaiming the stalled investigation a “cover-up.” Several panel members seemed to allude to the Willingham probe in terse exchanges with their new chairman.
Dr. Garry Adams, a veterinary pathologist from Texas A&M University, questioned why several “weighty matters” deserving of the commission’s attention had been left off the agenda.
Later, while reviewing a new multi-step process that would now govern all new investigations, Dr. Sara Kerrigan — a forensic toxicologist from Sam Houston State University — demanded assurances that new procedures would not set back probes already in progress.
Bradley responded by assuring the panel they could be brought up at future meetings, including the commission’s next one in April.
“Yes, they will be on the agenda,” he said. “Yes, they will be discussed.”
Earlier coverage begins with the preceding post.
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