This week's Austin Chronicle, out today, carries, "A.G. Ruling on Arson Probe Is 'Just Weird'. Decision hog-ties commission's role in Willingham case." It's by Jordan Smith. In this excerpt, she quotes Sam Bassett, who served as the first Chairman of the FSC:
Bassett, the well-respected Austin defense attorney whom Perry appointed and then pulled from the panel in 2009, says he finds the timing of the opinion questionable. Moreover, he noted in an email that a representative from the A.G.'s Office attended all of the meetings over which he presided, and the issue of jurisdiction was never raised. "It is frustrating for me to now see them interjecting themselves into this debate years after the ... investigation has progressed and is about to reach a conclusion.
"The current position of the [fire marshal] that the investigators' original findings of arson are supported by fire science is absolutely untenable," he concluded. "I speculate that this has made a lot of politicians uncomfortable and this has something to do with the timing of the Attorney General's findings."
Indeed, the case could be kept alive and the commission could finish its investigation because the State Fire Marshal's Office last year wrote to the commission defending the science used to convict Willingham and Willis – despite the scientific consensus to the contrary. By standing by the old science, the state fire marshal has seemingly made the "evidence" of its practices contemporary – that is, post-Sept. 1, 2005 – which would still, even under the most conservative reading of the A.G.'s ruling, allow the commission to consider it during its inquiry.
Although the A.G.'s ruling is "frankly ... just weird," says Stephen Saloom, policy director for the Innocence Project, there is nothing in it that would prevent the commission from considering whether the fire marshal is negligent by relying on outdated science. "The central element [to our complaint] is that the fire marshal has been negligent and remains negligent to this day for not informing the criminal justice system [that] the old arson science is invalid," he said. Indeed, that is the view apparently shared by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who also serves as the Innocent Project's board chair. "Nothing in this [A.G.] opinion prevents the [commission] from completing its report and ruling that the [State Fire Marshal's Office] was negligent when it failed in its 'duty to correct' the flawed arson science that was used in numerous arson cases," Ellis said in a statement. "They had a 'duty to correct' prior to 2005, when the [FSC] legislation took effect, and after 2005, and they have never done so."
Earlier coverage of the Attorney General's Opinon begins with the preceding post.
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