"The Inquisition," is the title of Morgan Smith's report in the Texas Tribune.
Lawmakers on Wednesday issued a public rebuke to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, but the commission's embattled chair wasn’t around to hear it.
The knuckle-rapping came at an interim hearing of the House Public Safety Committee, whose members were clearly piqued at the conspicuous absence of John Bradley, the commission's newly appointed head, and Leigh Tomlin, its administrative coordinator.
Ninety minutes of back-and-forth covered the besieged agency’s non-existent enforcement power, lack of written procedural guidelines and public records policy. On hand to receive the grilling were two current members of the commission, Garry Adams and Sarah Kerrigan, and one former member, Aliece Watts — all of whom stopped short of defending Bradley under pointed questioning from committee chair Tommy Merritt, R-Longview and others.
It’s only the latest set-to between the formerly obscure board and lawmakers, who have for months been pushing the commission, which investigates complaints of forensic misconduct, to reform its operations and to review whether faulty science led to a death sentence for Cameron Todd Willingham in 1992. Bradley has taken heat for stalling that investigation since he was appointed in October by Gov. Rick Perry — who displaced Bradley’s predecessor and two other members on the eve of the meeting at which the board was set to take up that case.
And:
It took nearly an hour into the hearing before anyone mentioned the case that drew national scrutiny to the state agency. That came from another committee member, state Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway, D-Dallas, who, referring to the carefully chosen wording of the discussion, asked: “Is this all about that case, the burning case? Of the man who was convicted of burning his kids? For the public listening, there’s just a gap in between somewhere — like we’re talking in space about some particular issue and kind of throwing darts somewhere but missing the middle.”
The burning case would be that of Willingham, the man executed for the arson deaths of his three daughters. Methods the state used to prove he committed arson were called into question in a 16,000-word September 2009 New Yorker story that presented persuasive evidence of Willingham’s innocence.
Just before the October meeting at which the agency was set to investigate the Willingham case, Perry replaced then-chairman Sam Bassett with Bradley, the Williamson County District Attorney. Two other commissioners, including Watts, also got the boot. When Bradley took over, he immediately delayed consideration of the Willingham case, saying he needed more time to study the board’s procedures.
Willingham finally came up by name near the end of Wednesday's hearing, when Burnam asked the panel what the agency planned to consider during its next meeting on April 23. One item on the agenda that day will be the case of the Corsicana man the state executed in 2004.
Christy Hoppe writes, "Lawmakers challenge Forensic Science Commission chairman's priorities," for today's Dallas Morning News.
State lawmakers suggested Wednesday that the prosecutor Gov. Rick Perry placed in charge of the Texas Forensic Science Commission is doing more to impede cases than investigate them.
The chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, has concentrated on clarifying the forensic commission's policies and procedures and putting them into a manual rather than holding hearings on a death-penalty case that has raised questions about arson convictions statewide, members of the House Public Safety Committee charged.
The lawmakers wanted to hear about changes that Bradley has attempted to institute – including asking his fellow commissioners to destroy most of their e-mails after a day and to not speak with the media. He also has sought to discontinue the commission's practice of allowing members from the public to address them during their meetings, his colleagues said.
Such directives "really undermine public confidence. That's what we're asking about," said Rep. Stephen Frost, D-Atlanta.
In October, Perry abruptly replaced three members of the nine-person forensics commission just as it was about to hear testimony from a fire expert in the arson case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004.
And:
Committee chairman Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, told two commission members who testified that taking six months to write a manual while not advancing in their investigations bothered him.
"I'm not very happy with what you're telling me," Merritt said. "Are we here to serve the public or are we here to throw up roadblocks to prevent you from doing your job? It appears to me we're throwing up roadblocks."
He also took Bradley to task for failing to appear for the hearing.
Bradley, contacted after the meeting, said he received a letter less than a week ago asking him to appear at a time when he was already committed to speak at a county leadership conference.
Yesterday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram carried, "Texas Forensic Science Commission chairman won't appear at oversight hearing," by Dave Montgomery.
The chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, citing a scheduling conflict, has declined an invitation to appear before a legislative oversight hearing today, angering two lawmakers and prompting one of them to suggest that he should be subpoenaed to appear.
The nine-member commission has been at the center of a months-long controversy over its investigation into whether a flawed arson investigation resulted in the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. The panel is expected to reopen discussion of the stalled inquiry when it meets this month in North Texas.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who was appointed to lead the commission in a membership shake-up in September, was one of several commission representatives invited to appear before today's meeting of the House Public Safety Committee, which has oversight responsibilities for the 5-year-old panel.
Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, the committee chairman, said the committee staff received a fax from Bradley on Monday saying he could not appear because of another commitment.
"I'm very disappointed in Mr. Bradley's response," Merritt said. "John Bradley advised us yesterday through his staff that he wasn't going to appear, and he hasn't had the courtesy to call me as the chair."
As noted above, the next meeting of the Forensic Science Commission is April 23 in Irving.
Earlier coverage of the Forensic Science Commission begins with this post. All Willingham coverage is available through the Todd Willingham category index.
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."
David Grann's September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here.
The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.
The Beyler report prepared for the Forensic Science Commission is here in Adobe .pdf format.
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