Brandi Grissom conducts the Texas Tribune interview with Sam Bassett, former Chair of the Forensic Science Commission. It's a must-read. There is video at the link.
The Tribune sat down with Bassett on Thursday to discuss his views on why the governor replaced him, his suspicions that political motivations were behind it, why he believes the commission had the authority to conduct its investigation, and why he argues it is critical for the Texas justice system that the commission finish what it started under his leadership.
And:
TT: When did you first hear from the governor's office about the Willingham investigation?
SB: The first contact I had with the governor’s office was in February of 2009. I was called by an appointment secretary of sorts and asked to come over and meet with the general counsel, and [I was told] that it was important and urgent. I couldn’t meet that day, but I arranged to meet the following day during the noon hour I think, and I went over and met with David Cabrales who was then his general counsel and Mary Anne Wiley who was an assistant general counsel in charge of criminal justice issues. And I had a meeting in their office in February. That was the first meeting I had with the staff.
TT: What did they want to talk about?
SB: I wasn’t told why they wanted me to come over. I wasn’t given any sort of agenda or anything that they wanted to discuss ahead of time. I just went; I didn’t know what they were going to talk about. We began the meeting by discussing the commission in general, and then we started talking specifically about the investigations we were doing. We seemed to get stuck on the Willingham investigation. As soon as I brought it up the tone of the meeting turned more hostile and Mr. Cabrales in particular was very adamant that that’s not the kind of investigation the commission was intended for, and I think Ms. Wiley at one point characterized our investigation as a waste of state money, and I was criticized for bringing in an expert from outside of Texas. I just tried to respond by saying I thought we had jurisdiction over the issue, but that I would go do some checking to make sure I wasn’t off. And I also told them briefly that I thought the commission wanted to go forward with the investigation since it was a unanimous vote to proceed with the investigation.
Earlier coverage of the FSC and the Willingham investigation begins with the preceding post.
The AG Opinon GA 866 is available in Adobe .pdf format.
All Willingham coverage is available through the Todd Willingham 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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