"Hearing to resume over disputed Texas arson case," is the AP report via the Austin American-Statesman.
A Texas judge planning to re-examine allegedly faulty arson evidence that led to an execution is expected to rule on whether he should step aside from the case.
Judge Charlie Baird is expected to issue his ruling on Thursday in Austin. Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office successfully prosecuted Cameron Todd Willingham in 1992, asked Baird to remove himself and questioned his impartiality.
The Texas Tribune reports, "Can a Court of Inquiry Take On the Willingham Case?" It's by Morgan Smith.
Judge Charlie Baird will decide today whether to recuse himself from an investigation into the innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three young daughters.
Navarro County District Attorney R. Lowell Thompson, whose office originally convicted Willingham, questioned the Travis County judge’s impartiality in a motion before the court last week. At today’s hearing, the Willingham family's lawyers — a high-powered team that includes former Texas Gov. and Attorney General Mark White and San Antonio criminal defense attorney Gerry Goldstein, who counts the late Hunter S. Thompson among his past clients — will respond to the motion. Thompson seeks the recusal on the grounds that Baird previously voted to reaffirm Willingham’s death sentence in 1995 when he sat on the state Criminal Court of Appeals but has since won notice as an opponent of the death penalty.
With or without Baird, a bigger question is in play: whether a court of inquiry, which a judge can initiate to look into whether state officials committed a crime, is the appropriate venue to consider Willingham’s guilt or innocence. In this case, it could implicate any officials — the state fire marshal, for instance — who allowed the execution to proceed despite evidence that challenged his guilt. Willingham’s relatives have cast the investigation as their last hope to clear his name. But whether a court of inquiry has the power to do that is a bone of contention among victims' rights groups and advocates for the wrongfully accused.
In 2009, Baird led a court of inquiry on the case of Tim Cole, who died in prison while serving a 25-year sentence for a rape conviction prosecutors obtained on faulty DNA evidence. After reviewing Cole’s case, Baird exonerated him, he says, based on Article I, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution, which provides that courts have the power to remedy “every person for an injury done him, in his lands, goods, person or reputation.”
Jordan Smith writes, "Baird To Rule on Recusal From Willingham Hearing," for the current issue of the Austin Chronicle, in racks today.
An inquiry into whether Texas executed an innocent man in 2004 when it put to death Cameron Todd Willingham is set to resume today (Thursday). The hearing was put on hold last week after District Judge Charlie Baird said he would wait for lawyers representing Willingham's surviving relatives to respond to a motion – from Navarro County District Attorney Lowell Thompson – seeking to recuse Baird from hearing the case at all. Baird is likely to rule today on that motion. (Regardless of whether he grants or denies the motion, Baird's decision will move forward to the region's presiding judge, Williamson County Judge Billy Ray Stubblefield, for review.)
And:
One thing seems certain: If the hearing does go forward today, it most certainly won't include any official input from Perry's folks. Baird said in court Oct. 6 that upon receiving the Willingham petition he sent letters to the parties named in it, inviting them to participate in the hearing. All but Thompson declined, including Perry's office, which concluded not only that "convicted murderer" Willingham has already had plenty due process but also that Willingham's family's request for him to be declared wrongfully convicted is "inexplicable." According to Perry's general counsel, Caren Burbach, there is no "legal basis" for such a declaration – though it would in fact be like the one Baird made in the Cole case, as Baird acknowledged last week. "I will say this: These are pretty much the same proceedings we engaged in on behalf of Tim Cole," Baird said, "which the governor later recognized and who was posthumously pardoned by the governor."
Earlier coverage begins here. All Willingham coverage is 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 September 2009 New Yorker article is noted here. 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."
The Innocence Project has a Todd Willingham resource page which provides a concise overview of the Willingham case with links to all relevant documents.
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